On 11/14/06, Lyndon Nerenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Where is the research data that backs the claim that navigating via the mouse is more efficient than navigating via the keyboard? I know my own experience says this is nonsense. My physical context switch time between the keyboard and mouse is at least 300 ms; my fingers move quite a bit faster than that on the keyboard. I know that when I'm in one of the two modes – kbd vs. mouse – I'm very quick in that context. But as soon as I have to switch between them: yikes! To bounce back and forth from typing source code to repositioning a few lines via the mouse to typing again is horribly inefficient. And while I've come to grow and love acme over the last few months now that I use it regularly at work, that back-and-forth makes me want to hurl (only the keyboard and mouse, mostly, but there are days ...)
Finally, another user that doesn't drink the mouse Kool-Aid; although I use the mouse a moderate amount, using the mouse for cursor positioning while editing code is indeed a terrible waste. I've looked at the papers linked from the Plan 9 wiki about speed of mouse vs. keyboard, and while it may be faster to go from point A to point B using the mouse when A and B are far apart, the context switch and the fact that often you're not moving that far kinda makes the point void. John -- Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
