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Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

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Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#51
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be not much. LLMs are pretty useless concerning anything novel. Maybe an LLM could update the docstrings?

I'm assuming they meant replacing the markov model with a modern language model, not having an LLM magically improve the repo.

That sounds like it'd give you no hope at all of ever learning muscle memory for it.

Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#52
post #50
post #13

I learned recently that there are way, way more alt-layouts than the ones you've heard of: Dvorak & Colemak. Not only that, people just change them to suit their needs! They use things like Hands Down [0] as a guide , and make up their own layout. Wild. [0]: https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown

Very nice website with many solid principles! Though one big flaw in all the designs I've seen is that they rely on bad data - text corpus that is the output of human editing efforts, not the input. So all those "0.00001%" stats aren't as precise as they seem, and you still see the frequently used backspace/enter in the awful pinky position despite the official philosophy of "Hands Down is easy on the pinkies" Have y…

As far as I'm aware hands down layouts were primarily designed to be used on a split ergonomic keyboard with thumb cluster, the space and enter lives on the thumb cluster.

Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#53
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice website with many solid principles! Though one big flaw in all the designs I've seen is that they rely on bad data - text corpus that is the output of human editing efforts, not the input. So all those "0.00001%" stats aren't as precise as they seem, and you still see the frequently used backspace/enter in the awful pinky position despite the official philosophy of "Hands Down is easy on the pinkies" Have y…

As far as I'm aware hands down layouts were primarily designed to be used on a split ergonomic keyboard with thumb cluster, the space and enter lives on the thumb cluster.

Even those better thumb variants don't seem to statistically take that into account (judging from the description/heatmaps/data sources), but then it also presents the "slab" variant...

Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#54
post #28

Took me 1 year to rewire my brain to switch from Qwerty to Dvorak (I struggled with from RSI for nearly 6 years) and nearly 2 years to gain full speed. It is hard, very hard for the brain. It is mentally tiring to rewire your brain like this and you will do your job at a much worse efficiency (forget pair programming for a while). You need new keyboard stickers also. Great job at making this idea but it is not practi…

And there's also the problem of using computers that aren't yours. I haven't tried (and I will never), but I imagine switching between layouts is at least very inconvenient.

Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#55
post #5
post #3

Yes! I have been wanting this forever. Keys are in too predictable a position

There were, for awhile, some security systems had on-screen keyboards that would change layout on every key press.

I have seen this with some of the card swiping machines in India.

Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#56
post #5
post #3

Yes! I have been wanting this forever. Keys are in too predictable a position

There were, for awhile, some security systems had on-screen keyboards that would change layout on every key press.

Had this at an ATM recently, and it took a couple of tries at my PIN before I looked at the keypad and realized what was going on. One more wrong PIN and I could have lost my card.

Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#57
post #13

I learned recently that there are way, way more alt-layouts than the ones you've heard of: Dvorak & Colemak. Not only that, people just change them to suit their needs! They use things like Hands Down [0] as a guide , and make up their own layout. Wild. [0]: https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown

For those who type on German keyboards or in German, there are a number of layouts that have evolved around the Neo 2 layout [1]. The main driving force is ergonomics, but since not everyone works the same way, many variants have emerged (and still do) [2]. Interesting is the craftsmanship, including customized programs to optimize the layouts [3]. [1] https://www.neo-layout.org/Layouts/ [2] https://maximilian-schill…

German layouts with [ ] { } in such horrible positions are killing all joy when programming, especially in curly brace heavy languages.

Changed to US qwerty 30 years ago, never looking back.

Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#59
post #33

This project brilliantly points out that we are limited and shaped by how keys and layouts are presented to us. What I don’t understand is why not go all the way. Why not also change the concept of what’s needed to enter a character? It would make sense that keys aren’t the ideal affordance to express a key every time. Use a volume slider for a letter, use radio buttons, on/off toggles. What if I could draw the lette…

We're also limited and shaped by keyboards. Why only one letter per finger? The datahand does five! Why are key switches only press? What about analog partial key press? There are Hall effect keyboard switches that do that, I want to try some. What about finger twist for input? I don't think anything exists? Would that be a volume knob on a key switch?

> What about analog partial key press? There are Hall effect keyboard switches that do that, I want to try some.

That sounds fun, now I really want to try out a keyboard where half press is lowercase and full press is UPPERCASE! No more pinky strain from shift presses.

Re: Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019)

#60
post #13

I learned recently that there are way, way more alt-layouts than the ones you've heard of: Dvorak & Colemak. Not only that, people just change them to suit their needs! They use things like Hands Down [0] as a guide , and make up their own layout. Wild. [0]: https://sites.google.com/alanreiser.com/handsdown

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