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> Underscores require me to hit the Shift key. When writing prose, I only hit the shift once or twice per sentence. In Ruby, I have to hit the shift key every few letters. Awkward. Inefficient.

Oh my, oh my, how do people ever cope with that vile "having to hit shift" that have regular capitalisation of all nouns etc. Surely such a thing is impossible, as is hitting shift when you need an underscore.

I understand that some things could be more efficient, but "hitting shift" hardly qualifies in my opinion...



I wonder how the author types all the brackets in LISP without the shift key. I'll take an occasional underscore over that mess any day.


>> I understand that some things could be more efficient, but "hitting shift" hardly qualifies in my opinion...

I does qualify as something that probably contributes to Repeated Strain Injury which most programmers should worry about.


Actually I think there is a speed and comfort issue relating to any symbol that requires key chording. To test this try using sticky keys for a while - it's much more comfortable - it seems to free up the fingers more.

I use alternate hands when using the shift key, so that's not the issue. Perhaps it's just that I've got into a bad habit of depressing the shift key with a little more force and holding it for longer. With sticky keys I seem to dance off the keys better.

If you have a number pad, perhaps it might be better to switch the number row with the symbols (i.e. don't use SHIFT to get to the symbol.) I think that's the default for French layouts.




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