#nomouse

A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth control of the graphical user interface of a computer.
~ Wikipedia (except for the emoji part, that’s on me)

Wow, it’s been a long time since the mouse first appeared in 1968. I’ll admit, I’ve used the mouse extensively ever since I first interacted with a computer, somewhere in the previous millennium.

…but I’ve found the light and changed my ways in recent years since I started to code “like a grown up”.

To begin your quest in the mouseless realm, it is extremely important that you learn fast typing.¹ keybr is a great website for that.

Here are a few useful applications (and websites, and extensions) I use in order to avoid using the mouse:

• vim: I think that everyone who codes needs to know how to use vim. But I don’t know about it being your daily driver code editor—I’m not that wild. When you install vim, there’s a handy tutor accompanying it, called vimtutor. Give it a whirl before you go.
• vimium: Once you’ve mastered vim, the next step is to install vimium as an extension for your browser. After you install it, press f on any website, and ta-da! Little tiny yellow stickers appear above any clickable element in the page. Type the letters you want, and it is as if you clicked on the element. Personally, I think this extension is what really gives you the no-mouse boost to keyboard-land. ⌨️
• cmd+alt+space, or in its other name for Windows, winkey+r: Use it to launch apps, search things, and many more. Pump it up on Windows by installing powertoys, and assigning the shortcut winkey+alt+space, because the vanilla winkey+r is boring. Pump it up on macOS by installing Alfred.
• switching keys: Coming from Windows to macOS can be hard. That’s why I switched my cmd and option keys on my external keyboard using Karabiner-Elements.
• everything: This is an amazing alternative to the native search in Windows.
• common keyboard shortcuts: We all know that cmd+s saves files, cmd+c copies, and cmd+v pastes². But what about other common keyboard shortcuts? I got used to shift+shift in PyCharm, and cmd+shift+p in vscode. But when I’m new to a piece of software, I use cheatsheet to find out its shortcuts.

That’s it for now, folks! Tell me in the comments which key is your favorite—mine is the number 6!

1. Though I admit that sometimes I mishap and look on the keyboard, and when I do that, I’m looking at you, “

   ” 🙄

   ↩

2. Shout out to stackoverflow! ↩