Though you wouldn’t know it from the blog, I’ve been typing a lot lately. I generally type longer texts on a flavor of emacs (usually, it’s been the excellent Aquamacs on my macbook pro). Now, though, I find that my wrists are hurting, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. So, I’m switching all of my primary editing over to vim.
Thankfully, I’ve been on the fence regarding editors ever since I first found Unix. I learned both vi and emacs early on, and have made sure to use both of them consistently to keep my skillz up. I’ve mostly used vim for short editing tasks, but I’m going to try to use it for nearly everything, and see if my wrists like that any better.
I imagine lots of long-time Emacs users would revise their opinion of the editor, if their wrists didn’t hurt so much from all that chording! :-) [edit: another one: why are emacs supporters so vocal about it? Because they can't bear to type anymore.]
This isn’t the first time I’ve made big changes to my workflow for ergonomic reasons… in 2001 or so, I re-taught myself how to type on the Dvorak layout keyboard. I had always heard that people can type faster on it, but my motivation was wrist and finger strain. Early on I thought I’d treat this skill like I did my emacs/vi split, and keep alternating so that I’d never forget how to type on a QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately, there’s so much cognitive dissonance involved in doing so, that I just decided to go completely Dvorak. Now, when faced with a “normal” keyboard, I sheepishly hunt-and-peck. :-)
What about using dragon naturally speaking speech to text? I haven’t used it though, but heard good reviews.
I think where the strain comes in is in all the editing and re-editing. I haven’t used dragon in about 10 years, so I’m sure it’s changed (!), but I don’t remember it being that great for editing. Better for getting the initial thoughts down, and I have considered going back to that method for the first drafts of things.
Hi Richard, I hope your wrists feel better. Have you ever tried a split keyboard? I’ve never used one but I have a friend that says his has reduced his rsi pain.
One thing I have tried for pain relief that is great for that sort of joint and tendon pain is a TDP mineral infrared lamp. Its quite remarkable how fast it soothes pain and swelling. They sell the desklamp version on ebay for $70 or so. I have the big standing version, which is a bit awkward to roll around. If I were to get it again I’d get a smaller desktop size I could sit on my desk more easily.
I also use a hyaluronic acid supplement which seems to help.