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A Programmer Should Cherish its Keyboard
Sometimes people walk up to my workstation and ask me about my keyboard. Leaving two hours later, they regret asking that question. Just like a guitar player can passionately talk about the Gibson guitar, I can talk on and on about the necessity of good keyboard. I have condensed that talk to a view paragraphs. Let me convice you to become a master typist.
Touch typing
Steve Yegge's post called Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret is a true Yegge length post explaining why every programmer must learn to touch type. I fully agree.
Most of the day, your profession has you communicating to your computer by typing. Writing code, documentation and talking to others by chat, IRC and email. Typing, typing and more typing. You lose a lot of time if you need to "hunt-and-peck" your keys. You not only lose time, there is also the danger of losing your train of thought.
I learned to touch type by shooting zombies in the head, but there is a whole range of software out there which can help you out. If you want to go hardcore, buy a keyboard with blank keys.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Learn your keyboard shortcuts because you do not want to leave your keyboard for your mouse. Consider your mouse as evil. It is a main cause for RSI and it's slow.
First, you need to learn the most important shortcuts for your editor. Don't worry, it's only a few hundred if you are using Emacs like me.
Another way is commanding your browser by keyboard. I liked using Vimium for Chrome and Vimperator for Firefox. My latest browser of choice is Conkeror, a version of Firefox which is Emacs centric in its use.
Keyboard layout
People love to mention how weird I am by typing on a Dvorak layout keyboard. First they laugh at you...
Anyhow, three years ago I came across an article about the Dvorak keyboard layout and I agreed that it was ridiculous that I'm still typing on a keyboard layout which is not optimal and this only because I'm to lazy to learn something new. I went cold turkey and although cursing a lot in the first months, my hands thanked me later.
There is a lot of research on Dvorak vs Qwerty. My experience is the same as other users on Hacker News. I cannot say that I will make you a faster typist, I can say that it will be better for your hands.
Mechanical Switch Keys
The last thing on the road to typing Nirvana is buying a good keyboard. A good keyboard is a keyboard which gives you feedback, meaning you can feel when a keypress is successful. Keyboards with a mechanical switch give you this feedback. They not only give you feedback, but also increase your typing speed and lifetime.
I went a bit overboard on this one and own a Das Keyboard, HHKB II and Leopold Tenkeyless. I would recommend you the Leopold Tenkeyless because it reasonably priced unlike the expensive HHKB II. I didn't like the Das Keyboard because it's huge and the distance between the mouse and keyboard is too big.
Conclusion
If you spend this much time behind a computer, you owe it to yourself to make the experience as smooth as possible. Not having to think about the means of communication leaves you with all the focus on the task at hand. It can be that little nudge needed to build great software.
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