informal poll on talking to computers

Post by Cienna over in Tech Tech Tech on the Mac alpha client got me thinking. She's all about the UI buttons and pushing the mouse around without thinking.

This, unfortunately, got me thinking. (hush yer mouth, over there!) Since, to me, keyboard shortcuts are more economical and intuitive than reaching over for the mouse, on the whole. I use the mouse when I'm not familiar with a program or application, but shift over to the kbd once I figure out what shortcuts go with what.

In Cienna's situation I'd be poking the shortcut for, say, IM as opposed to pushing the mouse around. But that's me.

So.

How many of you like the mouse or keyboard method of getting around?

And do you think it's due to the age at which you learned how to talk to these hunks of silicon and plastic called computers? Primary occupation? Physical ability could play a part, I grant, but I don't think that's as large a factor as some. Any other ideas why you like the method you use most?

Maybe I'm talking out my ear because my stomach sucked my brain down my spinal cord (this, children, is what happens when you forget to eat lunch and dinner), but I'm still curious.

I use whatever is most effective, which tends to be the keyboard for most tasks. I grew up with a DOS command prompt, and later on Unix shells, so I'm a keyboard person. In SL, I use the mouse for building, and for moving (in mouselook, so the mouse for turning and the keys for movement). Thats what I'm used to from various first-person shooters. I remapped the SL keys(.ini) to match my familiar layout (ESDF) from Quake 3 Fortress. It sucks that the (documented!) mapping for SPACE doesn't work btw :P. And I want a hotkey to open/close the IM window, and switch tabs :) I use Ctrl-W all the time to close SL windows.

Well, if there was a keyboard shortcut to the IM window, I'd use that.. or if I could do "/im <name> <message>" that would be even better. I find though, that a lot of the time in SL is spent using the mouse (trackball in my case) to look around, alt-focus, poke people, so my hand is already there, and thus why the button placement ends up concerning me. Plus some amateur UI design sensibilites.. I know enough to be dangerous. This mouse usage is usually the case with most games, for me. (Except FFXI, impossible to play that with kb/mouse)

For most other things I use the keyboard a lot more. At work, thanks to the wonders of type-find in Mozilla, I do pretty much everything with the keyboard. Flipping back and forth to the mouse when writing code is a pain. Two of my major apps I use on my Mac I do so over ssh to my linux machine with screen for multiple sessions, so heavy with the keyboard there as well. (IRC and MU* client, hah).

I grew up on DOS/Unix prompts too, so i tend to perfer keyboard shortcuts overall. (I managed to steer clear of Windows in any variation until 1996, when we upgraded from our 286 ;)

I'm too old to remember what the short cut keys are.

I talk to my computer all the time. Usually in phrases that consist of numerous four letter words.

Im somewhat like Nergal in that I use the mouse when I dont know the program, but asap I switch to the keyboard. I like being ambidextrous (I think thats the word) with my computing, deterioriating both hands evenly.

I also use ctrl + w to close windows, but I find that its too inconvinantly located next to ctrl + q. Dang tiny laptop keyboard.

==Chris

くりすさん

Ooh... I wonder if the boards supports　ひらがな

I type almost faster than I speak, so for me, it would always be the keyboard.

Shortcut keys, macros, and more recently (since I am a coder), the smart-complete type system, where you start typing a word, and it fills in suggested endings for you.

sugg<tab> (computer fills in 'ested')

Trust me, it works better for programming languages than for english because of the much smaller vocabularies ;p

As for shortcut keys

Windows key has become very, very useful to me.

Alt F4 to kill a program
Windows Key + F to find stuff
Windows Key + R to run stuff
Windows Key + E to run Explorer
Windows Key + L to lock computer
Windows Key + D to show desktop

W+D and W+E are the most awsomest keys ever ;p

And who can forget our favorite friends
CTRL+C and CTRL+V (copy and paste!)

Coders do so much copy and pasting that we have become known as copy and pasters. CTRL+C and CTRL+V all the live long day. It works in SL too.

