Justin Taft - Home / Posts

Typing Ergonomics – Modal editing, Sticky Keys, Voice Control

I’m a fan of pressing keys sequentially. Pressing multiple keys at the same time (key-chords) can cause unnecessary strain in my opinion.

Emacs by default relies heavily on key-chords. Remapping common functions to Function Keys (F1-F12) can help. Personally, I install Evil Mode to use vim bindings within Emacs.

Vim allows creating sequential keybindings quite easily. For instance, I remap “jk” when in insert mode to ESC key via innoremap jk <ESC>. I also use the spacebar in normal mode as my leader key. Ex, hitting <space> in normal mode would run a program/execute tests, while <space>q would evaluate the entire file in a repl. This development loop can be tightened further by saving-and-running a command when leaving insert mode.

Recently I enabled Sticky Keys feature through my operating system settings too. This has helped not requiring me to spread my fingers apart while reaching for multiple keys.

Voice Control has been helpful too. While typing. I compliment typing with Voice Control, such as clicking links on the page from time to time. Mac OS’s built in Voice Control accessibility feature works quite well.

Make sure to take breaks and stretches while typing!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *