USB Foot Switch

It is impossible to research whether Emacs is a program that meets your needs without coming across comments describing it as un-ergonomic (“emacs pinky!”) . Once I had committed to learn at least the basics of Emacs, I sought to pre-empt any significant impacts it might have on my health¹.

The first impression I had was that if the supposed increased strain comes from anywhere - it is from use of the modifier keys - Ctrl & Alt. Commonly recommended ‘fixes’ are:

• Software
  • Change keymappings
    • E.g. Swap Ctrl and Cpslck
• Hardware - Use different input devices
  • Get a fancier keyboard
    • E.g. split keyboards, maybe even a different layout.
  • Use narration
  • Get a foot pedals

Changing keymappings is free, but I was tempted to try something a bit more dramatic. Buying a new ‘ergonomic’ keyboard looks expensive, and is something I would want to do more research on before purchase.

Narration is interesting, but it would be embarrasing to speak all the crap I write out loud². Narration remains an interesting option though; I can imagine that using narration for writing might have effects on general converstaion ability, as you have more practice sounding out ideas verbally.

A foot pedal is something I have never used or even seen being used before³. This novelty, and low cost made this my choice⁴. The added excitment of getting some new hardware settled the matter.

So I bought a cheap three pedal PCsensor foot switch. This particular product has some limitations, but the idea was to try this out first to get a feel for the territory.

Foot pedal

Limitations

Software support for the pedal is limited to Windows. I presume there are workarounds for Linux, but I did not find them before I found this thread which pointed out the settings are persistent, so one merely has to have Windows handy to change the settings once.

Only one pedal can register a pedal-press at once. So there no use mapping Ctrl & Shft to the pedals in the hopes of using Ctrl + Shft combos.

Configuration

As previously mentioned, I was looking to reduce the number of times I would type modifier keys, like Ctrl and Alt. This made them the natural choice for mapping to the pedals.

I also saw a suggestion in a Reddit thread for mapping PageDown to one of the pedals. This allows for any amount of slouching while browsing documents and webpages - it really puts the ‘surf’ back in ‘surfing the web’.

So the first mapping I tried was from left to right:

Ctrl PageDown Alt

And this is what I have stuck with so far.

Experience

• 2016/06/29 In the couple of days since installing the pedal I felt clumsy and slow while operating it.

• 2016/07/01 I try changing the configuration - Nope, I’m too used to it already.

• 2016/07/06 Feel a little sore in knees.

• 2016/07/11 When listening to rocking tunes I start foot-tapping. This is made more fun because I have these pedals. This means the command bar keeps flashing at me.

• 2016/07/30 Addicted to tapping. I now Alt-Tab for no reason at all. This is the new paper shuffling. People with multiple desktops will appreciate this.

• 2016/09/15 Started getting cramps in calves. Cramp follows stretching out feet in a similar motion to using the pedals.