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> Because navigating text with emacs gives me the emacs pinky, I had RSI issues early in my career (not Emacs related), and learned some tricks that come handy

> Because navigating text with emacs gives me the emacs pinky, I had RSI issues early in my career (not Emacs related), and learned some tricks that come handy with Emacs. Your keyboard has two control keys. Use both of them. In particular, use the "opposite" one. If you want to press C-c, use the right Control key with your right hand. If you want to press C-l, use the left control key with your left hand. This way you're distributing the work with both hands and are not twisting your hands into weird shapes trying to get both buttons with one hand. And also: Once you do this, no reason to insist on using your pinky to hit Control. I often use my thumb as well. I never got the Emacs pinky.

tom_ 5y ago
I curl my little finger and press Ctrl with the first knuckle. No hand movement required in my case. (There’s a picture of my hand doing this on Xah’s site somewhere, to which he’s added a warning about potential long term effects; but I’ve been doing this for over ten years now, with no ill effects noted.)
gjvc 5y ago
map capslock to be a control key.
- BeetleB 5y ago
  Although it's the canonical solution, that would be a degradation for me. It's more ergonomic to use two hands to enter any modifier sequence. Mapping Capslock to Control doesn't provide extra benefits to my solution. The other problem people have with the pinky is that they're twisting their wrist while typing, which is also against more ergonomic guidelines. The recommendation is to move the whole arm. Once you get used to that, there's no good reason to use the pinky to hit Ctrl (even when rebound to Caps lock). I would guess over half the times, I'm using some finger other than the pinky to hit Ctrl.
  - gjvc 5y ago
    ...or perhaps get a smaller keyboard. I have the Lenovo KU-1255 which is just the right size for me. as always, YMMV.
  - newtwilly 5y ago
    No it's not a degradation. It puts Ctrl in a sane place much easier to reach with your pinky. And if you really were going to use your thumb on the left control, then it's about the same distance to the Caps Lock key. I'm replying to the original asker with my advice, if you want to read more about what I think :)
    - BeetleB 5y ago
      > It puts Ctrl in a sane place much easier to reach with your pinky. That it does, but there's no good reason I should use my pinky to hit Ctrl to begin with.
      - gjvc 5y ago
        Your reasoning is most bizarre. By that rationale, there's no good reason I should use my (left) forefinger to press "g" to begin with. (qwerty layout assumed...)
- p_l 5y ago
  The emacs keybindings evolved on keyboard with two control keys on both sides, later augmented to have replicated (starting from space bar) control meta super Hyper keys. A PC104 keyboard's main sin for emacs akt where control should be - but not requiring pinky for bucky bits
coderdd 5y ago
> If you want to press C-c, use the right Control key with your right hand First thought: but C is on the right. Second thought: ah, I use Dvorak

tom_ 5y ago

I curl my little finger and press Ctrl with the first knuckle. No hand movement required in my case. (There’s a picture of my hand doing this on Xah’s site somewhere, to which he’s added a warning about potential long term effects; but I’ve been doing this for over ten years now, with no ill effects noted.)

gjvc 5y ago

map capslock to be a control key.

BeetleB 5y ago
Although it's the canonical solution, that would be a degradation for me. It's more ergonomic to use two hands to enter any modifier sequence. Mapping Capslock to Control doesn't provide extra benefits to my solution. The other problem people have with the pinky is that they're twisting their wrist while typing, which is also against more ergonomic guidelines. The recommendation is to move the whole arm. Once you get used to that, there's no good reason to use the pinky to hit Ctrl (even when rebound to Caps lock). I would guess over half the times, I'm using some finger other than the pinky to hit Ctrl.
- gjvc 5y ago
  ...or perhaps get a smaller keyboard. I have the Lenovo KU-1255 which is just the right size for me. as always, YMMV.
- newtwilly 5y ago
  No it's not a degradation. It puts Ctrl in a sane place much easier to reach with your pinky. And if you really were going to use your thumb on the left control, then it's about the same distance to the Caps Lock key. I'm replying to the original asker with my advice, if you want to read more about what I think :)
  - BeetleB 5y ago
    > It puts Ctrl in a sane place much easier to reach with your pinky. That it does, but there's no good reason I should use my pinky to hit Ctrl to begin with.
    - gjvc 5y ago
      Your reasoning is most bizarre. By that rationale, there's no good reason I should use my (left) forefinger to press "g" to begin with. (qwerty layout assumed...)
p_l 5y ago
The emacs keybindings evolved on keyboard with two control keys on both sides, later augmented to have replicated (starting from space bar) control meta super Hyper keys. A PC104 keyboard's main sin for emacs akt where control should be - but not requiring pinky for bucky bits

coderdd 5y ago

> If you want to press C-c, use the right Control key with your right hand First thought: but C is on the right. Second thought: ah, I use Dvorak