Is it practical to program with your feet?

Question

Has anyone tried using foot pedals in addition to the traditional keyboard and mouse combo to improve your effectiveness in the editor? Any actual experiences out there? Does it work, or is it just for carpal tunnel relief?

I found one blog entry from a programmer who actually tried it:

So now I can type using my feet for most of the modifier keys. I am using the pedals as I type this. I am still getting used to them, but the burning in my left wrist has definitely reduced. I think I can also type a little faster, but I am too lazy to do the speed tests with and without the pedals to verify this. On the negative side:

• Working out where to put your feet when you aren’t typing can be a little awkward.
• The pedals tend to move around the carpet, despite being metal and quite heavy. Some small spikes might have helped.
• Although the travel on the pedals is small, they are surprisingly stiff.

Another programmer's experience:

Anybody with hand pain must get foot pedals, since they can remove a tremendous load from your hands. I have two foot pedals, and use one for the SHIFT key, and the other for the CONTROL key. (I still type META by hand.) I have found that in the process of using the Emacs text editor to compose computer programs, I tend to use the SHIFT, CONTROL and META keys constantly, and it is easy to remove most of this load from one's hands.

Some foot switch products:

Savant Elite Triple Foot Switch

FragPedal

Bilbo Step On It!

Answer 1

Maybe it is the fact I never paid attention in my touch typing classes and don't keep my fingers on the home row. But I don't seems to have these problems. I just use which ever finger hits the button I need. Also years of tech support and over the phone coding have taught me how to use the enire keyboard while typing with one hand. So maybe this is a user problem and not the point of intergration.

Amazing what will happen when you use your index and thumb for "{" and "}" instead of pinky and ring fingers. (Also being that I an a huge nerd that can't spell for crap I have a bigger problem of knowing which letter to hit more than the location of that letter on the keyboard)

Answer 2

This is definitely a programming related questions. My wife worked with a programmer that was a paraplegic; hooks for both hands. He moused with his foot. He produced lots of code and could program pretty complex stuff but was more limited by his tools than by his disability. He would have jumped at these foot pedals.

Answer 3

Andy Brice has somethings to say on the topic of programming with your feet.

Answer 4

Also, there's a Toe Mouse.

Answer 5

In the unlikely event that anybody is looking at this seriously - because they have disabled - there is a very clever interface for people with limited mobility called DASHER which is worth checking out.

And a google talk on it if you can't be bothered reading.

Answer 6

carpal tunnel is just one aspect of RSI. i started suffering RSI in 1995 and the solution i settled on was kinesis with three foot pedals. plus a number of other things of course, but i'll focus on that since it's the question.

so, i have 15 years of experience with that setup, though i have not been programming as much since 1995 as i did before. and the short answer is: yes, it works, and i recommend it heartily to any serious programmer BEFORE they get RSI.

i also plan to try datahand, we'll see how that goes.