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Best Mouse For Programming?

Posted by timothy on from the keep-it-away-from-cigarettes-and-drugs dept.

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?

4 of 569 comments (clear)

  1. KVM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've found most KVMs make it so my wireless input devices don't work. :(

  2. IBM Trackpoint by bvanheu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I use a keyboard with an IBM trackpoint so i don't keep moving my right hand between keyboard and mouse. It takes a little to get used to it, but it worth the try! http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/healthycomputing/trkpnt.html

  3. Re:Mouse? by Whorhay · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hazaa!

    My preference is actually to corded laser mice. I've had a couple cordless ones and they always felt too heavy for my tastes. And when the batteries start to go it's always frustrating to have to stop whatever I am doing to go find fresh ones. I also happen to prefer the five button mice, the mouse-wheel button rarely ever gets used but at times it's made for a great "boss button".

  4. Best mouse operation for programming by ciurana · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Howdy.

    While taste in mice and features vary, one thing I would vouch for, if you're right handed and have a full keyboard, is to learn to use your mouse with your left hand. I worked with Gene Korienek in the early 1990s and we discussed how to optimize mouse motion. Since the page navigation, Return key, and numeric pad are all on your right side, using your mouse with your left hand will make you more effective for some activities such as using spreadsheets, Photoshop, web surfing, etc. I went "mouse southpaw" since then -- super-comfortable.

    Now... for programming I use MacVim and a number of plug-ins and extensions. When I'm programming, unless it's something that's got a GUI or it's iPhone/Mac specific, I seldom use the mouse. One of the biggest advantages of using a keyboard instead of a mouse is sensory memory. There are actions in Vim (and possibly TextMate, emacs, etc.) that you can execute automatically, without thinking about the exact key press sequence, and without having to lift your hands off the keyboard. Check into any of these editors, add the appropriate plug-ins (e.g. "UNIX is my IDE") and see what works best for you. I went from keyboard-only (TurboPascal, Turbo C, vi/UNIX) to GUI IDE (Smalltalk/V, Symantec Cafe, Visual Studio, IDEA) back to keyboard-only for most programming tasks. Now my coding is split between keyboard-only (scripting, Java, C, assembler) and GUI/mouse for only a few environments that leave you no other option (Xcode/Interface Builder).

    Cheers!

    E

    --
    http://eugeneciurana.com | http://ciurana.eu