As far as proffessional equipment goes, we're there... I have an 8 core workstation with 8gb of ram and 2 24" monitors running linux with a window manager heavily customized by me. Compare that to a macbook air.
Quantity is not quality.
Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
31–40 of 41 posts
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#32It's actually possible to turn some regular keyboards into steno machines, using opensource software: http://plover.stenoknight.com/
Steno produces syllables at a time via chording. They say with a few months practice you can get to 120 wpm, and eventually over 200. Users rave about how much more productive they are when they can type as fast as they think.
"Every word my characters said to me came up on the screen as quickly as they could have spoken them. Before, in the time it took me to type out the six or seven letters that made up each word, my brain would cloud over and I would start second-guessing myself so much it was a mighty battle even to get to the end of a sentence. With steno, most words came in a single stroke, so my text was able to keep ahead of my doubts and excuses and just keep going. I could write for half an hour on the subway going home, or pull out my gear and do a quick 10 minutes in the park before schlepping onward to my next gig. Before, I would have told myself that I didn't have time to get anything substantial done in those few scattered intervals, that I needed several solid hours to get into the flow and mood of writing. After learning steno, I couldn't get away with that ploy. Before I knew it, my 10 minutes were over, but I'd managed to fill half a dozen pages. It wasn't even the speed that helped me do it, primarily; it was the fluency that steno gave to my thinking." http://plover.stenoknight.com/2010/04/writing-and-coding-wit...
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#33Imagine a chorded keyboard on the left and right, with the right one (or perhaps both?) doubling as a mouse, with one or two of the keys assigned to mouse function. That's 2^8 to 2^11 different characters you can represent, and you never have to move your hand over to the mouse!
Frogpad.com
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#34I succumb to these emotions from time to time, but it's worth noting that—software wise—you can certainly live in the past we hoped we'd have if you put in a modicum of effort: Plan 9: actively maintained, runs well in a VM: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/ Smalltalk: many options, notably Pharo: http://www.pharo-project.org Lisp machine emulators: http://www.unlambda.com/ Haiku is approaching a 1.0 release quickly:…
Alan Kay makes the point repeatedly that when implementation (or usage) of a technology outstrips education, what you get is a pop culture, driven by marketing and fads, AKA eternal September.
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, I have a 2 core ThinkPad t61, with 4gb of ram and a 14" WXGA screen and I bet my equipment is as professional as yours... However, 99% of that equipment is a black box designed for the lowest grade user which is the very apt point of the article. You are not a professional - you are a salt mine worker as am I.
This kind of reasoning makes the same presupposition as the article's author. But it is ironic that he mentions musicians--a professional musician's tools, like a programmer's are basically high quality versions of the amateur's. The conjecture about keyboards being suboptimal is verifibly true, but that does not automatically extend to the machine as well. I also suspect coding experiences will be pretty subjective.
I think the point is the wrong way around.
1. The amateurs tools are a low quality, oversimplified version of the professional's. The same goes if you compare a Korg Trinity to a cheap Casio keyboard (I've owned the earlier of the two for 16 years and play for 2 hours a day at random intervals if that's any help supporting the difference in quality).
2. The machine is definitely suboptimal. I suggest that you read the remainder of the author's blog about sane computing.
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#36I succumb to these emotions from time to time, but it's worth noting that—software wise—you can certainly live in the past we hoped we'd have if you put in a modicum of effort: Plan 9: actively maintained, runs well in a VM: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/ Smalltalk: many options, notably Pharo: http://www.pharo-project.org Lisp machine emulators: http://www.unlambda.com/ Haiku is approaching a 1.0 release quickly:…
Alan Kay makes the point repeatedly that when implementation (or usage) of a technology outstrips education, what you get is a pop culture, driven by marketing and fads, AKA eternal September.
I think you and by proxy Alan Kay nailed it there.
As a person who purchases items for need and function, not form, desire or promise [1], I get to see the distinction daily.
[1] all my current worldly posessions together cost 50% less than a new low-end MacBook Pro (bar one item - a musical instrument).
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#37I succumb to these emotions from time to time, but it's worth noting that—software wise—you can certainly live in the past we hoped we'd have if you put in a modicum of effort: Plan 9: actively maintained, runs well in a VM: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/ Smalltalk: many options, notably Pharo: http://www.pharo-project.org Lisp machine emulators: http://www.unlambda.com/ Haiku is approaching a 1.0 release quickly:…
Emulators don't cut it, because the bottom-most complexity layer matters:
http://www.loper-os.org/?p=448
And the ground rules of computer system creation have changed. The reasonably-cheap, high-capacity FPGA now exists, as it did not in the age of the BeBox. It is no longer necessary for a hardware project to generate millions of sales (or any sales at all) in order to be "successful" (in the sense of actually remaining available to interested persons indefinitely.)
That being said, I am still working on a Linux-based emulator for the Loper architecture. In all likelihood, it will be unusably slow for any truly practical use, but will serve as a proof of concept (that is to say, agitprop.)
(Author of linked article speaking, in case no one noticed.)
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#38The issue unconsidered is that programming is nothing new. It's applicable algebra. If we consider his idea in the realms of mathematics, amateurs and experts still only/mostly use a pencil, graph paper and their minds. A keyboard and mouse is more than enough to code.
I agree that it lies more in how you express yourself than in the instrument itself. Indeed, the more you must think about the instrument, the worse it fulfills its purpose.
But you miss how beautiful and fluid pencil and paper really are!
Many centuries of civilization have innovated and iterated on the pencil/paper combination. For visual and tactile possibilities, pencil and paper vastly outstrip a mere board of buttons (keyboard). You get tactile feedback, varying thickness and darkness, and you can crease and rotate the paper as you shape your design. Future interaction will resemble pencil and paper, not a keyboard or iPad!
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#39The issue unconsidered is that programming is nothing new. It's applicable algebra. If we consider his idea in the realms of mathematics, amateurs and experts still only/mostly use a pencil, graph paper and their minds. A keyboard and mouse is more than enough to code.
I agree that it lies more in how you express yourself than in the instrument itself. Indeed, the more you must think about the instrument, the worse it fulfills its purpose. But you miss how beautiful and fluid pencil and paper really are! Many centuries of civilization have innovated and iterated on the pencil/paper combination. For visual and tactile possibilities, pencil and paper vastly outstrip a mere board of b…
> Future interaction will resemble pencil and paper, not a keyboard or iPad!
Probably not. At least one generation of children has already grown up without proper penmanship training, and for them, the experience of handwriting at any length ranges from awkward to excruciating.
Re: Engelbart's Violin - chorded keyboards
#40I succumb to these emotions from time to time, but it's worth noting that—software wise—you can certainly live in the past we hoped we'd have if you put in a modicum of effort: Plan 9: actively maintained, runs well in a VM: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/ Smalltalk: many options, notably Pharo: http://www.pharo-project.org Lisp machine emulators: http://www.unlambda.com/ Haiku is approaching a 1.0 release quickly:…
Emulators don't cut it, because the bottom-most complexity layer matters : http://www.loper-os.org/?p=448 http://www.loper-os.org/?p=55 And the ground rules of computer system creation have changed. The reasonably-cheap, high-capacity FPGA now exists, as it did not in the age of the BeBox. It is no longer necessary for a hardware project to generate millions of sales (or any sales at all) in order to be "successful"…
I like your notion of bedrock abstraction. I don't see the connection between it and the idea that emulators don't cut it.