> People should really give them a chance; unfortunately many are mislead by the Emacs and Vim's docs, but when they were written touchpads didn't even exist.

Emacs's docs are updated constantly, up to this day. And in there are mentioned both "touchpad" (5 hits) and "mouse" (660 hits).

> Emacs's docs are updated constantly, up to this day. And in there are mentioned both "touchpad" (5 hits) and "mouse" (660 hits).

Have they updated just some simple references or the spirit of the docs?

Of course, but some things persist.

I actually realized that the current Emacs docs have less old cruft than they used to (e.g. about the meta/alt thing).

I should have said docs, guides and articles anyhow (which were not written before the invention of touchpads but usually carry on the keyboard-exclusively myths).

> I actually realized that the current Emacs docs have less old cruft than they used to (e.g. about the meta/alt thing).

Could you please expand on this?

but then you would be programming on a laptop keyboard, and why would you subject yourself to such a torture?

Well there are some external central touchpads and keyboards with an integrated central touchpad, and 17" laptops have normal-sized keyboards

Some laptops' keyboards are not bad at all, although it comes down to personal preferences