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Forty years of programming

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Re: Forty years of programming

#131

Post by pjc50 »

spit2wind wrote: post #106

Stenography is the most ergonomic method of computer input I am aware of. Stenography is a mapping of some combination of keys to some output. A particular mapping is called a "theory". One such mapping is phonetics, or the sounds of words. Let one key represent the "Kuh" sound, another "ah", and a third "tuh". Press them all down and when released, you get "cat". "Al" "Guh" "Or" "If" "Um" "Algorithm". 5 strokes inst…

Do you find that you have a particularly document-heavy workflow? Because I find I spend far more time navigating code than writing new code, and I try to let Intellisense do most of the letters. I've never felt that a higher WPM would help me in programming.

(Early on in my career someone I worked with had one of those "spend a whole week testing things and then emit a one character change" times, and that left an impression on me)

Then there's the APL programmers, who are all like "what do you mean 'a word'"?

Re: Forty years of programming

#132

Post by wyclif »

ozim wrote: post #111
CapsAdmin wrote: post #101

I'm only 33 but never had any issues with joint pains or anything like that whereas my peers, some younger and some older struggle with this and use various methods like ergonomic keyboards, massage sessions, stretching, etc to help ease the pain. I've used a traditional mouse and keyboard since I was around 7 and can easily spend a whole day in front of my computer. Lately I've been wondering if it's simply just my…

I am 36 and I subscribe to notion that no desk or ergonomic chair will help. Only thing that helps is excercise. I go to the gym at least 2x a week. When gyms were closed during lockdowns I did not excercise or had much of movement anyway. Then I got my back hurting and other stuff. Now I am back at the gym and all issues went away. Also I don’t lift super heavy but moderately like I don’t bench press 100kg so I fini…

Exercise helps a lot. Sitting at a desk long-term will destroy your body after decades. Taking breaks and moving your body is important. Things like walking meetings and doing squats and bodyweight exercises are a good investment in your physiology and health.

Re: Forty years of programming

#133

Post by luismedel »

angarg12 wrote: post #3

Am I the only one who finds these "I've been programming since 6" posts silly? I mean, I used to mess up with computers since I was a child, but I wouldn't call that "programming". In fact if I'm completely honest, it wasn't until 5 years ago when I truly started to learn and grow as an engineer, more than the rest of my career combined. Rather than focused on quantity let's focus on quality. 1 good year of experienc…

I'm sure there's a lot of ways to enjoy programming other than "grow as an engineer".

I'm 42 and started programming in BASIC at 9 thanks to a ZX Spectrum my father bring home one day. During a lot of years my programs were all absolute crap by any standards, but I really enjoyed programming little shenaningans and crappy games. I didn't grew up by any engineering measure, but enjoyed the ride a lot.

That's programming too, if you ask me.

Re: Forty years of programming

#134

Post by faeriechangling »

ozim wrote: post #111
CapsAdmin wrote: post #101

I'm only 33 but never had any issues with joint pains or anything like that whereas my peers, some younger and some older struggle with this and use various methods like ergonomic keyboards, massage sessions, stretching, etc to help ease the pain. I've used a traditional mouse and keyboard since I was around 7 and can easily spend a whole day in front of my computer. Lately I've been wondering if it's simply just my…

I am 36 and I subscribe to notion that no desk or ergonomic chair will help. Only thing that helps is excercise. I go to the gym at least 2x a week. When gyms were closed during lockdowns I did not excercise or had much of movement anyway. Then I got my back hurting and other stuff. Now I am back at the gym and all issues went away. Also I don’t lift super heavy but moderately like I don’t bench press 100kg so I fini…

I benefited greatly from an ergonomic chair. The biggest benefit to it is the max height was maybe 3 inches higher than my prior chair, which was enough to change my forearm from being angled upwards to being angled downwards.

Ergonomics are a reasonably complex topic that’s its own speciality and there’s not much in the way of one size fits all solutions.

Re: Forty years of programming

#135

Post by sanitycheck »

I'm not a rockstar, but I've been sitting in front of a computer for most of most days for the past 20-something years.

What I'd recommend is varying everything as much as possible, I found always being in the same position and using the exact same movements day in day out is what seemed to cause problems.

I've got a mouse, a trackball and a trackpad all connected. Trackpad is on the left, others on the right. Trackball is a Kensington Orbit (fingers, not thumb, on ball). When adding a new input method take away the old ones for a week or so in order to create new instincts, or you'll just always reach for the mouse.

Keyboard is just a standard mechanical TKL (the trackball goes where the numpad would) - in my experience programming involves a lot more thinking than typing, and I avoid editors/IDEs which encourage constant hand-contortions to use hotkeys. For me, at least, optimising for keyboard efficiency would be a waste of time.

