Frustration

I am extremely frustrated with the keyboard and mouse, specifically the mouse. I find the mouse to be a very outdated device that simply doesn't keep up with me. Good hackers don't even use the mouse. A lot of times, I find myself simply memorizing all the possible shortcuts and deal only with the keyboard. The reason is exactly that, shortcuts. Its faster to type out some cryptic combination like holding a key down while pressing a set of other keys rather then to nagivate the mouse to a menu, and perform a few clicks. I think the problem is that the mouse is not an extension of the hand. It's unnatural. The eyes and brain move infinitely faster. Perhaps, if the hand was the mouse. It takes such a long time to move the mouse from one side of the screen to another. The mouse is made slow on purpose because it is not a very precise device. Imagine how hard it would be to navigate it, if the mouse flew across the screen. The human hand, fingers are a lot more precise. In theory, I think the hand acting as a mouse can move much faster. There is also a possibility of interacting more naturally with the computer if your hands can be involved. For example, physically taking and moving windows rather then performing some sort of click and hold motion. There are also 2 hands and 10 fingers providing a potential for even fuller interaction. There is no reason that the mouse has to be a single item. What about 10 different mouses, or perhaps there is no mouse at all, but your hands can physically interact with the computer in a virtual plane.

Perhaps part of my frustration stems from that fact that it takes a very long time to do anything on the computer. Imagine building a simple web based program. There are a couple of screens, lets say 5 queries, some fancy interaction such as ajax, perhaps some column sorting, expanding, maybe some data pop-ups, some drill downs. A little program like this will probably take one person a few days, maybe even a week to fully build out and test. That's extremely slow. This system might not even be what the business wants causing further delays. There has to be a faster way. There is nothing even remotely complicated or interesting about these little programs. These programs are simply a test of how fast one can type and how easy they can define the architecture to minimize typing in the first place. We are developing stupid little programs at such a low level. It is extremely inefficient, not to mention boring.

The solution so far has been to build tools on top of tools. IDE's are attempting to simplify certain actions, visual development tools are attempting to convert languages into workflow models. IDE's are replacing development. They are simply making it faster. Workflow based languages are creating another layer of complexity. Instead of writing an if statement you move
a picture of an if statement into a plane, and then configure it by filling out a form. This is an interesting idea, and has the capacity to produce very powerful systems rather quickly, but I am not a true believer. I don't have a solution, I am just really frustrated.