Is it worth replacing mouse by standalone trackpad for heavy code-editing? [on hold]
- by heltonbiker
I recently got more interested in improving my tools, workspace and worflow. The first sting came with a sore finger due to a crappy keyboard, and then after some research I fell in love with the "mechanical keyboard is what you need" doctrine, bought one (cherry MX Brown if you're curious), and am very happy with the results.
Currently I am replacing my previous text editor (Geany) with Sublime Text 3, and am also very happy and feeling much more powerful and professional :)
Well, but while I re-read all the ancient debates about VIM vs whatever-else, the following excerpt from a blog post got me thinking again about the mouse vs keyboard, and the "moving around from the very home row" (in VIM) versus gesturing away with the tiny and unstable mouse cursor:
Reaching for a mouse may indeed slow you down, but developers are commonly on machines where the trackpad is a micro-hand movement away. Most novice programmers can click on a character on screen faster than an expert Vimmer can type 20jFp; or LkEEE or /word or any other nasty way Vimmers have to use. The point of a mouse is to make arbitrary on screen jumps efficient, and it’s very good at doing that. Don’t you ever think you can beat a mouse.
Well, although there is some bitterness in this statement, it makes a lot of sense, and EVEN MORE if you consider your direct input to be a TRACKPAD conveniently placed in front of your spacebar (which oddly is where I like to put my mouse, rotated 90° ccw, due to a serious tendonitis in my right shoulder, already healed, but you knod...).
So, the question is:
Has anyone replaced mouse by a standalone trackpad, to work in code editing in a desktop machine (that is, with a sandalone keyboard)? Was it worth the change?
