Hacker News Reader

Comment by pw6hv | Hacker News Reader

Looks like some of the shortcuts are really RSI prone, i.e. ctrl + b + & (where & is shift + 7). Are there any possibilities to have more wrist-friendly shortcuts?

View on HN

Not sure if you know this, but you're not pressing 4 keys at once. The ctrl + b part is the prefix sequence to let tmux know you want to send it commands. The order of key presses would be:

1) press ctrl + b

2) release

3) press shift + 7

You may already know this, and the RSI concerns still stand (I'm not sure what all goes into RSI risks), but wanted to clarify if the concern is over pressing 4 keys at the same time that are all over the keyboard.

A very common change is to change the prefix to ctrl + a, like this in your tmux.conf:

  # remap prefix from 'C-b' to 'C-a
  unbind C-b
  set-option -g prefix C-a
  bind-key C-a send-prefix

I've heard that he reason for ctrl + b is because screen uses ctrl + a, which just doesn't make any sense to me. You can nest both tmux and screen and to get to an inner layer you press (if ctrl + a has been mapped) ctrl + a + a - and now your command is sent to the inner tmux/screen.

Defaults matter. It is not feasible to configure this on every machine you touch so one have to remember both the default one and the sane one...

There is no consensus on the best prefix so there is no point in changing it after 10 years. Lots of people dislike C-a.

I can imagine, what is best will likely depend on preference.

But at least the defaults should be sensible.

There is no agreement on what is sensible and what is not, the defaults are no more or less sensible than any other suggestion.

Oh, yes there are.

C-b is terrible for your wrist, especially in conjunction with the following commands.

Choosing C-a isn't as much about preference as it is about not-terrible ergonomics. Now people are right to prefer anything other than C-a or C-b but C-a is objectively a much saner default than C-b.

Absolute nonsense, are you trying to press C-b with one hand?

Yes. Left ctrl is in a better placement on many keyboards. Also being able to perform shortcuts with one hand is very handy.

If it hurts your wrist pressing it with one hand, perhaps you should use two...

Or choose a shortcut that works with either.

The problem is with ctrl positioning, there was a time when it was more commonly found on the home row [0]. Rebinding caps lock to control turns the motion from an awkward wrist snap to a slight spreading of your left hand fingers.

[0] http://xahlee.info/kbd/keyboard_ctrl_vs_capslock_position.ht...

Personally I've bound caps lock to ESC, but given the emacs style shortcuts it does make sense. Thanks.

> C-b is terrible for your wrist

I always use the modifier key on the opposite side of the keyboard to avoid that issue. So for ctrl-b , I press the ctrl key on the right side of the keyboard worth my right pinky and press the b key with my left index finger.

I think another reason is because some people use Ctrl+a in bash for jumping to the start of the line.

Thanks, that is a good point!

Yes choose what you want.

use a better keyboard :P

Reply on news.ycombinator.com