> you're under-estimating the cognitive overhead of using the mouse
What "cognitive overhead?" And how is memorizing a bunch of arcane key combinations for cursor movement and region selection not cognitive overhead?
The (imo, dubious) argument against the mouse has always been that there's a strictly mechanical penalty for moving your hands around - not that there's "cognitive overhead."
Let's break down the cognitive overhead of mouse use. Setting aside the "reaching for the mouse" penalty, there's a lot of work involved in mouse-related tasks like copying a selection:
1. Move your eyes off of the text you're editing so you can find the mouse cursor.
2. Figure out where the mouse cursor is relative to the text you need to edit.
3. Effect that relative movement with your mouse.
4. Highlight the text for copying.
5. ^C or some other key combo to yank the selection.
6. Reorient the mousing hand to the keyboard (find the home row keys again).
Steps 4 and 5 take an equivalent amount of mental effort, but 1-3 and 6 don't exist in vim. That's the cognitive overhead I'm talking about.
> And how is memorizing a bunch of arcane key combinations for cursor movement and region selection not cognitive overhead?
Visual selection is the letter v in vim. There are four keys for basic cursor movement. Then y for yank, d for cut, p for paste. Vim only seems arcane because so many posts about vim are really about demonstrating how smart the author is. I get pretty exercised about this because it's chasing people away who could really benefit from learning vim. Vim is not arcane, vim has a dead simple core with a bunch of entirely optional features on top of it.
> 1. Move your eyes off of the text you're editing so you can find the mouse cursor.
Try this: keep your eyes fixed on a character, then wiggle the mouse or trackpad. I don't think I ever actively look for the pointer before using the mouse, and I doubt anyone else does either.
I'm guessing that if you can track the mouse pointer without taking your eyes off the text you're editing, most of your listed steps become non-factors.
What "cognitive overhead?" And how is memorizing a bunch of arcane key combinations for cursor movement and region selection not cognitive overhead?
The (imo, dubious) argument against the mouse has always been that there's a strictly mechanical penalty for moving your hands around - not that there's "cognitive overhead."