Mouse Gestures in Mozilla

Jedbro writes: "I have really enjoyed the mouse gestures in Opera since its release, since then I have come across an awesome new project at Mozdev, called OptiMoz. OptiMoz (a.k.a. MozGest) is a XPI for Mozilla allowing Mouse Gestures to be available. It works great with Mozilla 0.9.4 and nightly builds. It currently has Gestures for: *New Tab Window (Moz Tabs!!) *Forward in History *Backward in History *Reload *New Document *Up a directory in the URL *View Source *View Cookies for Current Domain *View Meta Data for Domain and *Access Homepage."

Comments

This is really cool!

[Hazzl]

When I read this post, I immediately ran to mozdev and installed it. This is really cool! Now you can browse in complete full-screen without having to rely on context menus. Using the keyboard shortcuts (as has been suggested) is not as easy because I usually surf using only the mouse and switching my attention back and forth between keyboard and screen is quite cumbersome. In short: this completely ROCKS!!!

Re:What Are Mouse Gestures?

[Anonymous Coward]

They are a slower method of performing simple tasks, compared to the more common methods. They are utterly useless unless all other methods of input are denied, which is unlikely considering that gestures use the mouse. Despite their utterly pointless nature, they have a certain 'cool factor'.

Gesturing:
1. Hold mouse button.
2. Perform gesture (draw shape with mouse).
3. Release button.

Normal:
1. Press key/button. Sometimes, multiple clicks/keypresses will be required due to the design to the program.

Generally, the old methods remain the best. I've even been charitable and assumed that the gesture was correctly performed first time.

Re:Slashdot to thank

[FFFish]

In a way, *Opera* is to thank for this. If they hadn't been truly innovative, in that they thought to take the uncommon idea of mouse gesturing and applying it to browsing, this would never have made the radar.

Or worse: trigger them accidentally

[TheMidget]

I've even been charitable and assumed that the gesture was correctly performed first time.

.. or that you don't accidentally perform the gesture while intending to perform a completely different action. Here's a small excerpt from an old comment posted to Slashdot, which apparently triggered this development:

Or, to go back a page, hold down the right mouse button and click the left mouse button ("forward" is just the reverse: hold down the left mouse button and click the right mouse button).

Now, think about the implication of this for a moment. Picture a user who has a mouse with only two buttons. And who has Emulate3Buttons switched on. For those who don't know, this allows the user to simulate a press on the (non-existant) middle button by pressing left and right simultaneously. However, we humans are not very precise as far as timing goes, and we're bound to press one of those two buttons slightly ahead of the other. End result: the browser appears to have "a mind of its own" because it keeps jumping back and forth as soon as you try to select a block of text...

Browser developers: if you feel the strong urge to implement such a feature, please make it optional, and off by default. Such a feature could be especially annoying when accidentally triggered on a page where the user has spent half an hour filling out a lengthy survey form. One bad click, and you have to restart from scratch.

vim mode?

[The Pim]

Use keyboard shortcuts. They're quicker.

It's not just that keyboard controls are good on general principles; it's also the ridiculous extent to which browsers neglect them. Do you realize that when the focus is in the page (> 90% of the time), almost every single keypress does absolutely nothing? What a waste!

I would give my left foot for a vim-like mode in mozilla. Flexible and powerful navigation, visual selection, one-key incremental regex searches, marks and jumps, macros. Some modifications would be necessary for a browser environment, but I think most of the endearing non-editing properties of vim could be carried over.

So, anyone want to write this?

Re:YES, please: more ways to browse with the keybo

[Ian Bicking]

One thing I like about the keyboard is that it's so predictable -- I hit a key three times, and it's exactly three times. I have near-100% accuracy, where mice are always fuzzy -- always off by a pixel or two, sometimes much more.

But in browsers there's another level of unpredictability that is a pain. You never know where the next tab is going to leave you. Could be any number of input forms, or a URL, or maybe you didn't realize it and your focus isn't on the page... it makes navigation with a keyboard near-impossible. Of course, this is largely true for any complicated GUI form. Browsers just happen to be the most common complicated GUI in use.

I suppose it's because keyboards are good for modal or serial interfaces, where mice are better for more random-access interfaces. OTOH, with you use the keyboard to its full potential (i.e., as more than just a bunch of shortcuts) the keyboard can be far more expressive (e.g., CLI). But I don't have any clever ideas on how to map that to a web page.