I have a monitor/HDMI. No mouse
Got a microphone?
I remember trying out some accessibility software a couple of decades back that let you move the cursor and click on things with voice commands. I dunno if there’s an open-source alternative, but Dragon Naturally Speaking is still around and still has that feature: https://www.nuance.com/products/help/dragon/dragon-for-pc/enx/professionalgroup/main/Content/CommandandControl/using_your_mouse.htm
Small addition to what everyone else has already mentioned: in Linux, there are a few window managers that are built around the idea of not needing a mouse. Example: ratpoison
Some people here can remember a time when most computers had just a keyboard and no mouse!
Some computers didn’t even have a keyboard, just a set of toggle switches used to set memory directly.
You have to tab around and use shortcuts. It’s quite annoying but possible.
Source: Parents used to take away the mouse as a deterrent sometimes
Thats amusing. I like when the punishment doesnt totally take you out of business, just enough to make shit annoying af
Eventually I bought a cheap mouse, but it was sort of a deterrent for awhile!
As it shouldve been. Wat was yer crime?
Staying up too late chatting with online friends on java chat applet. Good times :’)
If you are on Windows, you can do this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/use-mouse-keys-to-move-the-mouse-pointer-9e0c72c8-b882-7918-8e7b-391fd62adf33
It is possible to operate. Some Desktop Environments make it easier than others.
Websites are hard to use but as long as they play nice with web standards it should be navigable.
A once needed a mouse in a pinch, I got it from Dollarama (Canada) for $4 ($2.80 US).
Yes, though it might be inconvenient for some apps or workflows. If you can use CLI it’ll go a lot more smoothly than trying to use a mouse-driven interface with a keyboard only, but you can do that, too, if it comes down to it.
You can get a cheap mouse or trackball for under $10, though, if you don’t want to deal with the hassle.
Do you think it might be a good experience in terms of becoming a better programmer/user? Like, using the circumstance/constraint as a positive?
Not really, but you’d probably learn hotkeys much faster.
No.
Yes, but more because you think of the blind who can’t see a GUI than anything it does for your coding skills.
Vi/Emacs/modern IDE - all of them work about the same. You need to learn your tools, but since your speed to do input isn’t the limitation hotkeys vs mouse is rarely a limit so long as you no the basic shortcuts of your editor.
Yes, and no. You should be able to do many things using keyboard shortcuts - alt-tab to switch windows, shift-tab for previous field, alt-space to move a window, etc. Much of this has been standard in Windows for decades, and I can’t imagine them deliberately going out of their way to handicap that capability, especially with ADA accommodations.
However, companies making programs and applications, and people designing webpages, are not as aware of these accommodations and frequently overlook things when designing their programs and pages. I should fully expect you to run across a badly designed page at some point that’s going to leave you frustrated.
I’d suggest printing out a list of keyboard shortcuts (both for the O/S and whatever programs you’re likely to use) but expect to run into poor design decisions at some point.
Is this a temporary situation (“I’m just setting up this PC, I’ll grab a mouse later”), or a permanent one? If the latter, is there someone you know who might have a spare mouse?
You can even emulate a mouse with a full-sized keyboard. There was (and I’m assuming still is? I’m remembering this from Windows 98 times) a function that will let you use your numpad to emulate a mouse. It was somewhere in the control panel and could definitely be accessed using only the keyboard.
Sure, just install FreeBSD (or any other unix link OS) and don’t install a GUI. There are plenty of command line and terminal programs that still work great.
You can also use a GUI with hotkeys (including Windows if you must), but you will find a lot of things are not easy without a mouse. It can be done, but often not easy. If you use a open source desktop be prepared to fix a lot of bugs in this area for your chosen desktop and programs (please do - we all benefit)
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is that enough to operate it
Yes.
It’ll take longer navigating around different windows & such in a GUI operating system but is totally doable.
Uh, yes?
No?
Maybe?
