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I've been writing code for ten years, I've been fairly comfortable in vim at times, customizing it and navigating with the keyboard full time. I find myself us

I've been writing code for ten years, I've been fairly comfortable in vim at times, customizing it and navigating with the keyboard full time. I find myself using the mouse all the time, and I don't understand this obsession with mouse-less text editing. The mouse lets me perform selections, and with some key-combos in sublime text sets me up for multiple cursor editing very nicely, in ways that would be much much more complex if I were trying to do them in vim. I've always wanted to try out Acme, a mouse-first editor from plan nine, with all of this obsession with cutting the mouse out entirely, it feels like there is space for an editor to really consider what the mouse can be used for.

justinpombrio 8y ago
> I don't understand this obsession with mouse-less text editing For your information: the issue with mouse-laden text editing is that you need two hands on the keyboard to type, so you are repeatedly moving a hand between the keyboard and the mouse. This takes time: in my experience enough time that it's often faster for me to use keyboard navigation _anyways_. Plus the constant wrist motion can be bad for RSI. That said, if you can edit more efficiently with the mouse, and your wrists don't hurt, then go for it.
- Avshalom 8y ago
  Mice are moved with the shoulder and elbow, not the wrist.
  - fyolnish 8y ago
    Don’t they move the wrist that moves the hand/fingers which then move the mouse?
- macrael 8y ago
  Yeah, I've been spending a lot of time on my laptop, actually. I'm quite used to the trackpad being really close to the keyboard. It hasn't been a lot of strain.
- cjbprime 8y ago
  I'm surprised that TrackPoints aren't more popular for this reason.
HIPisTheAnswer 8y ago
Acme's big thing isn't the mouse. It's the plumber and regex-based logic, which has the effect of making the mouse more useful. But the same would be true of the keyboard, it just hasn't made it into a popular implementation yet, probably for lack of plumber on popular unices. There was a project on GH that tried to do acme/Sam with the addition of keyboard modal; it would make a very powerful editor. Here it is: https://github.com/driusan/de https://github.com/driusan/de I currently use kakoune which is probably the closest thing to that idea in a production ready editor, only the 'plumber' is done with shell commands, which can send variables back to running instances, so it's more DIY than plan9 plumbing.
csomar 8y ago
I don’t hate the mouse but moving my hand from the keyboard to the mouse repetitively hurts my hand and shoulder. It gets fatiguating after a while. If you are doing lots of selection, moving around, insertions, etc it accumulates. I only use vim for any text editing. I also use a vim plugin to navigate chrome. And several other keyboard shortcuts to navigate macos. The accumulation really helped.

justinpombrio 8y ago

> I don't understand this obsession with mouse-less text editing For your information: the issue with mouse-laden text editing is that you need two hands on the keyboard to type, so you are repeatedly moving a hand between the keyboard and the mouse. This takes time: in my experience enough time that it's often faster for me to use keyboard navigation _anyways_. Plus the constant wrist motion can be bad for RSI. That said, if you can edit more efficiently with the mouse, and your wrists don't hurt, then go for it.

Avshalom 8y ago
Mice are moved with the shoulder and elbow, not the wrist.
- fyolnish 8y ago
  Don’t they move the wrist that moves the hand/fingers which then move the mouse?
macrael 8y ago
Yeah, I've been spending a lot of time on my laptop, actually. I'm quite used to the trackpad being really close to the keyboard. It hasn't been a lot of strain.
cjbprime 8y ago
I'm surprised that TrackPoints aren't more popular for this reason.

HIPisTheAnswer 8y ago

Acme's big thing isn't the mouse. It's the plumber and regex-based logic, which has the effect of making the mouse more useful. But the same would be true of the keyboard, it just hasn't made it into a popular implementation yet, probably for lack of plumber on popular unices. There was a project on GH that tried to do acme/Sam with the addition of keyboard modal; it would make a very powerful editor. Here it is: https://github.com/driusan/de https://github.com/driusan/de I currently use kakoune which is probably the closest thing to that idea in a production ready editor, only the 'plumber' is done with shell commands, which can send variables back to running instances, so it's more DIY than plan9 plumbing.

csomar 8y ago

I don’t hate the mouse but moving my hand from the keyboard to the mouse repetitively hurts my hand and shoulder. It gets fatiguating after a while. If you are doing lots of selection, moving around, insertions, etc it accumulates. I only use vim for any text editing. I also use a vim plugin to navigate chrome. And several other keyboard shortcuts to navigate macos. The accumulation really helped.