3 ms·
Beware, fellow hackers. Many of us will suffer serious wrist problems. I did, after 15 years of hacking on various keyboards. What finally got me was 2 years of
by jwr 19y ago
Beware, fellow hackers. Many of us will suffer serious wrist problems. I did, after 15 years of hacking on various keyboards. What finally got me was 2 years of working on a tiny laptop keyboard (a Japanese 12" laptop).
Sit down in front of your keyboard, place your hands on it like you usually do when you type. Are your wrists bent? If they aren't perfectly straight, you're heading for trouble. How much trouble exactly depends on your genes, but trouble it is.
I found that once you are in pain you very quickly determine which keyboard is healthy. It's the one you can type on with the least amount of pain. My personal ranking:
1. Fingerworks TouchStream. Those aren't produced anymore, Apple bought Fingerworks and turned their technology into multi-touch screens. They sell for ungodly amounts on eBay, and for good reasons. Once you get used to the gestures, you never feel at home on any other keyboard.
2. Microsoft Natural and variants thereof. Any keyboard that is split in the middle is way healthier than any straight keyboard.
3. Any other keyboard that is wide enough so that you can keep your wrists relatively straight.
The keyboard on a MacBook Pro is what I'd consider the limit as to width -- go any narrower, and you're certain to hurt yourself.
Be careful, people. If only I could go back in time and tell myself to use healthy keyboards...
- baha_man 19y agoIn my personal experience, it's the mouse that does the most damage. If you use Emacs but switch Caps Lock and Ctrl, you'll be much better off than using a normal IDE and the mouse. If you must use the mouse, try using your non-dominant hand. To start with, it feels strange, but only for a few days.
- silencio 19y agoI tend to mouse with my left hand (I'm pretty ambidextrous but more right handed than left), but my problem is that nobody makes mice for left handed mousers. Every single one of my logitech mice, especially the one I love (mx revolution)? For right handed people. Logitech makes like all of one lefty mouse (not counting the equally lame ambidextrous mice), and it's an old model I'm not interested in. All the other manufacturers are the same. The only exceptions are touchpads (obviously), which I switch hands for, and Razer gaming mice which are nice but not as nice as using an mx revolution for everyday mousing needs.
- holygoat 19y agoI put a large trackball in the middle of my keyboard, or on the left side. Works great.
- silencio 19y agoI've had a couple trackballs throughout the years and they just give me finger strain to control accurately (thanks, tremors). What I would dig a lot is some sort of multitouch touchpad like the one on my laptop, except bigger. I have a 6x11 Wacom tablet that's great but it's not the same. Of course, I would love a multitouch display, but those are far off into the future.