Re: line-move-visual

[Uday S Reddy]

On 6/16/2010 8:55 PM, Evans Winner wrote:
> ,------ Stefan Monnier wrote ------

> |   Another way to look at it: if you have hand-health
> |   problems, first try to unlearn to touch-type.
>
> I would be very interested if you were willing to expand on
> this.  Do you mean to say that touch typing is unhealthy in
> general, or just more pragmatically that if it hurts when
> you do X, then don't do X?

As somebody that does touch typing and have had heavy RSI problems, I can throw 
some light on this.

Touch typing is perfectly fine normal text, but it wasn't designed for Emacs. 
The heavy use of the little finger for Control and Meta keys puts undue load on 
it.  Keyboards that had single Control or Meta keys worsened the problem by 
making the hands stretch over long distances.

As part of my recovery from RSI, I had to retrain myself to avoid the use of 
Control/Meta keys for long periods (for instance by using the arrow keys or the 
mouse), and also to get away from the "home position" when needed so that I can 
use other fingers for Control/Meta keys.

I am now perfectly fine for typing normal text, but I get sore tendons when I 
have to do TeX/LaTeX.  They make a heavy use of '\' which is placed on lousy 
positions on most keyboards.

Cheers,
Uday