keyboards/RSI/switching costs (was Looking for a secondhand Datahand Pro II)

[Smylers]

Jacqui Caren-home writes:

> My interest in this thread is two fold.
>
> 1) I write or edit a lot of code. Why should I spend my days typing
>    many repetitive words over and over. Does anyone here remember
>    spectrums or ZX81's? :-)

You shouldn't; you should use an editor which has completion on words
which are used in your project.

> 2) My sister has a damaged nerve in her arm and I have sent her
>    various keyboards, trackballs, graphics tablets etc. As she plans
>    upon doing an IT degree and unless she can find soemthign she can
>    work with work in IT is a no-no. And this would be a big loss tothe
>    industry - she is *very* smart!

A friend with RSI has a keyboard he can use fine, but needs to avoid
mousing.  Unfortunately[*1] whoever wrote the bespoke software used by
his branch of the civil service didn't bother with keyboard access for
many features.

Last night he was amused to relay that work's health & safety advisor
has decreed that he must use Dragon Dictate for input -- his job
involves using this software while on the phone, and he's not sure how
members of the public will take to being told "move left" or "tap right"
in the middle of calls ...

  [*1]  I say "unfortunately", but it's probably because they were the
  lowest bidder, and whoever wrote the spec wasn't knowledgeable enough
  to be aware of what was actually required -- which is incompetent,
  rather than unfortunate.

Smylers
-- 
http://twitter.com/Smylers2