Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

senryu.pub

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 112 posts

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#41

Post by Diederich »

esja wrote: post #19

I've been typing for 36 years now (since I was a child), and have never had RSI once, or anything close to it. I think it's because I never learned to touch-type "properly". I use most of my fingers, and I type very fast, but I'm not hitting the "correct" keys with the "correct" fingers - I'm just following whatever comfortable patterns I've burned into muscle memory over all these years. If someone asked me to descr…

I've been typing on a daily basis for the past 41 years. I took a typing class 36 years ago, and have continued to type probably 90-95% 'properly' ever since. This class paid off by the way, and my accurate typing speed peaked at around 140 words per minute.

Like you, I've been blessed with never having any hint of RSI.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but I think the whole 'RSI landscape' is, as with most things, very complex, including a lot of poorly understood or currently unknown factors.

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#42

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

esja wrote: post #19

I've been typing for 36 years now (since I was a child), and have never had RSI once, or anything close to it. I think it's because I never learned to touch-type "properly". I use most of my fingers, and I type very fast, but I'm not hitting the "correct" keys with the "correct" fingers - I'm just following whatever comfortable patterns I've burned into muscle memory over all these years. If someone asked me to descr…

Interestingly enough I only really touch-type "properly" with my left hand and that's the one I experience RSI symptoms in.

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#43

Post by lunixbochs »

melling wrote: post #4

First saw this Using Python to Code by Voice almost 8 years ago. https://youtu.be/8SkdfdXWYaI I’m disappointed that we’ve gone nowhere in that time. Anyone with early symptoms could use voice as an option, or partial option.

We've gone places in that time. There's Talon (my full time project), Dragonfly/Caster, and Serenade at least. Voicecode also came and went.

My goal with Talon is to give people at all ability/pain levels a high quality free keyboard/mouse alternative - you can use it preventatively, or if you start to feel discomfort, or if you can't type at all.

I also linked some more recent talks / blog posts in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26118864

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#44

Post by eimrine »

lawn wrote: post #32
throwaway_moo wrote: post #9

This is not excellent advice regarding the keyboard used. Instead: - learn about the risk factors: https://kinesis-ergo.com/solutions/keyboard-risk-factors/ Keep in mind that there are hundreds of tendons in our hands, so the pattern of inflammation is very personal. Anecdotes are not your friend. - use split keyboards (or any ergo keyboard with enough space between hands) with inclination to limit pronation - use or…

While I agree with your points I'll add that Dvorak is far from the ultimate layout. For instance just try to type 'ls', which as a command-line user you'll do a lot. People are different and will prefer different layouts. Colemak DH is a very popular and very good one, if you dislike using your pinkies the BEAKL style layouts are very good and if you have a split keyboard you might want E on one of the thumbs so RST…

Your argument about Dvorak is far from the ultimate layout because of "ls" utility is strange. I think it is really best layout and in regular typing "ls" is rare. If "ls" case bothers you, you can just add an alias. What you can not get in any other layout is alteration of right and left hands, that is what makes Dvorak ultimate.

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#45

Post by Bishop_ »

elanning wrote: post #18

I have suffered from fairly bad RSI/tendonitis issues since my early 20s. Now a days I have a split keyboard and use wasd keys for my mouse, which is slower, but causes less pain. I would not wish this kind of pain on anyone. It has greatly negatively impacted my life. Hopefully future treatments will give some help, the current treatments are very lackluster.

Yup, I have had tendonitis in my forearms since I was 19, hurts pretty much all the time. Still not sure if i'm ever going to get rid of it or if I need to just keep dealing with it.

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#46

Post by Symbiote »

lawn wrote: post #32
throwaway_moo wrote: post #9

This is not excellent advice regarding the keyboard used. Instead: - learn about the risk factors: https://kinesis-ergo.com/solutions/keyboard-risk-factors/ Keep in mind that there are hundreds of tendons in our hands, so the pattern of inflammation is very personal. Anecdotes are not your friend. - use split keyboards (or any ergo keyboard with enough space between hands) with inclination to limit pronation - use or…

While I agree with your points I'll add that Dvorak is far from the ultimate layout. For instance just try to type 'ls', which as a command-line user you'll do a lot. People are different and will prefer different layouts. Colemak DH is a very popular and very good one, if you dislike using your pinkies the BEAKL style layouts are very good and if you have a split keyboard you might want E on one of the thumbs so RST…

  alias h=ls
  alias hh='ls -l'
Job done.

I strongly disagree that Dvorak is "far from the ultimate layout". Compared to Qwerty, the differences between most of these ergonomic layouts is minor, so there's no reason to discourage someone from using Dvorak.

My immediate minor criticism of Colemak-DH is typing "the", or specifically "he".

It's a "backwards roll" of the fingers: typing ASDF on Qwerty is easier than typing FDSA, but "HE" on Colemak-DH is a common digraph in the wrong direction.

(On Dvorak, "THE" is equivalent to typing "KJD" on Qwerty, i.e. the "TH"/"KJ" is in the correct direction.)

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#47

Post by lunixbochs »

Xevi wrote: post #33
elanning wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear. I hope you find something that works for you. I wish I could help, but like me, I'm sure you've already researched most solutions.

Yes I spent a considerable amount of money to upgrade my workstation to be more ergonomic. But I still have a lot of things left to try. It kind of hurts to spend $400+ for a single keyboard though, haha. I have even thought about buying a Mac just to be able to use the built-in Voice Control feature. But they are really expensive, and the new Mac Mini didn't have enough ports for my monitors.

My project, Talon, is free and cross platform. It might have some options that can help you: https://talonvoice.com

Some blog posts:

- https://www.joshwcomeau.com/blog/hands-free-coding/

- https://www.admiralbumblebee.com/music/2021/01/18/Reaper-Day...

- http://nsaphra.github.io/post/hands/

Some talks:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKYWt8B9hgs

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKuRkGkf5HU

- https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-11436-accessible_input_for_reader...

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#48

Post by robotmay »

eimrine wrote: post #39

I saw the gif from your website and you are not touchtyping.

Er, I am touchtyping, unless we have very different understandings of the term. I look at the screen when typing, or can type whilst holding a conversation with somebody. I can even look at the screen whilst holding a camera under my chin in order to film it ;)

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#49

Post by azinman2 »

vgel wrote: post #25
jarnagin wrote: post #10

A lot of people really underestimate the impact that mobility and strengthening can have addressing issues with RSI. If you're struggling with RSI, consider going to physical therapy as your condition may be caused by a wide variety of issues that aren't obvious based on the pain you're having. My own experience was that I dealt with ulnar nerve RSI for about a year. During that time I wore braces at night and tried…

Same, I had horrible RSI in my wrists and went to a hand therapist (just a physical therapist who specializes in hands). She made me some thermoformed wrist braces to wear at night and gave me wrist massages which felt awesome, but the main thing she did was prescribe a set of simple wrist exercises which take about 2 minutes to do. I did them every day and my RSI is much better. I still can't do certain things that…

What are the exercises?

Re: Typing, RSI, and what I do differently

#50

Post by d6e »

LukeShu wrote: post #37
shocks wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME wrist braces don’t help, they just lead to muscle atrophy. I picked up rock climbing and my RSI hasn’t come back since.

I suspect that most of the value I got from them was wearing them while sleeping, in that they protect the blood flow to my wrists from being cut off by me lying on my arms.

My doctor said the same thing. Only use braces while sleeping.
Post reply on HN