Since the parent post was from an Emacs user: I have to disagree.

As an Emacs user, I've loved having a foot-pedal. The foot-pedal is superfluous in Vi because Vi is already modal; the foot-pedal is great in Emacs because it adds modality, kinda. Copying a post I made on Reddit a while ago:

> I found that my brain didn't want to treat the pedals like it did keys--it wanted to treat them modally. I wasn't pressing control, I was entering control-mode. I wasn't pressing shift, I was entering caps-mode. Which works out, because it isn't the quick keystrokes that cause the most strain, it's holding the modifier with one finger while the rest of the hand moves around. I wouldn't use the footpedal Control for the usual quick C-f/b/n/p, but it's great for holding Control as you C-s through a document.

https://old.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/7remed/has_anybody_u...

I've plugged an accordion into emacs. Gives 120 buttons on left hand, 64 on right, plus chording and velocity sensitivity (hit a key harder to get upper case).

But you could easily use a midi pedalboard instead, or even in addition.

Accordion in use: https://twitter.com/ykarikos/status/1038145486618861573

So does X-keys:

https://xkeys.com/xkeys/footpedals/xkfootrear.html

(And if you don't mind a crippled non-programmable firmware, you can get it cheaper as a VEC Infinity IN-USB-2, and run a daemon on your laptop to translate joystick-style button events in to keyboard events.)

whoa!