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Best Mouse For Programming?
LosManos writes "Which is the best programming mouse? Mandatory musts are wireless, and that it doesn't clog up like old mechanical mice. Present personal preferences are for: lots of buttons, since if I have moved my hand away from the keyboard I can at least do something more than move the pointer; sturdy feeling; not too light, so it doesn't move around by me accidentally looking at it." What would you recommend?
There simply isn't a better mouse in the world. All the fancy X11/Compiz shortcuts you actually need can go on it, rechargable batteries, easy to move and most of all, incredibly ergonomic.
Plus that endless scroll feature is perfect for grokking long walls of code.
Wireless with built in rechargable battery that lasts several days easily for me. Lots of buttons, the scroll wheel is very nice, you can keep it in standard click mode, or use free scrolling, or toggle between the two easily; automatically or manually.
Fully programmable with lots of buttons, forward/back, and the cool thumb quick flip thing.
It contours very well in the hand, and I really like the extra lip under the thumb. It has some nice weight to it, but it's not too heavy to be tiresome. Overall it's the best mouse I've every owned.
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First of all, I'd suggest not wireless if you are worried about it 'moving' around with you not looking. Almost any wireless mouse I've used does that sometimes, with the exception of Gyration. (Microsoft, Logitech, and several off brands) Second of all, if you want sturdy feeling, you might go for one of the cases based on the Logitech mx500 (including the G5) or some of the similarly shaped Microsoft mice. (Unless you are left-handed.) The Logitech mx518 I'm using has at least 3 buttons which can be mapped to something useful. (Intended as forward, back, and app-switch. I think you can remap the +/- resolution buttons, but I haven't bothered)
Since the dawn of gpm...
Not everybody uses Emacs or VI, and some prefer GVim, which fully supports the mouse.
For some kind of activities, such as the highlighting of square blocks of text, the mouse is faster and more efficient that the keyboard.
Obviously, for everything else you should memorize key shortcuts.
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
I had a Kensington wireless mouse that you could charge while you were using it through a simple USB cable. I thought it was great because I didn't have to worry about putting it in some silly dock and wait every time I forgot to charge it and it went dead on me.
Of course, it didn't take long before I just started using it plugged in all the time, giving me an overly expensive wired mouse.
You're welcome.
Logitech MX-518 is the best gaming mouse I've ever used. High precision, no drift, works great on a variety of surfaces.
When I showed up for my first day of a programming job a few years ago (at a game development company), guess what mouse was plugged into my machine? Yep, an MX-518.
I have one at home, one at work and I've always been more satisfied with them.
... with vi, your keyboard becomes a huge specialized text-editing gamepad with almost a hundred buttons. Each of them has at least two functions, shifted and unshifted, so you have almost two hundred functions at a single keypress (not counting Shift).
Scroll wheel
Scroll bars
Select for cut/copy and paste
Menu options
Setting and going to bookmarks
Navigating the various browsers and dropdowns
Hovering over a variable in the debugger to see its value
Many more..
Yes...they all probably have keyboard equivalents, I just consider them awkward workarounds.
Remember, you can pound in a screw with a wrench if you really want to...
A mouse is sometimes the right tool for the job
That's what I was thinking: "A mouse for programming, WTF?"
The best mouse I have ever owned is my Logitech MX518. Previously I was a big fan of the regular Microsoft ball mice. I am a "twitch" gamer so I value high performance and accurate mice. Anyway, back to the MX518. As it's optical it never "clogs up" and it's wired so it always works 100% of the time with no batteries and no matter what interference is around. It has a variable sensitivity right in the mouse (no software needed) and has a high sample high for quick movement.
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