From: erb@fullfeed.fullfeed.com (David Erb)
Subject: Re: my Kinesis impressions/questions
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1993 12:29:10 GMT


After using the Kinesis steadily for two weeks, I can say the
following.

Summary:
It causes less pain, but some symptoms are not completely gone.
The ability to reprogram the keys is extremely useful, even
critical to the product.  Even so, the placement of the keys
is not perfect for my hands and condition.  The support from
the Kinesis company has been excellent.  I am very interested
to hear how others are adjusting to it.


Verbose:
I was immediately able to type without pain and without using
my splints.  This may be a result of typing at a slower raate
while getting accustomed to the key layout.  However, now
I am up to my normal speed and am finding that some of my old
symptoms are creeping back.  I think this means that I will
have to use the Kinesis with caution, continuing to pay
attention to how hard I smack the keys, how often I take
rest breaks, and my posture.

I am finally getting used to it.  The main adjustments for me
have been stopping myself from using my left thumb to hit
"space".  I had been used to alternating.  It's true, I could
have easily solved this problem by reprogramming the left-thumb
key to be "space", but I like the idea of having backspace there.

I reprogrammed the "delete" thumb key to become "shift".  This has
been a big improvement in keeping strain off my left pinkie, 
which was doing all shift and control duties.

I generally like the idea of getting more use out of the many thumb
keys, but my hands are not flexible and I have to either bend my wrists 
at an unnatural angle or move my fingers off home row to be able
to get at them all.

I am also finally getting used to the punctuation placement.
Since I am writing C code all the time, there is lots of
punctuation like []{}-=+| and so on.  These are still on the
periphery, requiring the pinkies which are my sorest fingers.
I'm trying to think of a way to bring the punctuation in
under the other fingers, using a mode switch (such as alt)
to indicate punctuation.  If the Kinesis will not do this, I
will have to do it with software.

I flipped the "enter" and "delete" keys upside down to reduce
the height of the ridge between them and their neighbors.

Since I am a heavy emacs user, I am going for the control key
a lot.  Since I haven't invented a good place/finger for the
control key, I have left them in their labelled positions.
This makes emacs awkward.  I have programmed the footswitch
to emulate the "control" key, which helps a lot.  Unfortunately
the footswitch is very light and tends to slide around on
the floor after repeated use.  I think I will glue it to a
piece of wood or something.  Using it sock-footed helps,
but this basement floor is damn cold!

Also the "escape" key is in a wierd place and I will need to
figure out a good place to reprogram it for emacs.

I was really impressed by the support from the Kinesis company.
They are always very friendly to talk to.  They are very
helpful.  I get the impression that they really want this
keyboard to work for me.

If anyone has come up with some good key reprogrammings, I'd
be very interested to hear them.  Or any other tips or hints
on the use of this keyboard.

My offer to show my keyboard to anyone who wants to come to
Madison still stands.

Dave