Can the hand (or item) appear on the left, or not at all?

[Worldblender]

While I'm right-handed myself, I have been wondering about this somewhat for about 4 years. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness:

Right-handedness is the most common type. Right-handed people are more skillful with their right hands when performing tasks. Studies suggest 70–95% of the world's population is right-handed.
Left-handedness is far less common than right-handedness. Left-handed people are more skillful with their left hands when performing tasks. Studies suggest that approximately 10% of the world population is left-handed.

What I'm talking about is - this is controlled by the operating system that Minetest runs on - is if the mouse buttons are configured for left-handed people (the left and right mouse buttons are inverted, not about the built-in setting that just inverts the mouse buttons), of which they are far less common than right-handed people.
There might be a minor bias that could be hard-coded into the engine: the hand is apparently always on the right side of the screen. It does not accommodate for external mouse settings so that the hand can be placed on the left side of the screen. I guess this reflects the quote above very well.
While I have the ability to alter the engine source code so that it can accommodate left-handed people, I've only thought of this again today as I had less coding experience years before. At least I want to make my thoughts on supporting left-handed people public, and hear what others have to say about this.

[GreenDimond]

You make it sound like the developers have a bias against left-handed people, which is silly; the features simply haven't been implemented. Minecraft didn't see left hand usage until 1.9. There is already a PR open to allow the mouse buttons to be remappable. Allowing different placement of the wield item is likely not a trivial task.

[Worldblender]

You make it sound like the developers have a bias against left-handed people, which is silly; the features simply haven't been implemented. Minecraft didn't see left hand usage until 1.9. There is already a PR open to allow the mouse buttons to be remappable. Allowing different placement of the wield item is likely not a trivial task.

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend other people. I should've really said that fully accommodating leff-handed people simply hasn't been implemented.

[TumeniNodes]

Luckily, most left handed people have been able to easily adapt to such things and overcome any issues involved.
I am left handed, and have never had a problem using the right hand set up with Minetest, while operating the mouse with my left hand.
If I were able to switch the wield hand to the left now, it would likely take some time to get used to it and, I would most likely end up switching it back to the right anyway.

[sofar]

You would also have to modify the player model and add new animations to properly make left-handed players appear in the game. Otherwise a left-handed player appears right-handed to other players.

So, this is just really complex. It would be great if someone had the time and energy to implement all of this, BTW.

[Festus1965]

You would also have to modify the player model and add new animations to properly make left-handed players appear in the game. Otherwise a left-handed player appears right-handed to other players. ...

Most the left hand is occupied with shield ...
* mean shield in armor, left hand should be blocked

Yes, I know that especial woman want to have 4 hands, to carry more handbags, and show more ring, and can use 2 mobilephone same time, even driving the var ...

[sofar]

Yes, I know that especial woman want to have 4 hands, to carry more handbags, and show more ring, and can use 2 mobilephone same time, even driving the var ...

how do you go from a technical issue to derogatory comments about women? Please, don't do this...

[Festus1965]

nice, try to see it positive: that was right then

Most the left hand is occupied with shield ...
* mean shield in armor, left hand should be blocked

[paramat]

See what TumeniNodes wrote, this really isn't a problem.

I'm right handed and use the mouse with my right hand when playing MT. If the wieldhand had always been on the left it wouldn't have bothered me at all, i would have got used to it.
For simplicity the hand was put on the right, according to the majority handedness.

'Simpliciy' is the important point here. If we were paid developers maybe we could add a left wieldhand feature. But we are unpaid, there are roughly only 5 active core devs, all except one of these core devs have very limited time for MT, just a few hours per week.
So MT cannot have all the features non-free games have, it has to be simpler and we have to prioritise.
This is not directed at Worldblender, but, i have noticed many people seem to forget this.

Adding a left wieldhand is very probably not high enough priority to be worth doing, it's a non-problem and the effort is far better spent elsewhere.