I want to avoid RSI.  So, I want to use the mouse as little as I possibly can while I focus on my keyboard.  Unfortunately, alt+tabbing between windows takes far too long and annoys me with how much I have to think to move between the windows.

I often have several windows open.  I want to switch between them very quickly.  So, I created a program using Python and Xlib that generates another program.

The program moves my mouse automatically to a specific location and then clicks automatically.

The program also creates a keyboard shortcut in Gnome.  So, I can type something like Alt+q which calls the program above, moves the mouse to a specific location, and then clicks.

Finally, the program also generates a program which, when called, opens up many windows at specific locations in a grid:

If I combine all of these programs, I can focus between windows very easily. I can move the mouse between 12 spots in a 4×3 grid using the keyboard letters Q,W,E,R, etc like below:

To move to the Top-Left window, I hit Alt+q, which moves my mouse to the top left and clicks, focusing the top-left window.  To move to the bottom right, I press Alt+v, then the mouse moves to the bottom right and clicks, focusing into the bottom right window.

Basically, when I’m programming, I never have to move to my mouse to switch between windows very quickly.  I can open up 12 files at once, and switch between them swiftly and deftly.  When you work on a large application, this becomes very useful.

I’ve open-sourced the program here: http://github.com/jperla/mouse-focus-shortcuts/tree/master .