FRB Remote lets you control FRB Launch without moving the mouse pointer

The FRB Remote grew out of a series of small, incremental improvements rather than a single plan. Earlier work focused on making the mouse wheel pleasant for moving through the screen and on having the pointer jump automatically to the selected item. That led the developer to question whether the pointer needs to move at all, since the wheel already identifies the row and the launcher already knows which row is selected. The remote was the answer: a compact set of buttons arranged so the pointer barely has to travel.

The idea of showing the context menu beside the remote emerged from a conversation with ChatGPT, which suggested placing it next to the wheel button rather than at the file or folder itself. The developer found this genuinely surprising and implemented it. The result separates the location of the object being operated from the location where the operation happens, a separation the developer says changed how they look at on-screen controls, while acknowledging that keyboard focus and menu shortcuts have long existed and that this is not a new invention.

Looking ahead, the developer has floated the notion of a general-purpose control interface that could operate JSON Studio and other apps, but stresses it is only a concept, since each app recognizes its targets differently and some operations may not fit. The prototype still has rough edges, such as confirmation dialogs appearing in the center of the screen and forcing the pointer to move after all. The developer frames the whole exercise as an example of "thought expansion" — building small things continuously in order to encounter new ideas, rather than waiting for an idea before building.