Pretty much every ergonomist will tell you that mouse use causes more ergonomic pains than keyboard use. They literally tell you to memorize as many keyboard shortcuts as possible.
> but clicking to jump to a position on screen can often be a lot faster than I search
It can be, but is it the norm? I have a distinct memory - over 15 years ago - of reading a blog post that recommended isearch to move the cursor and realizing how right it was. I suppose not everyone agrees.
> say nothing about how much gentler on the wrist it is
A bad mouse is as bad as bad posture on the keyboard. You only realize this once you're in pain. Not everyone reaches the point of pain.
> say nothing about how much gentler on the wrist it is
You should not be moving your wrist! Move your whole arm. Once again, one realizes this only when you're in pain. Not everyone reaches the point of pain.
> Then you can customize the menus and toolbar icons so you can be 1-2 clicks away from something that would otherwise require a chorded keypress or worse, an M-x command.
The same argument works for keyboard. If you're going the route of customizing the menu for particular commands, you can also customize the keyboard to minimize the keystrokes for those commands (e.g. via hydra).
Get in the habit of using Ctrl-r (isearch-backward) and Ctrl-s (isearch-forward) for moving around in the document. Whenever you need to jump the cursor backward or forward more than about 5 lines, and you can see the target location, you should be using i-search.
To do it effectively, you don't necessarily need to search for the exact word where you want to put the cursor. Let your eye defocus slightly and take in the whole paragraph or region around the target point, and choose a word that looks reasonably unique or easy to type. Then i-search for it to navigate to it. You may need to hit Ctrl-r or Ctrl-s repeatedly if your anchor word turns out not to be unique. But Emacs will highlight all the matches, so if there are more than a couple of them, Ctrl-g out of the search and choose another anchor word.
It's difficult to overemphasize how powerful this technique is, once you've mastered it. Mastering it simply requires that you do it repeatedly until your fingers do it "automatically". Emacs eventually becomes like an extension of your body, and you'll be performing hundreds of different keystrokes and mini-techniques like this one without thinking about them. It's comparable to the hundreds of subtle techniques you acquire for driving a car well.
> Pretty much every ergonomist will tell you that mouse use causes more ergonomic pains than keyboard use. They literally tell you to memorize as many keyboard shortcuts as possible.
Right but that's because their advice is tailored around the "average" computer usage, which is lots of mousing to click around in buried menus and hunting and pecking on the keyboard. RSI is just what it says: Repetitive Stress Injury. The best palliative for RSI is to stop repetitively stressing the same tendons and ligaments. So that means breaking up your keyboarding with some mousing. Alternating which finger and which hand you use. Getting up and stretching and taking breaks. Maybe using some dictation in lieu of using an input device.
If you're writing text, your mousing is mostly going to be scrolling, unlike doing something like CAD or design or illustration. In that context, the context of using emacs, mousing is fine.
And realistically, for my own RSI, exercise was the real solution. Rock climbing increased the blood flow to my wrists significantly. That's probably the only real solution to RSI.
My few cents:
Pretty much every ergonomist will tell you that mouse use causes more ergonomic pains than keyboard use. They literally tell you to memorize as many keyboard shortcuts as possible.
> but clicking to jump to a position on screen can often be a lot faster than I search
It can be, but is it the norm? I have a distinct memory - over 15 years ago - of reading a blog post that recommended isearch to move the cursor and realizing how right it was. I suppose not everyone agrees.
> say nothing about how much gentler on the wrist it is
A bad mouse is as bad as bad posture on the keyboard. You only realize this once you're in pain. Not everyone reaches the point of pain.
> say nothing about how much gentler on the wrist it is
You should not be moving your wrist! Move your whole arm. Once again, one realizes this only when you're in pain. Not everyone reaches the point of pain.
> Then you can customize the menus and toolbar icons so you can be 1-2 clicks away from something that would otherwise require a chorded keypress or worse, an M-x command.
The same argument works for keyboard. If you're going the route of customizing the menu for particular commands, you can also customize the keyboard to minimize the keystrokes for those commands (e.g. via hydra).