Re: [RP] mouse stuff (you guys are gonna kill me for this one)

[Rupert Levene]

On Mon, Sep 22, 2003 at 11:58:43AM -0700, Shawn Betts wrote:

> I think what the ratless community really desperately needs is a kbd
> only graphical web-browser. I know web is evil and it sucks but
> unfortunately, just about everyone uses it...
> 
> Ryan and I talked about patching mozilla to include numbered links
> ala lynx. I think this is the way to do it for keyboard only
> control. For pictures perhaps you'd have a number in the upper left
> corner or something. I think Ryan got w3m-el working with some
> preliminary numbered links.

Firebird is highly usable from the keyboard alone for many
websites. You just type and it selects the first link matching what
you've typed. Hit / and type and it does a similar search for text
(not just link text). Numbers for links without text (images,
imagemaps etc) or selection based on the ALT tag if present would make
it complete -- at the moment you have to cycle through the links to
get to these.

There are occasions where you're forced to use the mouse in firebird.
For example, sometimes when a new tab fails to load a page you can't
close the tab or do much at all from the keyboard. But these are
probably bugs, so a mouse-free graphical browser is virtually here
today.

As for the original request for mouse features in ratpoison, I think
it's a nice idea myself. Resizing in particular is something that a
mouse does much better than the keyboard. Click-to-switch-frame
(without C-t first) is something I've occasionally wished for. But I
think such things should be kept away from the ratpoison core, perhaps
in separately maintained patches. That way the focus will stay on the
keyboard as the primary means of interaction.

Rupert