I\'ve injured my wrist and looking over at the designer sitting across me using

Question

I've injured my wrist and looking over at the designer sitting across me using his pen and tablet made me think if that's something a web developer (20-40% time spent in photoshop) could use and maybe even be more efficient in the long term?

Are you a developer using pen / tablet and seriously not missing a mouse anymore? Why?

I did a search and found these but they don't answer my question exactly, or in enough detail:

Development with a tablet (dated 2008)
One handed coding with tablet
One guy using a tablet / pen likes it
Programming with feet?
A designer switches to a tablet (good comments)
But what I did find I can summarise as follows:

It is easier on the wrist.
There is a learning curve.
For pointing intensive work (ala photoshop) it is superior.
You get better at keyboard shortcuts if you're not already.
You might hold the pen while you type if you find picking up / putting down harder.
Tablet to screen mapping is awesome (absolute positioning, i.e. tablet corner = screen corner)
I think I've almost convinced myself here :)

Explanation / Answer

I started using a tablet (Wacom) about 10 years ago when I started developing the first symptoms of Repetitive Stress in my right hand. I had some experience with them prior to that in my life as an architect so switching came pretty easy for me.

I'm naturally left handed but use the mouse in my right hand so switching to the tablet had the added benefit of transfering some of the computer work load away from my ailing hand. My symptoms for Repetitive Stress went away after a while but I still use the tablet on my home PC.

To me, grabbing the pen is no different than grabbing a mouse so I don't consider it any worse or better as far as that goes. I can easily code as fast at home as I do at work (where I use a trackball).

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