A few tips from an emacs hand who has had issues with repetitive
strain in the past:

The first thing I did after starting my first "real job" (years ago,
when my RSI was pretty bad and my employer-supplied keyboard was in
violation of the geneva conventions):

1. I got a kinesis contoured keyboard (like the "Kinesis Advantage"
I'm typing on now.) It places C- and M- (Alt key) under your thumbs.
(You could even assign them to foot pedals, though I never managed due
to lack of rhythm -- guess I should have taken drumming classes at
school.) The layout is completely programmable without additional
software. In short: it's the ultimate emacs keybaord.

2. More recently, I had a flare up (Apple's wireless mouse is the work
of the devil, for my hands at least.) It was then that I discovered
"Sticky Keys".

Sticky keys takes some getting used to. It makes every modifier key
work a little like caps lock. Sounds horrible, doesn't it? Well, it's
not really. Basically, if you press control once, it "locks" control
down for the next keystroke only, after which point the keyboard
returns to normal. Press control twice, and it locks down until you
release it with a third press.

C-x C-f

Used to be: press and hold control. Press and release x. press and
release f. Release control.
Now it's Press and release control twice. Press and release x. press
and release f. Press and release control.

This turns out to be easier on my hands because I don't find myself
contorting my hands across the keyboard while I try to hold down more
than one key at a time. I have sticky keys turned on on all my
computers, except for the one at work where I have the kinesis
keyboard.

 3. I've rebound caps lock to control on all my keyboards (apart from
the kinesis, where I have caps lock bound to the windows key.)

4. I have a "happy hacking" keyboard, which has control where caps
lock is on an AT keyboard (and no caps key). The happy hacking
keyboard has the drawback that it has no right control key. (Sticky
keys helps here too.)

// Ben


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