Thank you so much for your elaborate and well-articulated reply! As I don’t want these messages to spiral into an ever-expanding wall of text, I’ve chosen to refrain from reacting to every single valuable thing you’ve written. Nonetheless, everything, including the parts I’m explicitly not reacting to, has been a joy to read and has been very informative. So, again, thank you! Much appreciated!
I recommend grabbing something you typed and feeding it here to check heat map of keypresses you would have done to have some visual representation of your usage.
This is pretty cool! Unfortunately, (perhaps unsurprisingly) Night isn’t included within its layout options. I would otherwise have loved to check this out.
switch stuff on the early signals because that first wrist pain was an eye opener on how bad things can get if you ignore them.
Would you like to elaborate on this? As the pains and discomfort have increased over time, I have been more conscious than previously. But, I’m sure there’s still a lot of mileage to be had. Like, what do you perceive as an early signal? Exhaustion and/or fatigue after a day of work? Or perhaps something more specific?
Furthermore, how bad did things become?
Do you feel pain now though?
After a couple of hours, I do experience strange sensations that border on pain. Furthermore, there’s (almost) always some level of unease/discomfort. Thankfully, resting continues to feel good and I get especially revitalized after sleeping well. But I acknowledge that this isn’t sustainable.
If so what?
Wrist pain and fingers that feel wacky. So, this is basically carpal tunnel 101. This has been confirmed/diagnosed by both the general practioner as well as the surgeon. Thankfully, the damage is relatively tame still; the surgeon didn’t see much distortion/damage in the x-rays (yet). There’s also no need (yet) for a surgery and (hopefully) there’ll never be. Which is very much reliant on me putting in the work and effort to make this as comfortable and (by extension) sustainable as possible.
You should address that immediately. At most points I would have answered that I felt no pain with my setup, because those things build up gradually, if you’re at the point of feeling pain the time to take action is now.
I have taken some action; but I’m still very much in the process. I’m aware it’s just not enough (yet). But, the steps I’ve taken so far have thankfully led to significant relieve already. Like, I was a lot worse last year. And, as hinted at previously, I already have plans to address the remaining issues.
my point is that the plugin ecosystem for it might be a bit less extensive, and not sure how to set shortcuts that use vim key bindings for other plugins.
You could be right on the plugin ecosystem; even beyond the integration of evil-mode*. It doesn’t matter which metric I throw at it, the Neovim ecosystem seems to be more vibrant. Though, at least for the time being, org-mode seems to be Emacs’ forte. Which…, just happens to be the very thing I’m using it mostly for. While I’m far from being comfortable with it, it has already provided a much better experience compared to all other text editors I’ve tried.
I would only try out Emacs or Neovim through a opinionated config.
Why?
My apologies, perhaps I should have been clearer. I didn’t stress enough how this was mostly for trying it out and get going initially. I’m still on Doom Emacs, but I do intend to build my own config after I’ve gotten a better grasp IF it’s beneficial.
And that’s another point for Nvim for me, their configs are very easy, I followed this guide and had a working config that I could easily expand in no time.
Hahaha 🤣, I would have loved to have an up-to-date video guide like that for Emacs. Alas… 😅.
I miss org-mode
Hehe 😜, though I wonder: have you tried out Neorg or nvim-orgmode to see how they fare by comparison?
I understand, and I agree, although I’m reading all the replies are already becoming wall of text so I’ll skip parts but I have read them and they’re all interesting.
That looks interesting, although I would be weary of learning a layout that only works on specific keyboards, it will make it hard for you to use a laptop on the go, work in an office with a normal keyboard or any other similar situation.
Furthermore, how bad did things become?
I think it’s easier if I answer this first. At the worst I had problems holding heavy stuff in my hand, as in fingers lackesld strength or didn’t respond properly. And for my lower back at the worst it was constant pain where I needed to lay down with a pillow on my lumbar to stretch. After fixing those I became very aware of the initial feelings, such as numbness or feeling pain when stretching (which btw I strongly recommend you check out wrist and finger stretching exercises as they help a lot). Lots of the changes I made (e.g. split ortholinear keyboard) were probably not needed, but the wrist pain that kickstarted everything got me worry enough that I don’t want to take any chances.
After a couple of hours, I do experience strange sensations that border on pain. Furthermore, there’s (almost) always some level of unease/discomfort. Thankfully, resting continues to feel good and I get especially revitalized after sleeping well. But I acknowledge that this isn’t sustainable.
It’s not, those are exactly the early signals that you asked me about, you think that because you’re able to rest and stretch and it goes away that it’s all fine, but it will require ever more stretching and resting until they don’t go away ever. At least that’s what happened to me, at the beginning I would stretch my wrist and fingers and rest for a while and be fine, eventually that became next day I’ll be fine, then over the weekend, then never.
Wrist pain and fingers that feel wacky. So, this is basically carpal tunnel 101.
That’s exactly what I had, although mine was never actually diagnosed, but I had all of the symptoms and my dad had to do the surgery so I have family history. It does get better if you adjust, I don’t feel any of the symptoms I once did, and it is sustainable I haven’t had any symptoms in about 10 years since I switched to a more keyboard centric flow and the layout, so putting in the work does help out. I should say I had 24 years when the symptoms first appeared, so it was kindof young which was one of the reasons I got very scared about getting those symptoms so early.
org-mode seems to be Emacs’ forte.
