I tried almost everything listed on that page. Far and away, the most effective thing was to just buy a keyboard that puts CTRL and ALT under my thumb instead. The Kinesis Advantage is the most popular and I love mine:<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LVJ9W8/linkCode=as2&tag=adereth-20" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LVJ9W8/linkCode=as2&tag...</a><p>(affiliate link)<p>I was in a training class yesterday and had to use my laptop keyboard for the whole day. Halfway through, my left hand was cramping arthritically and it renewed my faith that this was an important purchase.
Re-mapping caps lock is a very good idea.<p>I'm a Vim user and I have caps lock mapped to esc. That works surprisingly well even in other applications than vim.<p>Emacs guys might want to map it to ctrl.<p><a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RemapCapsLock" rel="nofollow">http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RemapCapsLock</a>
Ergonomic keyboards are great, but a bit overkill for the Emacs pinky problem. As the article points out somewhere at the bottom, the simplest thing is to deactivate Caps Lock (most annoying and useless key ever) and use it as the Ctrl key. Worked perfect for me, is easy to do in Windows and Linux alike, and pays off most on the already not-so-ergonomic laptop keyboards.
Using the palm to press the modifier keys is extremely poor advice. Move your whole arm/had and use the index finger instead. Never the pinky.<p>Follow the pattern of moving the arms in general. Avoid contorting the wrists.<p>Ergonomic keyboards and trackballs haven't worked for me. I've been using the Apple Wireless Keyboard + Magic Trackpad instead for a year, all issues (which were pretty severe) disappeared. Just watch out for the angle in which you use them - it must be neutral relative to your wrists (but your arms can be in angle - the <i>absolute</i> angle doesn't matter a lot).<p>The Colemak layout helps, but I've been using plain old Qwerty lately, out of pure laziness and I've found no difference other than effectiveness.<p>I occasionally use a split software keyboard layout. It relieves the right hand from contortion issues (put your both hands in the home row, then compare their angles...).<p>There are hardware split keyboards, but they're so poorly implemented.
For programming keyboard joy, you need a RFK. Here's a great vendor:<p><a href="http://pckeyboard.com/page/category/UKBD" rel="nofollow">http://pckeyboard.com/page/category/UKBD</a><p>They make an IBM "M"-style keyboard that seems half metal (the entire bottom chassis is metal) and has buckling spring action. It looks just like an IBM model, down to the oval on the upper left housing, but without the IBM branding. The model I have was made with Linux in mind, with the CTRL and Caps Lock keys swapped so that CTRL is on the home row. Unicomp also has a keyboard configuration tool so you can create a custom key setup they will ship on request.
I remapped caps-lock to Ctrl years ago and never looked back. On a lot of keyboards that key is larger than Ctrl and my pinky is practically resting on that key all the time.<p>I also remapped "M-x" (execute-extended-command) in emacs to "C-x m". It's way easier to invoke that 3 key shortcut because my fingers are again resting very close by.<p>edit: typo
Seeing the pictures reminds me again how absolutely awful most keywords are from an ergonomic point of view (especially laptop keyboards). I'm using a MacBook Pro, but with an external monitor and a Goldtouch split keyboard, and I'm quite happy with that set-up.<p>As for RSI-like problems, I found that a using a break program to prompt me to let go of the keyboard every so often made a really big difference for me. More on the RSI problems I had (and overcame): <a href="http://henrikwarne.com/2012/02/18/how-i-beat-rsi/" rel="nofollow">http://henrikwarne.com/2012/02/18/how-i-beat-rsi/</a>
As vim user, I found that the best keyboard for vim is Microsoft Arc keyboard in UK layout:
- It has terrible arrow keys, which basically forces you to use hjkl.
- It is small enough to be able to reach all keys w/o moving my palms.
- in UK layout '\' key is under my left pinkie, so I don't have to remap leader to anything else. '@' for macros is in a good place too.
- Esc key is big and positioned separately, easy to use.
Been using Colemak for about 5 months now, already reaching my old typing speed of 90 WPM with QWERTY, we'll see how it goes in the next 5 months.<p>It takes a lot of effort and discipline to switch, if you do it I would advice you to make the switch while you're on vacations or something... work makes the switch even harder, because typing at 15 WPM at the beginning is just crazy slow, and you need to get things done.
<a href="https://github.com/chrisdone/god-mode" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/chrisdone/god-mode</a><p>This global minor mode introduces vim-like command mode without really changing emacs keybindings or conflicting with existing programs too badly (like I've seen emacs vi-modes kinda often do).
I'm not an emacs user, but there are a lot of great tips on this site. The one about using one's palm to hit ctrl has been life-changing for me (works great on the wired Apple keyboard)!
When I bought my Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 I've discovered I could switch the left control and caps lock key. I've tried and never went back. This is way more comfortable.