I Believe in Trackball Supremacy

Although trackballs (especially finger-operated ones) are larger than mice, the actual space they need to be used will often be less than that of a mouse, since the mouse must also have space to move around. Furthermore, the solution to increase accuracy with a mouse is often to increase this operating space even further. By contrast, the space needed to operate the trackball will never exceed its footprint, plus a bit of space around it for the hand.

This allows a trackball to be used on a small desk without sacrificing performance, although I’d prefer the stability and compactness of a pointing stick, or even a trackpad, when working in a moving vehicle or with no flat surface whatsoever.

In addition, a trackball will work the same regardless of the condition of the surface it is on, outside of how level and hard it is. By contrast, many mice struggle on plain or light surfaces, although newer sensor technology does apparently allow some to even work on glass, nearly approaching the flexibility of a trackball.

However, the real convenience of not needing to move the trackball comes from being able to have things on the right side of my desk without them getting in the way. These could include notebooks, parts for a hardware project, or even a cup of tea!

I don’t think it would even be worth trying to game with a trackball, especially in a first-person shooter where rapid flicking and precise tracking can be essential for doing well. This is one respect where mice are superior, so I keep my mouse plugged in for when I do want to play something.

The thing is, I have lowered my mouse’s sensitivity to the point where it has to move a third of the way across my entire desk for the pointer to traverse the screen. I have also disabled pointer acceleration for it, since this makes aiming more precise. These mean that moving the cursor with the mouse is an act of physical exertion that can be hard to sustain for more than a few hours, which is, fortunately, about as long as I would want to play a game for.

For most other tasks, instant precision is not as important as minimising strain, so it would be preferable to not have the mouse configured in this way most of the time. However, this could confuse my muscle-memory for gaming, which would not be ideal. Instead, I can use the trackball for most everyday pointing tasks, consisting of clicking a few large buttons or at worst selecting text, with a more comfortable sensitivity and pointer acceleration enabled. Acceleration is actually preferable for a trackball, since it allows you to quickly move the cursor large distances by spinning the ball hard, and to slow down to individual pixels when necessary, without changing the base speed.

For many years, I have developed a keyboard-centric workflow, allowing me to perform most basic tasks without my hands leaving the keyboard. The trackball fits quite nicely into this, since it is serviceable for the few buttons I will still occasionally need to click, and can always stay close to the keyboard because I don’t need to move it. The only pointing device that does this better is a TrackPoint, which is embedded into the keyboard itself.

The cursor is also less likely to be moved randomly if the trackball is accidentally bumped, which makes its positioning feel more stable.

I don’t have to tense all the muscles in my arm to use a trackball, I can simply rest my hand on the shell and idly flick the ball a few times to get the cursor to where it needs to be. While I could improve the ergonomics of my mouse configuration, keeping it in the mode most suited to gaming (and only using it for that) helps to separate the muscle memory for how I move the ’cursor’ in a game as opposed to when I am doing normal work.

Yes, I did just copy a lot of Xah Lee’s opinions; it’s what I do!