Talk:Mouse chording

Emacs and Plan 9

It seems to me that Emacs and Plan 9 don't really support "Mouse Chords" because in one moment in time only one mouse button is pressed down...

It would make sense to remove the passages about them.

217.229.254.242 13:45, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

While I agree with respect to Emacs, Plan 9 certainly does support mouse chords. In Plan 9, multiple mouse buttons are often held down at the same time for cutting (left + middle), pasting (left + right), etc.

24.124.70.195 00:16, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Invalid Examples

Several of the "examples" of mouse chording are just examples of using two buttons at the same time. Not the same thing. In these examples, the first button does one thing, and the second button does another, which might be context-dependent on what the first is doing. But mouse chording is about doing a single thing when both buttons are pressed, not about combining the individual actions of each button.

- 3D Studio. The right button is a completely separate action that cancels whatever the left button is doing at the time, like dragging an icon in Windows then pressing escape. Pressing left then right is effectively no action at all, which is the opposite of the topic's subject.

- Shooter games (includes the San Andreas and Rainbow Six bits). Aiming and firing are completely separate actions. The fire button can usually be used without aiming at all, and the aim button can certainly be used without firing.

- The same is true of the cover system. Holding a button puts you in cover, regardless of whether you end up shooting. Pressing the other button usually shoots, whether you're in cover or not.

Even in a game where you have to aim or be in cover to shoot, it's still a combination of two actions, one of which is context-dependent on the other. Chording is when the combination of buttons creates an action which can be completely independent of what the buttons normally do on their own.

A good example is Skyrim dual-casting. The left button casts whatever spell is in your character's main hand, while the right button casts the off hand spell. Pressing both simultaneously with the correct timing (and proper spells) casts a completely different spell that can only be cast this way.

Another example is World of Warcraft. The left button selects objects in the game world when clicked and pans the camera when dragged, while the right button just pans the camera when dragged. Holding both buttons causes the character to move forward (and, conveniently, also replicates the right-button behavior of panning the camera, so you can walk and turn at the same time with just the mouse). Moving forward isn't a natural combination of selecting objects and panning the camera; it's a third action activated by button chording.

Some thing can be a bit hard to say. Some games have a hotkey that brings up a quick menu. Pressing certain keys while the menu is open causes some action to happen. If done slowly, this is a case of one button opening a menu while other buttons navigate it, but some implementations allow you to quickly press the two keys to accomplish the action, which feels just like mouse chording without the menu. 199.127.114.114 (talk) 09:28, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

Is this article even useful?

I feel like this stub of an article would be better suited in a somewhat larger article about button chording in general. A very common form of chording is to hold modifier keys (control, alt, shift) on the keyboard while pressing some other key OR mouse button. I can't see any reason to dedicate one article to chording with just mouse buttons, another to chording with just keyboard keys, another to keyboard-first-then-mouse-second chording, etc.

The chorded keyboard article makes sense because it's a type of device explicitly designed to use chording so it has a small footprint. Though I think if chorded mice, chorded TV remotes, chorded steering wheels, etc. became commonplace it might make sense to condense everything to a single "chorded devices" page unless each device had very distinct purpose and functionality.

In fact, I can't even find an article about the far-more-common usage of keyboard chording. Why not rename this article and flesh it out when button chording in general? 199.127.114.114 (talk) 09:28, 26 January 2019 (UTC)