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Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#101

Post by mbirth »

robodan wrote: post #48
massung wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to remember reading once that what is typed by a stenographer is also only meaningful to them. And therefore must be transcribed into English later by the same stenographer. Can anyone here confirm that?

What stenographers capture is phonetic. These days a computer program translates that back into written language in real time. It uses knowledge of the language to pull this off. So it's a bit like autocorrect on you phone.

There’s a great video from Matt Gray about this:

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

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#102

Post by mbirth »

MiddleEndian wrote: post #90
Clubber wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dvorak keyboard's fatal flaw is when you have to type on someone else's keyboard. Standardization has its benefits, even if less than ideal. Trackballs have a similar issue.

I've exclusively used Kensington trackballs at home and work (along with trackpads on laptops I guess) since I was around seven years old, Dvorak since I was around fourteen. I really don't use other people's computers that often, but mice aren't that hard to use (just uncomfortable) and I can still type in QWERTY at about 25WPM but I'd have to look at the keyboard a bit. Trackballs and Dvorak are both more comfortab…

What about keyboard shortcuts? I’ve only realised why some shortcuts were chosen after using an English language QWERTY keyboard.

On a German QWERTZ keyboard, most symbols are in completely different places, require modifiers, and thus you almost get cramps when typing some keyboard shortcuts. On a “default” English keyboard, they’re easy and the placement makes sense.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#103

Post by seabass-labrax »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #49
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #32

A while back in PyCon UK I met some of the people behind http://www.openstenoproject.org/plover/ It’s awesome just how fast and accurate they can be, and most devs were of my mindset “wow can I learn to type like that - it woukd solve this problem and that” Till we found out just how much work is needed to get good. It’s a true skill, and sadly undervalued but something that just has too little pro for the cons - in…

I was never trained as a touch-typist. I still have to look at the keyboard as I type, and have never become a master CLI maven. But it hasn’t prevented me from writing thousands of pages of prose, and millions of lines of code. I think it has probably also saved me from RSI. I have a friend that is a master engineer, that has to change their career, because their arms are all screwed up (multiple surgeries didn’t fi…

If one can get RSI in the wrists as a touch typist, why couldn't one get RSI in the shoulders or elbows as a 'hunt and peck' typist?

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#104

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

seabass-labrax wrote: post #103
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was never trained as a touch-typist. I still have to look at the keyboard as I type, and have never become a master CLI maven. But it hasn’t prevented me from writing thousands of pages of prose, and millions of lines of code. I think it has probably also saved me from RSI. I have a friend that is a master engineer, that has to change their career, because their arms are all screwed up (multiple surgeries didn’t fi…

If one can get RSI in the wrists as a touch typist, why couldn't one get RSI in the shoulders or elbows as a 'hunt and peck' typist?

Because we don't move in a repeatable fashion. I'm not in one position, all the time. My whole arm moves in fairly random fashion.

The RSI is not because of movement, per se, it's because of repetition of the same moves (Thus, the "R" in "RSI").

Trained touch-typists keep their back straight, their arms at the same level, and basically only move their hands and wrists; always alternating between the exact same positions. I suspect that "extra-clicky" keyboards, which require a bit of force to actuate, don't help.

It's highly efficient, and I have always been in awe of really good touch-typists. Most don't get RSI, and I'm not sure what the difference is, with the ones that do.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#105

Post by worksonmymach »

nunez wrote: post #86
noufalibrahim wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raw typing speed is not a blocker to being a good programmer. However, I've generally found that if someone types fast (and uses shortcuts especially in his editor), it usually a sign that he's done a lot of it and that has proven to be a decent proxy for coding experience. This is specifically for junior developers.

This is why typing tests were popular during SWE interviews back in the day.

When was that common?

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#106

Post by fragmede »

Pet_Ant wrote: post #92
valbaca wrote: post #6

The special phrase you want is "chord" A stenographer's keyboard is a special kind of chord keyboard for spoken English. There are other kinds of chord keyboards, but look into those. For example: - https://www.charachorder.com/ - https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30515912

Apparently CharaChorder 2 was launched 2 hours ago so this makes me suspicious this may be a plant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYLHPH9uBXU

Going through poster's submissions and comments on https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=actinium226 seems like a lot of backstory just to plant a story that would do just fine as a ShowHN is they're actively involved with chara chorder, so I doubt it's a plant.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#107

Post by MiddleEndian »

mbirth wrote: post #102
MiddleEndian wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've exclusively used Kensington trackballs at home and work (along with trackpads on laptops I guess) since I was around seven years old, Dvorak since I was around fourteen. I really don't use other people's computers that often, but mice aren't that hard to use (just uncomfortable) and I can still type in QWERTY at about 25WPM but I'd have to look at the keyboard a bit. Trackballs and Dvorak are both more comfortab…

What about keyboard shortcuts? I’ve only realised why some shortcuts were chosen after using an English language QWERTY keyboard. On a German QWERTZ keyboard, most symbols are in completely different places, require modifiers, and thus you almost get cramps when typing some keyboard shortcuts. On a “default” English keyboard, they’re easy and the placement makes sense.

It's a little annoying but overall not too bad. Don't need the additional modifiers but I no longer have ZXCV next to each other. I usually have two hands at the keyboard anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#108

Post by nunez »

worksonmymach wrote: post #105
nunez wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why typing tests were popular during SWE interviews back in the day.

When was that common?

2000s. The last time I got hit with this was in 2019, I believe.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#109

Post by worksonmymach »

nunez wrote: post #108
worksonmymach wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was that common?

2000s. The last time I got hit with this was in 2019, I believe.

Wow. Never done one (working as dev since 1995)

I would probably fail if I did. Probably avg 40 wpm with touchtyping.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone tried adapting a court reporter keyboard for writing code?

#110

Post by iepathos »

ano-ther wrote: post #82
iepathos wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a charachorder. It's similar to music theory where you can hit individual notes to make up a chord. With chording you hit multiple keys usually that are part of a larger word and it outputs the associated word. This means instead of having to hit every individual key in sequence to type out a phrase one character at a time, you hit multiple keys at once to output words at a time. In the time it takes to output…

Is that language specific then? I would imagine that programming languages need another vocabulary and you will also need to deal with LongVariableNames, delimiters, tabs etc.

Yes, it lets you define custom chords to suit your needs and languages.
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