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Seriously, the thought about foot pedals had never crossed my mind, AT ALL, even after so many years of reading tech news, it's a completely new concept.

Disregarding the practicality or the actual use, I think it is a very interesting concept and possibility that could be explored.




Uh, it's not a new concept. I had foot switches for typing back in the late 80s. I knew quite a few people in the 90s that were big on the concept too. It was a bit of a fad when the first round of ergonomic keyboards started becoming popular.

For a non-anecdotal perspective, emacs users have been doing this for quite a while http://emacswiki.org/emacs/FootSwitches. go ahead and search for foot switches as well. They all look old and dated don't they? There's a reason for that.

It's not talked about much because it's difficult to learn, non-portable and the need for foot switches is mitigated by proper technique when typing.


Yes, I was just surprised that I didn't ever hear about it. It's not that it's something new, it's clearly not :)


There was a submission here a few years ago about building a "Vim clutch." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4141410


Explored again. The Mother of All Demos used footpedals and a chorded keyboard, for example. Versions of these have been commercially available ever since. They near really caught on.


Instead of petals, they should make a small clip that attaches to the end of your shoe.


Foot switches are fun. I've mine configured to various most used functions per app, though it’s mostly PgUp, Back and PgDn. It's great slurping a coffee and browsing the news that way in the morning.




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