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Hey everyone,
So, I was on vacation with a little laptop and the trackpad was driving me insane. I decided to invest in a quality mouse and started browsing an electronics store.
I was about to settle on a $40 Logitech wireless trackball mouse when an associate came by and said "hey, we have more mice over in the gaming section, might want to check those out." I explained that I'm a developer and he said "yeah, they'd be good for that!"
I was skeptical but decided on a Logitech G602 gaming mouse. Installed the button mapping program and within a few minutes added all of my frequently used PHPStorm commands to the various buttons (9 in total, not counting the normal mouse ones). Things like Code Reformat, Git, Optimize Imports, Browser Reload, etc.
It's also cool because you can add any program as a "game" and the mouse will switch between your settings based on whatever is in the foreground. It has really helped speed things up, would have never thought to try it out!
Supposedly it's Mac compatible but I haven't given it a shot yet (just got home). Thought I'd share. :)
Nice tips there. Imagine accidentally hitting a build or rather deploy script on your mouse. Use with caution, eh! :)
Personally though, I wouldn't buy such mouse (unless I'm gaming) since I don't really use mouse at all while coding. It's not that I never use it, but I really do my best to force myself memorizing keyboard shortcuts rather than using mouse. You're definitely slower at the start, but the more you force yourself the faster and more productive you'll become eventually.
@toniperic I don't have it mapped to anything that Undo can't fix. And I've used all of the keyboard shortcuts for years, I just find it handy to quickly press a button for stuff I do constantly.
I was just surprised how versatile these things could be, I think they should re-brand them as "Multifunction Mice." Any combination of keystrokes you can dream up and all of the typical system stuff, like media controls and Copy / Cut / Paste :)
Oh, and there IS a big downside to this approach - now I can't stop playing World of Warplanes! Argh!! LOL
I have a Razer Naga mouse for my main desktop (it's designed for MMOs so it's got the standard three buttons, plus grid of twelve buttons on the side to simulate the top row of the keyboard). I tried using it for dev purposes once upon a time but I found it too cumbersome to make macros and such (although I do use it for gaming).
In the end, I've found that using keyboard shortcuts, at least for me, has been the best way to boost my productivity. The less I take my hands off the keyboard, the better. I actually prefer my Mac's keyboard and trackpad over an external mouse and keyboard even when docked to several other monitors. If I were to switch to a different keyboard and mouse, it would be to one of Apple's magic touchpad's and their wireless keyboard because I can't live without my Mac's touchpad anymore.
@ELD I'm really happy with the Logitech software, very simple to map stuff out. For me, remembering that Button 1 is for Git, Button 2 cleans up code is easier than remembering a key combination, even if I use it often I still have to think about it for a second.
Anyway, different strokes for different folks. :)
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