Switching over to left-handed mousing: My Experiences

Hayleia · February 21, 2016, 01:35:24 PM

I agree with people saying touchpads suck. From everything I tested, only the touchpad on my Macbook was something usable (on OS X and a bit on Linux too, but not on Windows though), they did a very great job on that. And I'm not advertising for Apple because the touchpad is probably one of the very few things I like

Now, I already used mouses with my left hand and didn't get a lot of problems (sometimes when I start eating with my right hand, then I have to use my PC with the left one only

), but I would probably never consider switching completely since I am now used to the "right-hand layout" for FPSes and stuff (even though I don't play a lot of FPSes). Plus the fact most of my mouses aren't symmetrical

p4nix · February 21, 2016, 01:37:57 PM

Touchpad is only a matter of getting used to it. When I used to have a laptop, I always brought my mouse with me, since I set it up in a dock like a desktop computer and was used to the mouse, which I still am. However, my father works 24/7 on his laptop and don't seem to have any problems with the touchpad: being an apple fanboy (ewwwww) he even bought this magic touchpad thingy for use on desktop setups...

utz · February 21, 2016, 01:52:33 PM

Quote from: Travis on February 21, 2016, 12:34:24 AM
Trackpoints were once common in a lot of laptops. Sadly, these days they almost all seem to be touchpads. I don't understand why. I hate them! I'm pretty sure they slow me down a lot more with their consistently rubbish accuracy and glitchiness than switching my desktop mouse/trackball back to lefthanded use would.

Ahhh thanks heaven, I'm not the only one. I actually even prefer trackpoints over a regular mouse. They're more accurate, don't glitch out because the laser hit some piece of surface it can't handle, and you never have to reposition them either. Well, nothing's worse than a smartphone touchscreen though.

Ivoah · February 21, 2016, 01:53:07 PM

Quote from: Travis on February 21, 2016, 12:34:24 AM
As for ergonomics, though, the perfect case is a pointing device like the IBM Trackpoint which allows mouse usage without even removing the fingers from the home row keys. I once bought a Unicomp keyboard with such a thing thinking it would be great, but they screwed the design up so it works more like a joystick than a proper Trackpoint, so it's hard to use, and the buttons are crap and double-click all the time with a single press. Durability is also really poor. (Also, they lack basic scroll wheel and middle-clicking!) If they had designed it properly, it would have been perfect. Then I might not curse at poorly-designed GUIs that force me to constantly switch between keyboard and mouse so much.

Trackpoints were once common in a lot of laptops. Sadly, these days they almost all seem to be touchpads. I don't understand why. I hate them! I'm pretty sure they slow me down a lot more with their consistently rubbish accuracy and glitchiness than switching my desktop mouse/trackball back to lefthanded use would.

Yeah, I love trackpoints, me and only a few other people I know like them though. An ideal laptop would have a trackpad and a trackpoint, I'd use the trackpad for most things, and the trackpoint when I just need to move the mouse a little to click something.

Hayleia · February 21, 2016, 02:26:25 PM

Quote from: p4nix on February 21, 2016, 01:37:57 PM
Touchpad is only a matter of getting used to it. When I used to have a laptop, I always brought my mouse with me, since I set it up in a dock like a desktop computer and was used to the mouse, which I still am. However, my father works 24/7 on his laptop and don't seem to have any problems with the touchpad: being an apple fanboy (ewwwww) he even bought this magic touchpad thingy for use on desktop setups...

Obviously, being used to it helps, but it's not just a matter of that. For example, I used a crappy touchpad on a Linux PC, and it was awful. Then I tried the touchpad on my Macbook and it was magic. Because they either have good hardware or good software or both (I am only talking about the touchpad here).

For example on the Linux PC, sometimes when I just move the mouse, it detects a click+drag. And when I am on an icon or something, it moves it. Which is annoying when I want to copy paste a lot of files to another place (so I select them, then move the mouse to go to the other window opened in the destination place, but it detected a drag so I'm like "no, don't do this" so I let go... on a folder, and it moved everything in that g*d**mn folder instead of just moving the cursor

). On my Macbook on OS X, no, it always does what you want. Especially since "drag" is "move three fingers", so the software can't confuse it with "double tap and drag".

