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Show HN: I automated half of my typing

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Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#321

Post by jodrellblank »

Exuma wrote: post #98
NateEag wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More or less, yeah. There are different stenography systems, each with their own shortcuts and abbreviations, but at core they're all about producing large volumes of text with minimal physical effort at very high speeds. Those interested should check out http://www.openstenoproject.org/ . A good mechanical keyboard (e.g. the ErgoDox EZ) and Plover mean the only thing standing between you and >200 WPM typing is the t…

I hit this invisible wall at about 165 WPM that I can't just get beyond, and it kills me. I wonder how fast I could get with stenography... I see dem 400 WPM videos and they look awesome.

The Plover / OpenSteno founder Mirabai Knight was working on Python steno a decade ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu7DygveoB4

Longer video eight years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRFKZGWrmrM

Some random YouTube video, JavaScript steno seven years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBBiri3CD6w

Steno coding in Ruby, four months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W9_k2CXrXE

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#322

Post by brimwats »

porridgeraisin wrote: post #152

I prefer an autocomplete mobile like experience for most typing. I use autohotkey to have global autocomplete for English, anywhere in any app i type it gives me options in a little tabbable box immediately. I disable it for vscode usually except when I'm typing markdown I manually enable it. I love it. Beyond this I use ahk's hotstrings feature to have "snippets". I separate them by topic and activate them as and wh…

I would also be really interested in your AHK script!

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#323

Post by gulabjamuns »

boticello wrote: post #241

EasyScript is another rule-based shorthand system for typists. I created an EasyScript translator for GPT-4: https://gist.github.com/boticello/1ea9c7105e5c369ea937158411... As others have commented, this is not the most efficient or practical approach, but for me it was an experiment which worked. http://www.easyscript.com/

I've been learning keyscript[0] and it's really fun and concise.

[0] https://cassyjanek.webs.com/comparealphashorthands.htm

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#324

Post by gcr »

If you like this, you’ll also like Plover, an IME (input method) that translates chorded keystrokes to text. It can use certain gaming keyboards but people also sell custom hardware. Court reporters frequently use special-purpose chorded keyboards to quickly prepare court transcripts.

https://www.openstenoproject.org/plover/

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#325

Post by MobiusHorizons »

eschluntz wrote: post #83
MobiusHorizons wrote: post #45

I feel like typing is never really the bottleneck for me except maybe in some chat interactions would have benefited from the extra bandwidth of video or audio. Do you actually save time on task with these kinds of shortcuts?

My main motivation was very fast slack conversations (Can you post a screenshot?) and a bunch of email responses that are pretty formulaic (sending my calendly link, etc). For longer writing I'm often frustrated that I can think faster than I can type, so it does help with that too!

Very interesting. It sounds like you do a lot more repetitive communication than I do. Thanks for explaining.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#326

Post by dplgk »

porridgeraisin wrote: post #152

I prefer an autocomplete mobile like experience for most typing. I use autohotkey to have global autocomplete for English, anywhere in any app i type it gives me options in a little tabbable box immediately. I disable it for vscode usually except when I'm typing markdown I manually enable it. I love it. Beyond this I use ahk's hotstrings feature to have "snippets". I separate them by topic and activate them as and wh…

Are you on Mac? I could not find any way to get a hotkey for autocorrect and would love to know how!

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#327

Post by passion__desire »

eschluntz wrote: post #204
passion__desire wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For longer writing, why not write anchor words on the scratch notes and then flesh out details? Or do you think, that in the flow of ideas, all sentence details need to be jotted down too? Because you feel they come out perfect the first time?

I certainly write outlines first, but when I do sit down to write a full draft I really like to get to something that's "complete" even if it's really bad. Then I can switch into "editing" mode mentally.

Some people write in a "white-heat" fashion.

[0] "The Last Question" ranks with "Nightfall" (1941) as one of Asimov's best-known and most acclaimed short stories. He wrote in 1973:[3]

Why is it my favorite? For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn't have to fiddle with it; and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word. This sort of thing endears any story to any writer. Then, too, it has had the strangest effect on my readers. Frequently someone writes to ask me if I can give them the name of a story, which they think I may have written, and tell them where to find it. They don't remember the title but when they describe the story it is invariably 'The Last Question'. This has reached the point where I recently received a long-distance phone call from a desperate man who began, "Dr. Asimov, there's a story I think you wrote, whose title I can't remember—" at which point I interrupted to tell him it was 'The Last Question' and when I described the plot it proved to be indeed the story he was after. I left him convinced I could read minds at a distance of a thousand miles.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#328

Post by eternityforest »

This would be especially amazing on mobile. I was not expecting to see an improvement to typing anytime soon, but I think I might actually be more productive with this.

Now I'm imagining building a keyboard that has it built in, with a little OLED right on the keyboard, and when you press space it types out the closest match to what's in the buffer, and you don't have to take your eyes away from the board to see what the autocorrect is doing.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#329

Post by HeavyStorm »

Very interesting! I used to create some abbreviations in Office which saved me a lot of typing, but usually only for very simple words that I typed very frequently. Never occurred me that I could do sit for a few more words and even phrases.

But I'm wondering if I would be able to learn all these shortcuts. There would be a lot of time invested, and I don't know how stable a solution this is - ie will I be able to use it everyday for the next five years?

I'm betting on the capabilities of LLMs right now - I think they can predict a lot of my typing and save me enough time and, if msft is smart, they will soon enough be present everywhere.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#330

Post by ughitsaaron »

samstave wrote: post #276
ughitsaaron wrote: post #274

Speaking personally, I feel like any time I save by reducing keystrokes would be lost by having to think about shortcuts (or making corrections). However, I Once believed the same thing about vim-mode (which I believe saves me time though I couldn’t prove it).

There is one key I think all keyboards are missing “toggle case” If you had a key to toggle case on selected texts billions of backspace keystrokes and retyping strokes could be saved

You mean like swapping caps lock for control?
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