Org-mode is absolutely wonderful, I haven’t tried any replacement because the reason I abandoned org-mode wasn’t emacs related, I kept using emacs for org-mode for a while after I dropped it as my main editor. The reason is that there’s no compatibility with other editors or apps. Everything uses markdown, and for most basic stuff markdown is good enough. I do miss habit tracking, task management, table calculations and other neat stuff, but the commodity of using the same format for everything and that other people use it as well outweighs all of that for me.
Thank you so much for your elaborate and well-articulated reply! As I don’t want these messages to spiral into an ever-expanding wall of text, I’ve chosen to refrain from reacting to every single valuable thing you’ve written. Nonetheless, everything, including the parts I’m explicitly not reacting to, has been a joy to read and has been very informative. So, again, thank you! Much appreciated!
Hehe, currently, I’ve landed on Night.
This is pretty cool! Unfortunately, (perhaps unsurprisingly) Night isn’t included within its layout options. I would otherwise have loved to check this out.
Would you like to elaborate on this? As the pains and discomfort have increased over time, I have been more conscious than previously. But, I’m sure there’s still a lot of mileage to be had. Like, what do you perceive as an early signal? Exhaustion and/or fatigue after a day of work? Or perhaps something more specific?
Furthermore, how bad did things become?
After a couple of hours, I do experience strange sensations that border on pain. Furthermore, there’s (almost) always some level of unease/discomfort. Thankfully, resting continues to feel good and I get especially revitalized after sleeping well. But I acknowledge that this isn’t sustainable.
Wrist pain and fingers that feel wacky. So, this is basically carpal tunnel 101. This has been confirmed/diagnosed by both the general practioner as well as the surgeon. Thankfully, the damage is relatively tame still; the surgeon didn’t see much distortion/damage in the x-rays (yet). There’s also no need (yet) for a surgery and (hopefully) there’ll never be. Which is very much reliant on me putting in the work and effort to make this as comfortable and (by extension) sustainable as possible.
I have taken some action; but I’m still very much in the process. I’m aware it’s just not enough (yet). But, the steps I’ve taken so far have thankfully led to significant relieve already. Like, I was a lot worse last year. And, as hinted at previously, I already have plans to address the remaining issues.
You could be right on the plugin ecosystem; even beyond the integration of evil-mode*. It doesn’t matter which metric I throw at it, the Neovim ecosystem seems to be more vibrant. Though, at least for the time being, org-mode seems to be Emacs’ forte. Which…, just happens to be the very thing I’m using it mostly for. While I’m far from being comfortable with it, it has already provided a much better experience compared to all other text editors I’ve tried.
My apologies, perhaps I should have been clearer. I didn’t stress enough how this was mostly for trying it out and get going initially. I’m still on Doom Emacs, but I do intend to build my own config after I’ve gotten a better grasp IF it’s beneficial.
Hahaha 🤣, I would have loved to have an up-to-date video guide like that for Emacs. Alas… 😅.
Hehe 😜, though I wonder: have you tried out Neorg or nvim-orgmode to see how they fare by comparison?
I understand, and I agree, although I’m reading all the replies are already becoming wall of text so I’ll skip parts but I have read them and they’re all interesting.
That looks interesting, although I would be weary of learning a layout that only works on specific keyboards, it will make it hard for you to use a laptop on the go, work in an office with a normal keyboard or any other similar situation.
I think it’s easier if I answer this first. At the worst I had problems holding heavy stuff in my hand, as in fingers lackesld strength or didn’t respond properly. And for my lower back at the worst it was constant pain where I needed to lay down with a pillow on my lumbar to stretch. After fixing those I became very aware of the initial feelings, such as numbness or feeling pain when stretching (which btw I strongly recommend you check out wrist and finger stretching exercises as they help a lot). Lots of the changes I made (e.g. split ortholinear keyboard) were probably not needed, but the wrist pain that kickstarted everything got me worry enough that I don’t want to take any chances.
It’s not, those are exactly the early signals that you asked me about, you think that because you’re able to rest and stretch and it goes away that it’s all fine, but it will require ever more stretching and resting until they don’t go away ever. At least that’s what happened to me, at the beginning I would stretch my wrist and fingers and rest for a while and be fine, eventually that became next day I’ll be fine, then over the weekend, then never.
That’s exactly what I had, although mine was never actually diagnosed, but I had all of the symptoms and my dad had to do the surgery so I have family history. It does get better if you adjust, I don’t feel any of the symptoms I once did, and it is sustainable I haven’t had any symptoms in about 10 years since I switched to a more keyboard centric flow and the layout, so putting in the work does help out. I should say I had 24 years when the symptoms first appeared, so it was kindof young which was one of the reasons I got very scared about getting those symptoms so early.
Org-mode is absolutely wonderful, I haven’t tried any replacement because the reason I abandoned org-mode wasn’t emacs related, I kept using emacs for org-mode for a while after I dropped it as my main editor. The reason is that there’s no compatibility with other editors or apps. Everything uses markdown, and for most basic stuff markdown is good enough. I do miss habit tracking, task management, table calculations and other neat stuff, but the commodity of using the same format for everything and that other people use it as well outweighs all of that for me.