Solutions for hand injury from computer use (was: I strongly dislike Python 3)

[Ben Finney]

geremy condra <debatem1 at gmail.com> writes:

> > Right. I'm much more concerned about the position of my Ctrl key, to
> > avoid hand injury from all the key chording done as a programmer.
>
> Not saying its a cure-all, but I broke my hand pretty badly a few years
> ago and had a lot of luck with a homemade foot switch for each of the
> meta keys. Was pretty fun to do (all things considered) and worked
> pretty well. I'm sure if you're willing to do some shopping around you
> could get a prefab one fairly cheaply.

My current solution is:

* Never use a notepad on the couch, but only ever at a properly adjusted
  table/desk and chair.

* Remap CapsLock as an additional Ctrl key, on every computer I use
  (nobody has ever minded this, because they don't use that key at all
  :-)

* Use my left hand for operating the mouse, since this brings it much
  closer to the home position on the keyboard, and a standard keyboard
  design forces the right hand to do disproportionately more work.

* Use a wrist support, consisting of two plastic discs that are
  separated and move freely against each other, that allows my whole arm
  to move for moving the mouse and hence avoid bending my wrist for that
  operation.

Quite cheap and simple, and I've thereby had no recurrence of injury for
the past 3 years.

-- 
 \      “The way to build large Python applications is to componentize |
  `\             and loosely-couple the hell out of everything.” —Aahz |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney