> in particular, due to use of emacs

I use Emacs too full-time (at work as well as at home). I use the 'ctrl' key on both sides of the keyboard. For example, if I'm typing C-a (i.e., ctrl+a), I hold down 'ctrl' with the right little finger and 'a' with the left little finger. Similarly, if I'm typing C-k, I hold down 'ctrl' with the left little finger and 'k' with the right middle finger. I touch type and any touch typing lesson teaches us how we always use both hands to type shift+key, i.e., the key with one hand while holding down 'shift' with the opposite hand. The same lessons can be applied to the 'ctrl' key as well. Never had any problem using Emacs like this.

However there are some laptop keyboards which do not have the right 'ctrl' key and that makes good typing habits really difficult when the 'ctrl' key is involved. That led me to write a minor mode to make Emacs a better experience for myself on such keyboards without having to resort to a modal editing mode like God mode or Evil mode. My non-modal editing mode is called the Devil mode <https://susam.github.io/devil/> (HN post: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35936885>)

Since I've never suffered from RSI due to Emacs usage, it makes me very curious about what the actual contributing factors are that cause some Emacs users to get RSI. Is it the very large number of hours spent with Emacs? Poor typing habits? Poor keyboards? An inherent susceptibility to RSI?

I’ve used Karabiner Elements on my Mac to turn caps lock into a combined ctrl and escape key, and return into a combined ctrl and return key. It takes getting used to but it’s pretty nice.

When I hold the key while pressing another, it acts like ctrl. When I tap the key it acts like escape and return, respectively.

I’ve only done it recently for return. Still getting used to it. But now I have a ctrl key on both sides of the keyboard.

That mapping is also pretty common on linux with xcape (and some stuff on wayland whose name I don't remember). What would one use on windows? AHK?