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Mouse Gestures in Mozilla

Posted by michael on from the still-pumped-from-using-the-mouse dept.

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."

4 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. This is really cool! by Hazzl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!!!

  2. Re:Slashdot to thank by FFFish · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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  3. vim mode? by The+Pim · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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?

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    The evaluation of an action as 'practical' . . . depends on what it is that one wishes to practice.
  4. Re:YES, please: more ways to browse with the keybo by Ian+Bicking · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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.