What's more, on the Linux PC, when dragging is really what you want for once, sometimes you have problems with the touchpad being too short (you hit the end of it before reaching your destination on the screen). Well, on OS X, you don't care, you can let your three fingers go for a short period of time then put them back on the touchpad and start dragging again, it works.

So that touchpad is so awesome you don't even need to be used to it to like it. And the Linux PC touchpad is so stupid no one can like it, even after years. But then yeah, probably for "normal" touchpads (not awesome and not stupid), then it's just a matter of getting used to it.

novenary · February 21, 2016, 02:30:49 PM

Last time I've used a trackpoint I found it unwieldy. I personally have a compact keyboard so I don't have the problems aetios is having with comfort. I'm not a huge fan of touchpads either, in fact, the less pointing I do the better. I prefer keyboard-driven software when it's available. The only things a mouse is really good for is browsing the web (and even then with something like pentadactyl you don't need it much) and gaming.
As for smartphone touchscreens, good UI/UX design privileges buttons that are large enough and has a way to figure out where you clicked (chrome zooms on the area when it's uncertain which link you wanted).

c4ooo · February 21, 2016, 04:16:27 PM

Well, it possible to operate your computor without a mouse at all

aetios · February 21, 2016, 06:15:13 PM

Quote from: p4nix on February 21, 2016, 01:37:57 PM
Touchpad is only a matter of getting used to it. When I used to have a laptop, I always brought my mouse with me, since I set it up in a dock like a desktop computer and was used to the mouse, which I still am. However, my father works 24/7 on his laptop and don't seem to have any problems with the touchpad: being an apple fanboy (ewwwww) he even bought this magic touchpad thingy for use on desktop setups...

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that apple pad! At least that stuff's got some quality...

Dream of Omnimaga · February 22, 2016, 01:39:00 AM

I never saw the need to switch so I never tried, but I assume it would take me a while to get used to it (although my mouse only has three buttons including the scrollwheel button so it would probably not be as bad as I expect)

Araidia · February 22, 2016, 03:20:46 AM

Quote from: c4ooo on February 21, 2016, 04:16:27 PM
Well, it possible to operate your computor without a mouse at all

But it would take excruciatingly longer to operate it than if you just had a $10 mouse
[spoiler]And I have a knack(pretty annoying one) for noticing typos[/spoiler]

aetios · February 22, 2016, 02:11:05 PM

Update: Been mousing like this for 3 days now, I'm actually starting to quite like it. My accuracy's a bit off though, so I plan to play a couple shooters today in an attempt to up it a bit.

novenary · February 22, 2016, 03:39:55 PM

Quote from: Araidia on February 22, 2016, 03:20:46 AM
Quote from: c4ooo on February 21, 2016, 04:16:27 PM
Well, it possible to operate your computor without a mouse at all
But it would take excruciatingly longer to operate it than if you just had a $10 mouse

It depends on the software you use. Most software nowadays makes heavy use of the mouse but luckily some people still care enough to make things work nicely without. When it's done well, after learning how it works you can work much faster in a mouseless environment than with a mouse.

Dream of Omnimaga · February 22, 2016, 05:28:15 PM

Quote from: Araidia on February 22, 2016, 03:20:46 AM
Quote from: c4ooo on February 21, 2016, 04:16:27 PM
Well, it possible to operate your computor without a mouse at all
But it would take excruciatingly longer to operate it than if you just had a $10 mouse
[spoiler]And I have a knack(pretty annoying one) for noticing typos[/spoiler]

in elementary school, most computers didn't have a mouse here.

aetios · February 24, 2016, 03:36:13 PM

Update: Because I started getting pain in my left index finger, I switched back to right-handed mousing. I'm not sure what causes it but I blame holding it too tight because I still have to focus on clicking in the corrects spots etc. At least now I know that I can use both hands when one hand gets sore

Dudeman313 · February 24, 2016, 10:37:41 PM

Quote from: aeTIos on February 24, 2016, 03:36:13 PM
Update: Because I started getting pain in my left index finger, I switched back to right-handed mousing. I'm not sure what causes it but I blame holding it too tight because I still have to focus on clicking in the corrects spots etc. At least now I know that I can use both hands when one hand gets sore

Well done. You did better than me-I stopped trying due to force of habit.