The default terminal is the humble xterm, and it's available with the C-t c shortcut (I remember the c as being short for "console"). In Ratpoison, your terminal is your exclusive gateway to the rest of the computer because there's no application menu or icons to click. The first application you probably should launch is either Emacs or a terminal. Ratpoison (and GNU Screen and Emacs) more often involve two. This may feel a little unnatural at first, because most of the keyboard shortcuts you're used to probably involve only one action. For instance, to launch an xterm window, press Ctrl+t, just as you would when opening a new tab in a web browser, then press c. Since the C-t shortcut puts you into command mode, it's expected that some other key sequence will follow. To trigger Ratpoison's command mode, you press C-t, which means that you press Ctrl+t. The Control key on your keyboard is written as C. If you're unfamiliar with Emacs or GNU Screen, it can look confusing at first, so here's explicit instruction on how to "decode" this style of notation. Ratpoison documentation uses Emacs-style notation for keyboard controls, so I'll use the same notation in this article. That's all there is to the Ratpoison desktop. I’ve wanted to write a blog post about my journey with repetitive strain injury (RSI) for quite a while now.The first time you log into Ratpoison, you are greeted by a black screen with some text in the upper-right corner telling you that you can press Ctrl+t for help. I’d been putting it off because the amount of content that I wanted to include seemed to be increasing exponentially with time.Īnyhow, I’ve decided to go for it and I’m hopeful that I’ve selected the most important parts of my recovery, especially for a fellow programmer. My RSI affects my fingers, hands, wrists and forearms so it has had a pretty significant impact on my day-to-day life, which I normally spend programming in python or writing in LaTeX. Nevertheless, I had things to do and deadlines to meet, so I continued typing… Keyboards (down the rabbit hole we go) □Īround 6 months ago, I was sat at my desk when I noticed a slight pain in my hands, I wasn’t quite sure what the pain was or how I had caused it.Equip yourself with the best text editor Spacemacs (vim meets emacs).Try to strengthen your fingers and forearms e.g.Stretch your forearms, fingers, etc multiple times throughout the day.So that you can learn the vim keybindings and get the most out of them.This has definitely been the hardest injury that I have ever had to deal with, so I hope the info in this post can make the process easier for anyone in a similar situation.įor those in a rush, here’s a quick summary of the tips I would give to a fellow RSI sufferer: I’ve decided to start the post with my story and then afterwards go into detail about what I consider the most import aspects of my recovery (or management). I first assumed that the cause of this mysterious pain was the climbing trip I had been on the previous weekend, I was climbing some pretty gnarly routes so I assumed this was plausible □Īs the week progressed, so did the pain, first to my fingers, then wrists and then forearms, as well as generally getting a lot more intense.Īt this point I started to consider that the pain was due to my trackpad and/or keyboard (I was using an Apple magic keyboard and an Apple magic trackpad at the time).ĭon’t use them, unless you actively want to develop RSI!Įventually the pain got so bad that I had to stop working on my computer and I spent my days reading instead (luckily I’m a PhD student so reading is actually a great use of my time).Īfter a few days of not typing the pain would reside, “ great, I’m better, lets get programming”. Unfortunately, this was not the case and within the hour the pain was back with vengeance. I cycled through this process several times, gradually increasing the resting period. I think there was a little part of me holding on to the idea that it might just magically disappear.Īfter a few weeks of repeating this process and reading endless blogs/forums/articles, I finally accepted that something was definitely wrong.Īll that I could think was “ I’m never going to be able to program again”, which made me pretty sad.įollowing this, I booked an appointment to see my local GP □ and was there by the end of the week.Īfter a quick examination and an X-ray, it was confirmed, the pain was RSI and most likely due to my work station. I then started seeing a physio who provided me with a list of stretches and exercises.
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