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Comment by cosarara97 | Hacker News Reader

Maybe if there was a way to use it without modifier keys. Even using shift for caps is painful for me.

There's evil-mode,[1][2] which is a fantastic vim-emulation mode for emacs. Using it, you'll get all the modal editing you're used to in vim.

One user's transition from vim to emacs+evil was recently discussed here.[3][4]

[1] - http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Evil

[2] - https://gitorious.org/evil/pages/Home

[3] - http://juanjoalvarez.net.nyud.net/es/detail/2014/sep/19/vim-...

[4] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8581530

Evil-mode, god-mode and key-chord are a few that address the modifier issue.

Re-mapping caps lock to ctrl is also immensely helpful.

M-u - uppercase current string starting at point

M-l - lowercase current string starting at point

M-c - capitalize from current point to next word delimiter

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/StickyModifiers

in OS X system preferences you can set sticky modifiers. I used it for a while with emacs, but finally abandoned it because, while easy on fingers, it tends to cause strange things if you start typing a combination and halfway you change your mind (you can just release a modifier key usually, but if you just typed it there is nothing you can do to undo it, except C-G).

When you wrote that, did you know that if the sticky-keys setting is set and you accidentally hit a modifier key, then you can undo that by hitting the key 2 more times?

(I've been using OS X's sticky-keys setting with Emacs for years, BTW.)

Yes, I recall having noticed that, but still didn't feel very natural, probably because I use different systems (not all of them OS X even) and this complicates habit making.

On a kinesis keyboard all the emacs modifier keys are by your thumbs. It makes emacs so much more awesome

There's also optional foot petals.

Is this actually serious? I would actually really love that. Would save so much strain on my fingers and it would probably even give my legs a bit of a workout.

It's serious. Unfortunately I find it very difficult to use. The foot just isn't as flexible as the fingers. It's slow and cumbersome. Also, using it limits how much I can move around in/with my chair.

I tried to get used to it, but my foot pedal is just collecting dust under the desk now.

It's a shame the modifiers (shift included) like to get stuck on the Kinesis. Expensive pile of crap...

If I had the money, I'd try out the Maltron 3D keyboard. I haven't heard about such problems with it. It also comes with a numpad in the middle, which I kinda miss in the Kinesis. It would be great for nethack, and something else.

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