Writing Tools (Commentary)

[Daniel Strychalski <dski -at- CAMEONET -dot- CAMEO -dot- COM -dot- TW>]

Mice, trackballs, finger pads, joysticks, etc., etc., etc. How sad: it seems
that few if any of you have known, or ever will know, the joy and efficiency
of keeping your hands in typing position throughout a typing session.

Before the introduction of the "enhanced" AT keyboard, every data terminal,
Apple II and PC-series machine had the Control key in the home row, just to
the left of the "A" key. Developers took the "S" in ASCII seriously, so
Control-I gave you a tab code, Control-H gave you backspace, and Control-M
was a carriage return on every platform and in every program you came
across. The rest of the control codes were up for grabs, and developers made
good use of them. Lord, you could really fly in those days.

Not now, though. Everything is on the Alt key, a function key, or the mouse,
and Ctrl is down where you can't reach it without inconvenience or discom-
fort. The whole idea was to slow people down, make them dependent on a par-
ticular platform, and make them buy pointing devices, and it has succeeded.

The cure for headaches and eyestrain is to use a restful text-based display
and sit well away from it. One way to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome is to
use an old-style keyboard, set your software for a keyboard layout that
makes sense, and put a strip of foam rubber under your wrists. I NEVER tire
of tapping away with my wrists unmoving and my eyes firmly on the screen.
When I need WYSIWYG I call up an on-screen print preview that's more
accurate than the standard GUI, then I go back to the business of writing.

These are things to keep in mind as you get sucked into that murky, soft
vale of w*oes....
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 ,:;.|\  ,:;. /\O__  Alive and kicking           Dan Strychalski