Editor Ergonomics [was: Important features for editors]

[Eric S. Johansson]

On Fri, 12 Jul 2013 00:24:26 -0400, Steven D'Aprano  
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:

> Frankly, nothing comes even close to a real mouse for feedback and ease
> of use. Maybe a stylus. But that's it.

before tremors, I would agree with you. Stylus is amazingly good tool for  
user interaction in a GUI. After tremors, not so much. For example, when  
you sweep across the pad, you keep your mouse tip up, over and use  
feedback from your mouse pointer to tell you when to touch down. My  
tremors caused mouse clicks on tablet at about a 2 Hz rate. You can just  
imagine it, hearing me move the stylus across the pad going: Tap tap tap  
tap tap tap tap. Yeah, sucks to be me. A high-resolution mouse is  
similarly problematic because I can make a gross motion to another part of  
the screen. hitting a small target on a high-resolution screen is not easy  
in the least and usually takes longer than the gross positioning across  
the screen. What I would love is a mouse interface that uses a mouse  
motion for a small range but a force vector like Mr. eraser head for  
longer-range movement. Not exactly sure how the mouse would behave but  
that's a very rough idea what would work well with my hands.