ergonomic typing enforcement

[Tim]

On Sat, 2011-01-01 at 22:06 +0000, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
> Btw, why is it considered bad practice to type both the letter and the
> modifier with the same hand? I do it on a regular basis (my little
> fingers being very near the shift modifiers most of the time...), and
> am not aware of any functional problems with that. Sometimes it can
> even be useful, if you ever need to adapt to handling the keyboard
> with only one hand (the second hand holding a beer or a baby or
> such... :-) ...).

While it can be useful to do so, the reasons why you're recommended not
to are two fold:

It can lead to straining injuries.  Anyone who's suffered them knows
what they're like.  Unlike a musical keyboard, the typing keyboard
wasn't designed well for holding down multiple keys on the same hand.
And the mechanical typewriter keyboard really wanted to avoid typists
being able to do that, beyond the obvious "shift" and another key
combination.  Some key combinations are really awkward to press, and
requires bending fingers in strange ways.

If you've been *taught* to type, it's a typing technique issue.
Professional typing techniques are all about speed and accuracy.  It's
certainly the case with heavy mechanical typewriters that you want to
use opposite hands to shove the shift key all the way down, and THEN
make the hammer strike the page using the other hand.  Try doing both
simultaneously, as a singled-handed method would do, and you're likely
to hit the page before the mechanism had shifted into place, or not have
the finger strength to manage it.  Even electric or electronic keyboards
can suffer a similar "wrong character" problem if you don't engage the
modifiers before hitting the key.

I'm so glad I only had to put up with a year of bashing away on very
heavy mechanical typewriters at school.

Any telex operators on this list?  I think it was the Australian version
of the console that had the letters all in alphabetical order, instead
of Qwerty, thanks to the telex operator's union not wanting any of their
members to lose their jobs to secretaries who could type.

-- 
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