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Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

openstenoproject.org

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Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#31

Post by comma_at »

kremlin wrote: post #17
jore wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thanks, it also does not look fast to me and does not seem to improve the process the way it does for speech. Additionally I guess there is a steep learning curve so it is definitely not for everybody

considering typing time isn't even close to the most time consuming part of programming, I don't think this will be relevant to programmers apart from the programmers who want to do it for fun

https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/

Docstrings, writing documentation, talking to colleagues on Slack, asking questions on stackoverflow, writing mails, browsing, working in the terminal. We spend a lot of time writing. How much time could one save by e.g. doubling the speed?

Another aspect is of the working memory - will it free your brain's resources? Will allow writing at the speed of thought allow for new/more thoughts?

I think we should explore these waters, and steno is a solid choice.

Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#32

Post by comma_at »

jeroenhd wrote: post #28

Steno shows up around here every now and then and it makes me more curious to try it every time it pops up. Does anyone here have experience with using steno in a bilingual context? I understand that chords are mapped to words through a dictionary of sorts, usually based on how the words are pronounced, but I expect different dictionaries to clash. I suppose it's possible to manually remap the entire dictionary for c…

Switching dictionaries/systems is possible and used every day by people who use it with more than 1 language. Think of it as switching to colemak or dvorak on your keyboard.

Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#33

Post by comma_at »

telesilla wrote: post #20
larsiusprime wrote: post #19

I got into this a few years ago and it was really fun! Highly recommended just for the experience itself.

I've been holding off writing long form because of the strain of typing and was looking into dictation but my brain forms better structures better when I write. Have you noticed improved physical performance with steno? I also wonder if it might be easy to pick up, as a pianist.

Learning a steno system is similar to learning a new spoken language - it takes time, and the time it takes differs based on the time you invest daily, personal experience, type of study... Some have reached 100wpm in 2 months, some take 2 years. As a reference number - to be a certified stenographer you need to pass a test with at least 225wpm with 99% precision. The classes take 2 years, I think.

Being a pianist might be handy, but you'll still need to practice a lot to see progress.

Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#34

Post by ArchieMaclean »

charcircuit wrote: post #22
jore wrote: post #3

can stenography be used to write code? or is it only for text based on speech?

It's not practical due to coding requiring special symbols, camelCase, and you tend to not write code just going forward. Steno is good for transcription or taking notes, but it's not great at other things.

CamelCase is built in to Plover! [1] symbols work too - they might have less intuitive memorisation, but you don't use that many anyway (unless you're in APL...but that doesn't work with normal keyboards either).

You can set up Vim-like navigation e.t.c. too (e.g. [2]), for moving about in code. I haven't tried it.

I think however that the benefits of coding with Plover aren't really great enough to justify the huge struggle it would be to get proficient with it.

[1] https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/wiki/Dictionary-F...

[2] http://www.openstenoproject.org/stenodict/dictionaries/vim_d...

Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#35

Post by comma_at »

charcircuit wrote: post #22
jore wrote: post #3

can stenography be used to write code? or is it only for text based on speech?

It's not practical due to coding requiring special symbols, camelCase, and you tend to not write code just going forward. Steno is good for transcription or taking notes, but it's not great at other things.

To balance the views, Mirabai, the person who started this project, does live transcription in vim and uses it for editing the notes as well. Ted, one of the lead developers, uses steno daily for programming. Emily, another user and plugin developer, has developed dictionaries to help with symbolic input and modifiers (e.g. ctrl+shift+x). There are plugins for changing case (camel, lower, snake etc.)

Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#37

Post by eggy »

eloeffler wrote: post #15
psiops wrote: post #6

Why would I want to learn this, besides to become a professional stenographer?

The crime of curiosity :)

That and you might get up and pass your current typing speed while substantially reducing wear and tear on your hands and wrists even if you don't have RSI issues. I bought the Georgi keyboard [0] and I am using Plover. The Georgi can also be used as a one-handed keyboard [1], and I am just getting around to mapping it to augment my livecoding for music setup. Some use it as a gamepad too. You always learn something unexpected when you learn something new.

[0] https://www.gboards.ca/product/georgi

[1] https://qmk.fm/keyboards/georgi/

Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#38

Post by willhinsa »

bsdubernerd wrote: post #21
fnord77 wrote: post #4

> Stenographers stroke chords instead of typing keys, resulting in less movement and better ergonomics than typing. over the years I've seen various chord-style keyboard schemes. I've wondered why none have caught on - seems more logical than hitting individual keys.

For starters, chording requires significantly more hand coordination than a normal keyboard. This is a significant show-stopper for many. Think about all the people you know that still have to look at the keyboard to type, that type just using one finger and one hand at a time, that still hunt for common symbols. None of this would work with a chording keyboard. Unless you're transcribing, typing is not usually a lim…

What is an ortholinear layout?

Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#39

Post by marttt »

jeroenhd wrote: post #28

Steno shows up around here every now and then and it makes me more curious to try it every time it pops up. Does anyone here have experience with using steno in a bilingual context? I understand that chords are mapped to words through a dictionary of sorts, usually based on how the words are pronounced, but I expect different dictionaries to clash. I suppose it's possible to manually remap the entire dictionary for c…

This topic has been occasionally raised in the Plover stenography Google group [1], I highly recommend browsing the threads there. I used to read this group, and I think there has been several proposals for e.g. orthographic steno systems.

Years ago I made a quarter-assed, dreamy effort to implement the Gregg [2] shorthand system in my language (Estonian) -- I worked as a journalist back then, so it was supposed to serve a professional need -- but unfortunately this enthusiasm faded quickly.

I remember how inspired I felt after reading a particular article about Gregg [3] for the first time, though.

1: https://groups.google.com/g/ploversteno

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_shorthand

3: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/yeah-...

Re: Open Steno Project – Freeing stenography

#40

Post by dmos62 »

I'm new to steno. This article in their wiki is great: https://github.com/openstenoproject/plover/wiki/Stenography-...

It's essentially a chord-based, dictionary-based, short-hand typing. You write by looking up entries in a custom dictionary (a dictionary of syllables for example) by pressing combinations of keys. The stenographer's keyboard has few keys, compared to a QWERTY. You can define your dictionary however you like.

This must be extremely good for languages whose phonetics can be directly translated to its ortographics (without semantic or grammatical parsing), because then the dictionary is small and easy to remember. English is not optimal in that sense: e.g. the words 'flower' and 'flour' are phonetically identical. Edit: but then, ML transcription would work great for those languages for the same reason.

You could supplement with ML or some crafty NLP to effectively simplify dictionaries. Autocomplete/autocorrect in other words. Really cool domain.

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