So for me, I take the time to learn shortcut keys of applications, at least for things I use commonly, like map, IM, etc... because it takes, what, like 5 seconds to learn a shortcut key, and if you use it like 4 or 5 times instead of mousing, you've made up the time it took to learn it...

As for age? Coding since Commodore 64. Way before mousies.

Its a case-by-case basis for me...whatever allows me to be fast and efficient. So far, finding keyboard shortcuts have been the fastest for me, however there are some situations where using the Mouse is more efficient...hence the case-by-case clause.

What's funny is when you associate the keyboard shortcut to the concept so much that when you communicate it to someone else you actaully say "Alt F V it" instead of "Hit Print Preview".

^_^

For me it depends on the program, sometimes using the mouse in tandem works best for most games.

at work I use the mouse for the silly programs - I do love the middle scroll button on the mouse. But for my main work program - it is term/telnet app that can only use keyboard. I am fighting tooth and nail not to use the pretty java hogging update to it.
okay I do use it occaisionally. On the listserv for it, everybody posts all their keyboard shortcuts for it, which I find very silly because it is an obviously mousedriven program (written by illiterate gnomes). Poorly written too- takes two presses of the enter key to enter most information.

I don't usually talk to my computer unless it is failing in some way. Then, I use words I can't type here without getting my post deleted or edited...


oh wait, that's not what you meant.

I generally prefer keyboard shortucts, if I can possibly remember them.

I use my mouse on the left, even though I'm right-handed, so that I can use the keypad and mouse simultaneously. It works very well for games and even for editing documents. When I try mousing on the right, I really notice how much more I have to move from the mouse to the keyboard.

Oh, and as for talking to my computer, I don't do that. I swear at it. Loudly.

Unless I'm typing (chat, docs, url's, etc) I always have my left hand on the mouse and my right hand on the keyboard. Nothing like having the best of both worlds when your an artist hehe

Of course it can get a bit much when I'm taking notes and using the graphics tablet for the odd airbrush stroke - then it's probably amusing to see me with a pencil between my teeth and a wacom pen held like a cigar atop the mouse!

I just need a nice long straw for my coffee and I'm happy

Interesting responses -- thanks, guys!

Weird, though. I'm pretty strongly left-handed as a rule, but it feels really unnatural to use my left hand to push the mouse around. And they put most of the commonly used letters over on the left side of the kbd, anyway, which results in most of my shortcuts using solely lefthand combos. It's the rare exception that uses two hands, such as Ctrl+U, Ctrl+P, or Ctrl+Backspace.

Eddie -- may I suggest an IV drip for the coffee? Works a treat for freeing up the hands. (ghu knows I've thought about one for the morning commute, save a few more shirts that way.)

S'okay Nergal, I solved the coffee problem. I converted an old beer hat to cold my cappuchinos.

Now, I'll be okay as long as I don't let Darwin and Eggy's humorous posts make laughaaaAAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

*wimper*

I tend to use kbd shortcuts a lot for the programs i use when working (ohotoshop, painter, lightwave, digital fusion ect), and in sl as much as possible, but almost never when im using other applications.

heh, where it gets confusing is trying to bounce from lightwave (3d package) to SL...i cant tell you how many times ive alt ctrl clicked in the iso window in lightwave to try and rotate the view of my model , or tried to hit f2 in sl to center the object im building in my view and ended up doing the chicken dance or whateverit is f2 is tied to i have been fortunate so far that no tragic accidental losses have occured

hehehe, I do that in 3ds max now constantly and it drives me insane. ctr-alt to rotate and zoom has become second nature. I even try to do it in photoshop!

I'm pretty much the same. In programs like max (3d package) and other production apps I use I try and do kbd shortcuts when possible for speed and to avoid carpal tunnel as long as possible. In other apps that I just use for recreation In SL I pretty much just use the kbd shortcuts for camera control.

Well, when I first got involved with computers they were running CP/M

I mainly use the mouse.

Go figure.

It depends on what I'm doing. I use the mouse alot for zooming/panning in SL, and the arrow keys for moving about. If I'm web surfing, its all about the mouse. If I'm at work working in Autocad, its both, but I tend to favor the keyboard shortcuts.