[Gllug] RSI: Was VACANCY: Site Reliability Engineering

[Stuart Children]

On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 11:17:57PM +0000, Nix wrote:
> On 11 Mar 2009, Stuart Children verbalised:
> 
> > I do use a tackball at home, and I asked our desktop people for one at work
> 
> A tackball? Isn't that somewhat painful? ;)

I take it you're not a fan then? :) I do find them less tiring - not having
to grip/"carry" them around. Apart from FPS games, I can input with them no 
problem.

> > This has made be think of other ways to reduce key strokes and use the mouse
> > less.
> 
> There are several window managers specializing in total keystrokedom
> which you might want to look at. I'm using awesome at the moment, which
> is both heavy on the keyboarding, and scriptable...

I hadn't come across that one, I'll take a look - thanks.

> > "sticky" modifier keys, ie: so you press Ctrl then X, rather than
> > having to hold Ctrl.
> 
> If that's useful ISTM that your typing style is flawed. You should never
> hit a modifier key on the same side of the keyboard as the key you're
> holding down, or with the same hand: this is why the modifier keys are
> duplicated on both sides of the keyboard.

Yes, you're right - that's certainly my bad typing. There's still an
advantage though, in simply not having to hold the modifier down, it's less
tiring. It's a useful crutch I guess - something that's quick to learn versus
correcting style - which is handy when you're trying to make several
corrections simultaneously and have to keep several eyes on yourself!

Disadvantages I've found: a mistake slows you down more; you still 
have to hold keys if you repeat a key eg: Ctrl+(left left left), which could
be confusing.

-- 
Stuart
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