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The best modification that you can do to your keyboard layout is to adapt the MIT Lisp Machine keyboard layout. The changes are small but very significant, work

The best modification that you can do to your keyboard layout is to adapt the MIT Lisp Machine keyboard layout. The changes are small but very significant, work with either QWERTY or Dvorak, and you can do them on any PC or laptop keyboard[1]: 1. Change the layout of modifier keys from Control-Windows-Alt-Spacebar-Alt-Menu-Control to Windows-Alt-Control-Spacebar-Control-Alt-Windows (bind the outermost modifier keys to Super and Hyper if you use Emacs). This will let you do keyboard chording easily with either hand and eliminate "Emacs pinky": https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/495/what-do-the-keys-on-this-symbolics-space-cadet-keyboard-do https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/495/what-... 2. Change Caps Lock to Backspace (RUB OUT on Lisp Machine keyboards) 3. Swap parentheses () for square brackets [] [1] Not on OS X though. Apple does not provide a way to do these remappings on OS X, and breaks the keyboard internals and consequently third party tools like PCKeyboardHack/Karabiner with every OS X release. I tried early this year with Sierra and Karabiner-Elements and this did not work. Install Linux or OpenBSD.

wry_discontent 9y ago
Can't you rebind them through the regular keyboard preferences? Even without, _just_ binding them that way in Emacs is a huge improvement for chords. Also, as much as I love Linux, it's not really feasible for anyone doing professional development to just up and bail on an operating system. There's IT infrastructure built around using OSX at some jobs.
- sedachv 9y ago
  > Can't you rebind them through the regular keyboard preferences? Not for Caps Lock. I think it only lets you set it to Control. > There's IT infrastructure built around using OSX at some jobs. That is a really terrible idea, unless the only thing you do is develop OS X and iOS native applications. Do they really run OS X on their servers? Or is it develop-on-Mac-deploy-on-Linux? It isn't just OS X keyboard internals that are flaky and change with every release. The only reliable development environments I have seen on OS X were in fact done by "bailing on an operating system" by using virtualization.
  - V99 9y ago
    > Not for Caps Lock. I think it only lets you set it to Control. At least in Sierra, all 4 modifiers can be mapped to any of each other or to escape. The fn key cannot be remapped with the built in preferences.
    - kalleboo 9y ago
      > The fn key cannot be remapped with the built in preferences It looks like you will be able to starting in High Sierra
jackcouch1 9y ago
That wouldn't solve the problems I was after. But you can now do that using Karabiner Elements on Sierra with the latest build.
stephengillie 9y ago
The best improvement you can make to your mouse is adapting a 12-key thumb layout: F5 | Up | F2 Left | Down | Right Tab | Delete| Backspace Enter | Space | ESC How many times an hour do you have to reach over to the keyboard, press an arrow or Enter, then have to reach over and find your mouse again? All those seconds add up! Do your eyes leave the screen to find your mouse? This configuration lets you maintain your state of flow, because your hand almost never leaves your mouse, except for actual typing. You'd be surpised how many tasks can be performed with just the mouse (and the left hand for CTRL+C,CTRL+V). This is the most efficient layout I've found. I've used this for about 5 years now, for massive performance gains in many administration and development roles.
- pmoleri 9y ago
  Tab, Esc, Space and F2 are all already reached easily with your left hand. Why do you like having them repeated elsewhere?
  - stephengillie 9y ago
    To allow better left-hand-only operation, and to avoid having to move the left hand from the "gamer claw" up to ESC and back. This is part of a larger initiative of mine - to use gaming technologies to improve business performance. In menus, the lower right button becomes a "nope" button. But you're right about F2, and I honestly never use it. But I haven't thought of another button to replace it with - maybe Ctrl-V, and F5 with Ctrl-C? Hmm...I'll have to test this out!
- sedachv 9y ago
  Mouse chording is extremely efficient and I highly recommend it if you use a mouse. I was a big fan of combining mouse chording with structure-aware editing: https://github.com/vsedach/mouse-copy https://github.com/vsedach/mouse-copy Unfortunately this does not carry over to laptops with pointing sticks or touchpads, which is largely why I switched to a tiling UI with almost exclusive keyboard navigation. After I discontinued mouse use I stopped having wrist pain in my mouse hand, and after I started using the Lisp Machine keyboard layout I stopped having Emacs pinky, so now I no longer have any RSI symptoms from computer use. Another important consideration.

wry_discontent 9y ago

Can't you rebind them through the regular keyboard preferences? Even without, _just_ binding them that way in Emacs is a huge improvement for chords. Also, as much as I love Linux, it's not really feasible for anyone doing professional development to just up and bail on an operating system. There's IT infrastructure built around using OSX at some jobs.

sedachv 9y ago
> Can't you rebind them through the regular keyboard preferences? Not for Caps Lock. I think it only lets you set it to Control. > There's IT infrastructure built around using OSX at some jobs. That is a really terrible idea, unless the only thing you do is develop OS X and iOS native applications. Do they really run OS X on their servers? Or is it develop-on-Mac-deploy-on-Linux? It isn't just OS X keyboard internals that are flaky and change with every release. The only reliable development environments I have seen on OS X were in fact done by "bailing on an operating system" by using virtualization.
- V99 9y ago
  > Not for Caps Lock. I think it only lets you set it to Control. At least in Sierra, all 4 modifiers can be mapped to any of each other or to escape. The fn key cannot be remapped with the built in preferences.
  - kalleboo 9y ago
    > The fn key cannot be remapped with the built in preferences It looks like you will be able to starting in High Sierra

jackcouch1 9y ago

That wouldn't solve the problems I was after. But you can now do that using Karabiner Elements on Sierra with the latest build.

stephengillie 9y ago

The best improvement you can make to your mouse is adapting a 12-key thumb layout: F5 | Up | F2 Left | Down | Right Tab | Delete| Backspace Enter | Space | ESC How many times an hour do you have to reach over to the keyboard, press an arrow or Enter, then have to reach over and find your mouse again? All those seconds add up! Do your eyes leave the screen to find your mouse? This configuration lets you maintain your state of flow, because your hand almost never leaves your mouse, except for actual typing. You'd be surpised how many tasks can be performed with just the mouse (and the left hand for CTRL+C,CTRL+V). This is the most efficient layout I've found. I've used this for about 5 years now, for massive performance gains in many administration and development roles.

pmoleri 9y ago
Tab, Esc, Space and F2 are all already reached easily with your left hand. Why do you like having them repeated elsewhere?
- stephengillie 9y ago
  To allow better left-hand-only operation, and to avoid having to move the left hand from the "gamer claw" up to ESC and back. This is part of a larger initiative of mine - to use gaming technologies to improve business performance. In menus, the lower right button becomes a "nope" button. But you're right about F2, and I honestly never use it. But I haven't thought of another button to replace it with - maybe Ctrl-V, and F5 with Ctrl-C? Hmm...I'll have to test this out!
sedachv 9y ago
Mouse chording is extremely efficient and I highly recommend it if you use a mouse. I was a big fan of combining mouse chording with structure-aware editing: https://github.com/vsedach/mouse-copy https://github.com/vsedach/mouse-copy Unfortunately this does not carry over to laptops with pointing sticks or touchpads, which is largely why I switched to a tiling UI with almost exclusive keyboard navigation. After I discontinued mouse use I stopped having wrist pain in my mouse hand, and after I started using the Lisp Machine keyboard layout I stopped having Emacs pinky, so now I no longer have any RSI symptoms from computer use. Another important consideration.