Looks like some of the shortcuts are really RSI prone, i.e. ctrl + b + & (where & is shift + 7). Are there any possibilities to have more wrist-friendly shortcuts?
Not sure if you know this, but you're not pressing 4 keys at once. The ctrl + b part is the prefix sequence to let tmux know you want to send it commands. The order of key presses would be:
1) press ctrl + b
2) release
3) press shift + 7
You may already know this, and the RSI concerns still stand (I'm not sure what all goes into RSI risks), but wanted to clarify if the concern is over pressing 4 keys at the same time that are all over the keyboard.
A very common change is to change the prefix to ctrl + a, like this in your tmux.conf:
# remap prefix from 'C-b' to 'C-a
unbind C-b
set-option -g prefix C-a
bind-key C-a send-prefix
I've heard that he reason for ctrl + b is because screen uses ctrl + a, which just doesn't make any sense to me. You can nest both tmux and screen and to get to an inner layer you press (if ctrl + a has been mapped) ctrl + a + a - and now your command is sent to the inner tmux/screen.
Defaults matter. It is not feasible to configure this on every machine you touch so one have to remember both the default one and the sane one...
C-b is terrible for your wrist, especially in conjunction with the following commands.
Choosing C-a isn't as much about preference as it is about not-terrible ergonomics. Now people are right to prefer anything other than C-a or C-b but C-a is objectively a much saner default than C-b.
The problem is with ctrl positioning, there was a time when it was more commonly found on the home row [0]. Rebinding caps lock to control turns the motion from an awkward wrist snap to a slight spreading of your left hand fingers.
I always use the modifier key on the opposite side of the keyboard to avoid that issue. So for ctrl-b , I press the ctrl key on the right side of the keyboard worth my right pinky and press the b key with my left index finger.
