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I used to have RSI. Then I stopped using Emacs and it went away. It flared up one time when I had to do some data entry in Excel; but then I learned the hotkeys

I used to have RSI. Then I stopped using Emacs and it went away. It flared up one time when I had to do some data entry in Excel; but then I learned the hotkeys and it went away again. Just stop using emacs, people. It's literally damaging you! -vim user

microcolonel 8y ago
That's an interesting conclusion, I find I do a lot less chording than your average Emacs user. Maybe the problem is chording. I've not yet had any issues (though I am also a Dvorak user, and a buckling spring user). I think today's Emacs is set up in a way that could cause problems on keyboards where the left Ctrl is not on the corner.
- imgabe 8y ago
  I can't imagine using emacs and not swapping ctrl and caps lock. It's one of the first things I do on any computer I get.
cache_miss 8y ago
Similarly, I switched from vim to GUI editors for the same reason.
fovc 8y ago
Or give god-mode or evil a try. I use god-mode but found that capitalizing letters using the shift key was the biggest cause of pain for me. I retrained my left hand to use the ring finger for shift and added a post-command-hook to turn ",x" into "X", and the problem is largely gone. I also make a point to swap _ and - and also ; and : in certain modes (ahem Python) . My right pinky is still too active (RET and punctuation, but I rarely get any pain, even with a tiny laptop keyboard
vemv 8y ago
I use Emacs but also completely 'hijacked' the way it works with keyboard shortcuts, making it similar to a GUI editor and ignoring/disabling typically emacs-y chords. Good thing being that Emacs is powerful enough to completely change itself without much effort.
- DoingIsLearning 8y ago
  I am glad you shared that. I did exactly this but was always too afraid to admit it publicly, because of Emacs 'purism' users. I love Emacs exactly because of how highly customizable everything is (without other editors bloat) but equally because I can leverage the huge user-base to not spend an infinity amount of time on customizing. Although I appreciate other people's experience may be different with vi/vim/emacs, in my personal case I don't have to remote into other machines so I can get away with a custom init.el on my machine.
dmortin 8y ago
Use sticky keys and then the deault Emacs key combos are trivial to press conveniently without any straining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_keys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_keys
3pt14159 8y ago
I just made caps lock an additional control and made a couple shortcuts for my most frequently used keys. Though talking about how one uses emacs is hard, since no two emacs uses have the same workflow.

microcolonel 8y ago

That's an interesting conclusion, I find I do a lot less chording than your average Emacs user. Maybe the problem is chording. I've not yet had any issues (though I am also a Dvorak user, and a buckling spring user). I think today's Emacs is set up in a way that could cause problems on keyboards where the left Ctrl is not on the corner.

imgabe 8y ago
I can't imagine using emacs and not swapping ctrl and caps lock. It's one of the first things I do on any computer I get.

cache_miss 8y ago

Similarly, I switched from vim to GUI editors for the same reason.

fovc 8y ago

Or give god-mode or evil a try. I use god-mode but found that capitalizing letters using the shift key was the biggest cause of pain for me. I retrained my left hand to use the ring finger for shift and added a post-command-hook to turn ",x" into "X", and the problem is largely gone. I also make a point to swap _ and - and also ; and : in certain modes (ahem Python) . My right pinky is still too active (RET and punctuation, but I rarely get any pain, even with a tiny laptop keyboard

vemv 8y ago

I use Emacs but also completely 'hijacked' the way it works with keyboard shortcuts, making it similar to a GUI editor and ignoring/disabling typically emacs-y chords. Good thing being that Emacs is powerful enough to completely change itself without much effort.

DoingIsLearning 8y ago
I am glad you shared that. I did exactly this but was always too afraid to admit it publicly, because of Emacs 'purism' users. I love Emacs exactly because of how highly customizable everything is (without other editors bloat) but equally because I can leverage the huge user-base to not spend an infinity amount of time on customizing. Although I appreciate other people's experience may be different with vi/vim/emacs, in my personal case I don't have to remote into other machines so I can get away with a custom init.el on my machine.

dmortin 8y ago

Use sticky keys and then the deault Emacs key combos are trivial to press conveniently without any straining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_keys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_keys

3pt14159 8y ago

I just made caps lock an additional control and made a couple shortcuts for my most frequently used keys. Though talking about how one uses emacs is hard, since no two emacs uses have the same workflow.