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Where do you keep your keyboard?
Obviously, if you have an all-in-one like an iMac or a traditional laptop, the keyboard is connected directly to the display. But if you have a desktop or a docking station — or even a Bluetooth keyboard for your mobile phone — there is some flexibility on where you place your keyboard.
I currently have an old (mechanical) Hewlett Packard PS/2 keyboard sitting on my desk attached (via a USB connector) to my laptop. The laptop sits off to the side and feeds into a much larger external monitor. I've tolerated this arrangement for a while but it is becoming apparent that this is far from the most ergonomic arrangement.
So, I am considering getting a keyboard arm. For those who have gone that route, how has that worked for you? What model did you get and how much did it cost? Did it flex under use or was it rigid and solid? Was there space for a mouse next to the keyboard? Do you have any suggestions on what to watch out for, either pro or con?
I'm in hopes that not only will I benefit from the collected experiences of the SoylentNews community, but that someone else we see a reply and choose to do something to improve their arrangement, too.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:43AM
I do, though my use of extra keyboard keys predates my emacs use, so I can't blame it on emacs. I mostly have the keys bound to things like toggling mute/unmute of microphone, minimise/maximise/close windows, some extra window management stuff, things like that.
I did try making one of the thumb buttons send M-x for emacs use for a while, but I didn't stick with it. I already have ctrl and capslock swapped, so I prefer ctrl+space to fire off the M-x command.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @08:42AM
But Crtl+Space in Emacs sets the mark. So how do you do that if you re-purpose it as Meta-X?
(Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday September 28 2016, @09:37AM
I rebound set-mark-command to C-t, replacing something else that I wasn't using very much. Though, shift+arrows usually works in GUI emacs as well, which would probably be fine for most people. (I don't rely on that because modes like org-mode often bind those combinations.)
I use the extended commands (via helm-M-x specifically) often enough that I wanted a better shortcut than M-x (though M-x still works because I still hit it sometimes). Did something similar with showing the buffer list and opening new files, repurposing easier shortcuts that I don't use as often for convenience.