Terpstra Keyboard • Hacker News Board

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#21

Post by Aachen » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 12:35 PM UTC

dist-epoch wrote: post #13

Aachen wrote: post #8

I'm impressed how responsive the keys are! Will definitely be checking out on desktop if I can see how the audio rendering code works (unless someone here already knows). I presume the audio synthesis API and ontouchstart but maybe there's something clever in addition like prerendering the audio samples rather than synthesising them on press Maybe it also helps that I've got a headphone jack plugged in instead of the…

responsive, but there is a small click between notes. maybe they start mid phase

What browser and OS is that? I experience no clicks on Android 10 with a chromium webview-based browser

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#22

Post by quink » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 12:35 PM UTC

cwbrandsma wrote: post #11

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #5

Fun fact, anyone with a surname that ends with the -stra or -sma suffix has their origins in Frisia [0], a region in current-day Netherlands and Germany that retained their independence in the Roman era. Terpstra specifically refers to someone living on a terp, an artificial hill (because there's no hills in the Netherlands lololol) that people would live on or retreat to with the intermittent floodings. This in turn…

And you will forever have your name mispronounced by English speakers that can’t wrap their tongues around the -sma or -stra ending. Things like TerpSON, TerpSmith, Terp…. One time while voting the lady working there butchered my name 8 times, she literally could not get it right.

> she literally could not get it right

Eh, they get their revenge. As any Australian of a certain age can tell you TelSTRA could not get it right, for any value of right, without expending an equivalent effort to moving a mountain.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#23

Post by gbuk2013 » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 12:47 PM UTC

Sound is not quite right - C## should sound like D but it’s slightly off.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#24

Post by vintermann » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 12:53 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #5

Fun fact, anyone with a surname that ends with the -stra or -sma suffix has their origins in Frisia [0], a region in current-day Netherlands and Germany that retained their independence in the Roman era. Terpstra specifically refers to someone living on a terp, an artificial hill (because there's no hills in the Netherlands lololol) that people would live on or retreat to with the intermittent floodings. This in turn…

I think this is a reference to the muse Terpsichore, though?

We also have at least one -stra river in Norway, Vinstra. Don't know if anyone has it as last name, though.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#25

Post by mikepurvis » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 12:57 PM UTC

Aachen wrote: post #21

dist-epoch wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

responsive, but there is a small click between notes. maybe they start mid phase

What browser and OS is that? I experience no clicks on Android 10 with a chromium webview-based browser

Butter-smooth for me on Window 11 + Firefox

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#26

Post by kevinwang » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:00 PM UTC

gbuk2013 wrote: post #23

Sound is not quite right - C## should sound like D but it’s slightly off.

Looks like the default settings correspond to a 31-note scale instead of the usual 12-tone scale. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/31_equal_temperament

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#27

Post by bluGill » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:06 PM UTC

I've been trying to design a keyboard that can be used with the feet - something that I can play like dance dance revolution, while playing something else with my hands (mandolin), thus making me a one man band. Figuring out what a good layout would be is the first step and so far everything I've thought of either lacks useful notes, is too big to reach useful notes, or the keys are too close together. If anyone has ideas on how to do this I'd love help. (or better yet do this as I don't have must time to work on it)

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#28

Post by cwbrandsma » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:18 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #20

cwbrandsma wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you will forever have your name mispronounced by English speakers that can’t wrap their tongues around the -sma or -stra ending. Things like TerpSON, TerpSmith, Terp…. One time while voting the lady working there butchered my name 8 times, she literally could not get it right.

To be fair to an English speaker reading your name from paper: some native English speakers are taught to read by recognizing words by their first letter and their shape, and skipping the word to later fill in the blanks when they don't recognize the word. The lady may have simply never been taught how to sound out unfamiliar letter combinations, and may have been trying her best to make sense of the unrecognizable m…

She wasn't even reading it, I was telling her my name, all she had to do was repeat it and she couldn't do it.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#29

Post by futura_heavy » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:20 PM UTC

agos wrote: post #12

docdeek wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting. The only Terpstra I knew of before this link was Niki Terpstra, one of only three Dutch winners of both Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.

I also recall one Brett Terpstra, maker of Marked app and kind of a known name in the indie Mac developer scene

I thought this was him debuting a new project.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#30

Post by amne » Wed, Jun 18, 2025, 1:38 PM UTC

aniviacat wrote: post #18

randomtoast wrote: post #10

Somehow I cannot open the website.

It's HTTP only, maybe that's why?

The article link is missing the scheme so the browser will default to https. I get an error about the CNAME mismatching the Host on https for example.