Surviving Emacs
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Emacs makes extensive use of modifier keys such as Control, Escape and Alt. On some keyboards, extensive use of these keys can be tiresome and contribute to typing-related injuries such as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury). Brian Mastenbrook recently reported that he was experiencing wrist pain and asked what options other Lispers were using. In order to make it easier to use Emacs, some users resort to one or more of the following:
- Replacement keyboard: When Emacs was originally designed, many keyboards had the Control key placed in a more convenient position from where it is placed on most PC-style keyboards today. Some people prefer to buy a keyboard that has a key layout with the Control key placed in a more easily accessible position (see the Happy Hacker keyboard for one example of this). Some opt for a keyboard that has a radically different keyboard layout (see the Kinesis keyboards and the TouchStream keyboard - two keyboards that different Emacs users have recommended to me in the past)
- Swap the position of the Control key: By configuring the Caps Lock key as the Control key, you can overcome the awkward placement of the Control key on most modern keyboards. You can then conveniently use your left thumb for Meta/Alt and your left pinky for Control. There are different ways to do this on UNIX, Mac OS X, and Windows.
- Foot pedals: There are a number of different foot pedals that Emacs users sometimes use. These allow modifier keys (or other keys) to be assigned to a foot pedal press rather than a finger press, thus reducing the number of key presses that your fingers are required to perform.
- Redefining keys in Emacs: It is easy to redefine key sequences in Emacs to minimize the number of modifier keys used for frequent commands.
What do I use? Since I work on multiple different PC's (desktop and laptop), I didn't want to use a keyboard with a completely different layout like the Kinesis or the TouchStream keyboards since I would be continually re-adjusting to the keyboard when I used one of my other PC's (even if I shelled out for all my desk-based systems, I would still be using a laptop keyboard quite frequently when I'm on the bus or plane). Although foot pedals sounded attractive (and have been recommended to me by several long-time Emacs users as real efficiency boosts), I rejected them for the same reason. Instead, I opted for a more ergonomically-designed keyboard with a fairly conventional key layout for my main desktop system (a Microsoft Natural keyboard), swapped the Caps Lock key and the left Control key, and redefined keys in Emacs.
Incidentally, this posting was adapted from a section of my ILC2003 presentation "Using Emacs as a Lisp IDE" (the presentation is a bit out-of-date now as it was pre- SLIME).
