"harry" wrote in message
...
Left handers (I am one) have learned to manage in the mostly RH world.

Though they have a good moan about it. I was with someone the other day and
we were walking up to a front door to ring the bell. Now doorbells are
usually on the opposite side to hinges, and hinges can be on either side. I
tend to use whichever hand is closer to ring the bell, depending on which
side of the frame the bell is. This guy, who was left handed, had a good
moan because the doorbell was on the right-hand side and he'd have to use
his left hand across his body. WTF didn't he use his right hand: that's not
a precision action that requires the dominant hand.

Sometimes you adapt to suit the environment. I change gear with my left hand
because that's the side that the gear lever is in a RHD car. It may be
easier to use my right hand (in an LHD car, obviously!) but that doesn't
mean I complain. I've never driven a manual LHD car, so I don't know if it's
any easier for a rightie using their left hand than in an RHD car to use
their left. It wasn't exactly a problem using an automatic selector with my
right hand, though in an automatic you move that much less frequently: when
setting off, reversing, parking - and I also shift into neutral when I stop
in traffic so I can take my foot off the footbrake (*).

Writing is a problem for lefties - it's easier to smudge the ink. A shaped,
asymmetric mouse may feel uncomfortable in the left hand if it's been
designed for the right. When I was required to use a leftie's mouse, it was
easier to use my left hand than to re-route the cable so it was on my right,
though I did temporarily set it to left button = left-click - and write
myself a big note to remind me to set it back afterwards! It's interesting
which actions you instinctively expect to be mirror-imaged and which not: it
never occurs to me to left-click with my right (index) finger when mousing
with my left hand, but the first time I drove an LHD car I instinctively
expected the indicator and wiper stalks to be mirrored on an LHD car - weird
distinction in my brain ;-)


(*) My pet hate, which I would penalise with slow strangulation, is people
who sit in traffic with their brake lights glaring in your face (especially
at night when they are much brighter than the dark surroundings) because
they can't be bothered to apply the handbrake and go into neutral. Unless I
anticipate being stopped for less than five seconds, I apply the handbrake
and come off the footbrake, and shift into neutral.