Re:Helix: a post-modern modal text editor
by smoldesu on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @03:04PM
(#27359665)
"pointing at the screen" can be done a lot better, a number of different ways. My personal favorite is the Trackpoint, IBM's nifty little nipple that lets you use a joystick from the home row. You can actually type while using your mouse, and it's a a very jarring experience. Barring that, a touchscreen is also a great interface for quickly interacting with specific UI elements. I like Apple's trackpads, but the rest of their input peripherals are pretty terrible for ergonomics.
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I've been a huge fan of the Trackpoint for many years, but unfortunately it's always been plagued by annoying drift issues, where the cursor keeps moving in one direction and you have to fight with it to make it stop. This has been an issue on older IBM ThinkPads as well as modern Lenovo models. It's a disgrace the technology hasn't improved much (at all?) in the last 20 years that this is still a recurring problem.
The trick is: as soon as you notice it drifting, take your finger off it and let it come to a stop. If you keep pushing opposite the drift it'll never stop.
Also, if you haven't in a while, replace your cap. I replace mine every year or so and it makes it perform much better. You don't have to push as hard, which also reduces the drift problem.
Yeah, I do this as well, but it's still annoying as it takes it a few seconds to stop. And then usually happens again soon after, so I often just force push it in the direction I want.
I don't replace the cap often, but I do take it out and clean it, blow out the dust, etc. I'll give a fresh cap a try soon, thanks. It's just ridiculous this highly disruptive behavior is still a thing after all these years...
There was also just shy of a dozen different Trackpoint designs, I don't doubt that one or two were seriously faulty, and I certainly have my preferences (the lower profile ones definitely don't track as well). In any case, the positioning and design of it is pretty ideal for people looking to reduce context switching at any cost.