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When I started using emacs about 15 years ago, I turned off all possible mouse interactions in my config, to force myself to learn and use the keyboard efficien

When I started using emacs about 15 years ago, I turned off all possible mouse interactions in my config, to force myself to learn and use the keyboard efficiently. A few months ago, I redid my emacs config, and decided to allow mouse interaction again. Honestly, besides occasionally scrolling in a long document, I haven't felt the need to use the mouse at all. The keyboard just works.

elygre 3y ago
Yes, but also «after 15 years of practice, the keyboard just works”
hollerith 3y ago
Huh. My experience was very different. I didn't gain the ability to use the mouse to interact with Emacs till 2010 because before then graphical Emacs on Linux had bit-mapped text that I hated to look at (the main issue's being that it clashed horribly with the text in all the other apps I was using, including my browser). When text rendering in graphical Emacs improved and I started being able to use the mouse in Emacs, I realized I had made a big mistake in not taking the trouble to acquire the ability to use the mouse in Emacs earlier: the MacOS port (called "Carbon Emacs" IIRC) had had satisfactory text rendering (and mouse support) for many years and even if I wanted to avoid switching to a Mac, I could have switched to graphical Emacs years earlier if I was willing to compile Emacs from source (and setting a flag to choose the GTK front end, not to be confused with the more recent PGTK front end). The point is that I regret letting myself be influenced by the comments on this site to the effect that the pointing device is unimportant. (Also, in a survey of Emacs users a few years ago, 80% report using graphical Emacs rather than using Emacs via a terminal interface.)
- jrockway 3y ago
  M-x xterm-mouse-mode was what you wanted pre-2010. I still run Emacs in the terminal (Windows desktop -> Linux VM for coding... don't ask).
  - deleted 3y ago
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elygre 3y ago

Yes, but also «after 15 years of practice, the keyboard just works”

hollerith 3y ago

Huh. My experience was very different. I didn't gain the ability to use the mouse to interact with Emacs till 2010 because before then graphical Emacs on Linux had bit-mapped text that I hated to look at (the main issue's being that it clashed horribly with the text in all the other apps I was using, including my browser). When text rendering in graphical Emacs improved and I started being able to use the mouse in Emacs, I realized I had made a big mistake in not taking the trouble to acquire the ability to use the mouse in Emacs earlier: the MacOS port (called "Carbon Emacs" IIRC) had had satisfactory text rendering (and mouse support) for many years and even if I wanted to avoid switching to a Mac, I could have switched to graphical Emacs years earlier if I was willing to compile Emacs from source (and setting a flag to choose the GTK front end, not to be confused with the more recent PGTK front end). The point is that I regret letting myself be influenced by the comments on this site to the effect that the pointing device is unimportant. (Also, in a survey of Emacs users a few years ago, 80% report using graphical Emacs rather than using Emacs via a terminal interface.)

jrockway 3y ago
M-x xterm-mouse-mode was what you wanted pre-2010. I still run Emacs in the terminal (Windows desktop -> Linux VM for coding... don't ask).
- deleted 3y ago
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