This post has nothing to do with Unreal, driving simulation, or anything we usually talk about around here. It’s going to be just me, complaining about the computer mice market and why I think we need better mice, for developers and beyond.

What’s wrong with the mouse?

There are many things not quite good with most mice, but my major gripe with them is the absolute lack of buttons. Keyboard have 100+ keys, but somehow mice can’t go over 10? Why? Most people have 5 fingers on their hands, maybe it’s time to allow us to use those efficiently, instead of having them just “be there for the ride”.

Do you really need more buttons?

Yes. I do. As much as you can give me.

But what do you do with those?

Everything? I have a AutoHotKey (AHK) script to bind all extra mouse buttons to app-specific actions. For example:

• Visual Studio (or any other IDE, really)
  • Build solution
  • Comment/uncomment
  • Go To Declaration/Definition
  • Refactoring (e.g., change signature)
• Unreal Engine
  • Play/Simulate In Editor
  • Show mouse cursor
  • Eject/Possess
  • Switch views (e.g., top, perspective)
• Chrome
  • Next/previous tab
  • New tab
  • Close/reopen tab
  • Go to page top/bottom
  • Refresh page

I could go on and on about other applications (e.g., Slack) and shortcuts (have you seen all the actions you can bind in Visual Studio?). Sure, I can also do Ctrl+Shift+whatever, but why not use a button on my mouse?

My efficiency seems directly correlated with the amount of buttons on my mouse, because unless I’m typing text/code, I have one hand on my mouse. So the more actions I have accessible from there, the faster I can work.

Why use AHK instead of the mouse driver?

Because all mouse drivers are bad. I’m especially looking at you, Logitech… If I have to jump through layers of menus just to rebind a button, you’re doing it very wrong.

AutoHotKey is more responsive, gives me greater flexibility, allows me to source control my configuration and doesn’t take 15s to start. So why not use AHK?

Can’t you use one of those MMO mouse?

No, I can’t, because they’re incredibly bad. Sure they have more buttons, but they’re all squeezed under a single finger in what might be the least ergonomic possible setup. It’s like, sure, I have a thumb; but do you know I have other fingers on that hand too? Evidently not.

Can’t you use another gaming mouse?

Which one? It seems they’re all about DPI, which I don’t care about, and having the shiniest customizable LEDS, which… why? Why on earth would I want LEDs on my mouse? Apparently, it seems everyone using high-end computer hardware LOVES having LEDs everywhere. I don’t need LEDs anywhere except good ol’ white for my backlit keyboard, thank you very much.

I mean I just opened the first mouse on the Logitech G website, and here are the selling points.

Who cares about this crap? Gamers, maybe. But I want a productivity mouse. A developer mouse. A power-user mouse. But apparently this isn’t a market? I mean the fact that AutoHotKey exists should show that people are willing to go to great lengths to get that extra productivity boost.

Do you have an example of a decent mouse?

The “best” (that’s relative) mouse that I had (and still use) is a G700S.

What made this mouse great? Well, mostly, it has 13 bindable buttons

• 4 on the thumb
• 6 on the index
• 3 on the middle finger

You can jam many more buttons in there before reaching the usability cap. But at least the spread between fingers is decent, even though I still have two fingers just sleeping on the job (unlike with a DataHand).

This mouse also used the “old” Logitech software (“Logitech Gaming Software”), which was pretty meh, but still lightyears ahead of the absolute piece of garbage that is the new “G HUB”.

Can you shut up and just tell us what you want?

Sure.

I want the most plain/boring looking mouse, with a cord, with as many buttons as possible while all being easily usable, and a non-shitty driver (or one that I can easily ignore to go straight to AHK).

I want a mouse whose sole purpose is to enhance my productivity, by giving me access to more features and actions.

I want a mouse made by someone who knows that their tool is made to navigate quickly and efficiently though the vast information available on my ever-expanding screen space, which is made of a myriad of applications and tabs opened at all times.

I want a mouse that knows what its job is and what isn’t.

I want a mouse that acknowledges that to go beyond two clicks, we might need to rethink the whole device to better use the full abilities of the human hand.

I want a mouse that takes into account the fact that developers use and look at computers differently nowadays than 20 years ago.

I want a better mouse.