So you’ve been waiting to hear how I like my mouse, aren’t you? I’ve been using it for a while now and you’d like to know, as a programmer, what I think about this mouse. Here are my thoughts after using is and setting it up for a while.

I think I have a new right hand.

No, really. This mouse has a good number of buttons and they’re all accessible. A majority of them are for the thumb and the shift key on the ring finger doubles the number of thumb buttons. Have I programmed all possible combinations yet? No, I haven’t. I have programmed a lot of buttons right off the bat, then forgot some of the ones I programmed. That’s easy to do as I wasn’t using those buttons that often. Yes, I could be using the keyboard shortcuts for many of these commands, but it’s nice to have them all on my mouse.

A quick summary of what I’ve programmed so far.

I reversed the back and forward buttons (it’s just me)

Copy, paste, cut, select all (on the joystick)

Screen shot (on the joystick press)

Alt+tab on the flap button

Enter on the front thumb button, delete on the back thumb button.

Refresh (Ctrl+f5) on the scroll wheel click

Undo on thumb wheel up

Redo on thumbwheel down

With the shift key:

Shift+Enter on the front thumb button

Backspace on the back thumb button

Refresh CVS on the wheel click

Update CVS on the flap button

Commit CVS on the joystick press

That’s what I’ve got so far. I know I’m underutilizing the device but I’m always looking for more key combinations that I do on a regular basis and I’ll look at programming a button for that. For example I still need a CTRL+F (Find) as this is something that I use often, I just haven’t figure out which button to assign that to that’ll make the most sense.

From my experience so far, I don’t know how I lived without this mouse. Yes, I know it’s lazy to think about using a single mouse click to perform a two key combination, but I’m looking at it more that I can do these things faster with one hand than multiple fingers. I’ve had a blast setting it up, I’m having even more fun using it on a daily basis. It’s one of those things that once you get used to it, it’s really easy to use. Like any new device, it takes time learning how to use it, but once you’re used to it and no longer afraid to try something different with it, you wonder how you ever lived without it. I know I’ll be doing more and more with it as time goes on. There are so many possibilities I just need to do it one button at a time.

Now I also got a hold of the Razer Nostromo. I still haven’t fully programmed it. Well, that’s a lie. I programmed several buttons to do multiple things, but it’s not like the mouse where I use it all day every day. I’m still getting used to what it can do and to putting my hand over there instead of on the keyboard. 20 years of sitting at a computer it’s hard to get out of the habit of one hand on the mouse and one hand on the keyboard. Old habits die hard and it’ll take more time to get used to putting my left hand on the Nostromo. Again, with time I’ll get used to both devices. Then I’ll be dangerous. I’ll do a full run down of what I do with the Nostormo another day.

On the writing front, I’ve been hunting and pecking a little here and a little there. I hope to find a good block of time later today to get a nice chunk done. We’ll see how that goes and I’ll report back tomorrow.

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!