One of the most constant complaints about Emacs is its reliance on finger mangling key chords forever memorialized by the “Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift” backronym. Indeed, many Emacs users, including some Irreal regulars, use one of the vi emulation packages, evil, Spacemacs, or Doom, precisely to avoid those awkward key chords and the damage that they’re purported to cause to one’s wrists and fingers. Some Emacs users have even had to abandon the editor because of the strain it put on their hands.
Today’s title is due to a post from Manuel González, who like an inhabitant of Bizarro World where everything works the opposite of how it does here, says that Emacs saved his wrist. The TL;DR is that the constant switching from mouse to keyboard with his old IDE was causing him to suffer RSI in his right wrist. He tried a more ergonomic mouse, which helped a bit but still didn’t solve the problem. He decided to try an editor that could be used with just the keyboard and ultimately settled on Emacs. Surprisingly, to us here on Earth, using Emacs did solve his problem and now he’s pain-free.
The weak humor of Bizarro World aside, González’s story is interesting exactly because it goes against the conventional wisdom. My guess would be that a lot—not all but a lot—of the RSI troubles that Emacs gets blamed for is really the fault of a mouse. You don’t have to take my word for it, ask González. And do read his post; it’s an interesting story.
*Update : Fixed link to González’s post.