My 43" 4K monitor set at 100% scaling is perfect. I can see a lot of code side by side. A second 28" monitor in portrait mode usually contains slack, a tiling terminal and the UI (browser/emulator) of whatever I'm working on. On a laptop I'll use multiple workspaces and get by OK, but more pixels are better.

I gave up on ordinary office chairs, I've always had a slightly dodgy back ever since I was a teenager and it got fairly bad a few years ago. I switched to an ergonomic "wobbly stool" and that's worked well - I'm forced to move around because it's never totally stable. Sometimes I stand, but if I'm trying to focus I do still need to "sit and think".

Re: Forty years of programming

#136

Post by cube2222 »

I recommend checking out Talon Voice[0] if you’re experiencing any wrist (or similar pain).

It’s a very intuitive and customizable voice coding tool, and even if you don’t need it at all times, you can use it to lower the strain on your hands. It’s surprisingly productive, too.

[0]: https://talonvoice.com/

Re: Forty years of programming

#137

Post by cassepipe »

niederman wrote: post #94
cassepipe wrote: post #52

Dear Vim beginner, before getting a fancy keyboard, do remap Esc to some other key. It makes no sense to have your most important key where it is nowadays. The reason the back to normal mode key is ESC is because that key used to be much closer from the home row. My personal preference is to use Caps Lock because each OS has an easy solution for this simple remap and since it's system wide you can use vim modes elsew…

Honestly even if you don't use Vim it's worth doing. I'm a big fan of interception-tools' caps2esc on Linux.

The reason why I recommended this simple remapping is because there's no need for any tool. In each OS there's a simple, GUI accessible even, option for that remapping.

Combining Ctrl + Esc is even better no doubt but it takes a bit more work

The jk solution is great but it won't be available in other vim modes elsewhere

Re: Forty years of programming

#138

Post by cassepipe »

jfdi wrote: post #70
cassepipe wrote: post #52

Dear Vim beginner, before getting a fancy keyboard, do remap Esc to some other key. It makes no sense to have your most important key where it is nowadays. The reason the back to normal mode key is ESC is because that key used to be much closer from the home row. My personal preference is to use Caps Lock because each OS has an easy solution for this simple remap and since it's system wide you can use vim modes elsew…

inoremap kj :)

It's a great idea but it's not portable in other simple vim modes that generally lack the possibility of such a configuration, and if they do provide it, now you have another configuration to take care of.

Why I like my solution : It takes three seconds to activate in any OS and it's available system-wide

Re: Forty years of programming

#139

Post by cassepipe »

hcs wrote: post #71
cassepipe wrote: post #52

Dear Vim beginner, before getting a fancy keyboard, do remap Esc to some other key. It makes no sense to have your most important key where it is nowadays. The reason the back to normal mode key is ESC is because that key used to be much closer from the home row. My personal preference is to use Caps Lock because each OS has an easy solution for this simple remap and since it's system wide you can use vim modes elsew…

After using a keyboard with Esc even further away than usual, I've found myself using Ctrl-[ more often. I should look into remapping capslock.

Please do that, it's a simple option in the settings of any OS.

Why use such a convenient tool as vim if you have to make a weird combination for the single most important key in your editor ?

I know one gets used to anything but still.

(I personally believe it doesn't make you that faster but it does take away the dullness/repetitiveness out of editing)

Re: Forty years of programming

#140

Post by cassepipe »

hollerith wrote: post #77
cassepipe wrote: post #52

Dear Vim beginner, before getting a fancy keyboard, do remap Esc to some other key. It makes no sense to have your most important key where it is nowadays. The reason the back to normal mode key is ESC is because that key used to be much closer from the home row. My personal preference is to use Caps Lock because each OS has an easy solution for this simple remap and since it's system wide you can use vim modes elsew…

Huh. I find ESC easier to type than Caps Lock because it is in the corner of the keyboard. I used to have RSI and what solved it (over 15 years ago) was taking more care to hit the precise center of the key. Using my sense of touch to sense the key's exact location before even trying to activate the key helps me do that. When the key is on left edge of the keyboard, it is easier to do the determination of the exact l…

Vim stockholm syndrome ?

I don't know about RSI yet but I do know one thing : Vim workflow is to make a quick edit and then go back to normal mode as quickly as you can. This prevent accidental inserts and you are always back at the command center for your next edit. The same way some people understood most of the time is spent reading code rather than writing, vim's insight is that more time is spent doing edits than actually inserting text. So maybe strecthing your pinkie to the far (but admittedly easily locatable) corner of your keyboard is good RSI exercise I don't know but the Caps lock is just as easy for your finger to locate and don't require strechting. It's just better.

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