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T9-QWERTY: The Ultra Efficient Minimal Motion Keyboard Layout

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DreymaR said:

Imagine typing with two mice! :) If the mouse inputs could be separated, of course (not possible with today's USB HID standard).

Yeah, why not? After all, it was thought by some that full n-kro wasn't possible over USB yet the MS Sidewinder X4 for example does it fine.

With two mice we could also have something like Keymonk for swyping.

For unambiguous typing on a mouse we could use multitap.

It's generally accepted that mice aren't so ergonomically sound

In the interests of accuracy, this is accepted by whom? Your sources?

I have a small wireless high precision laser mouse that fits my hand perfectly and I must say it is just as pleasant to use as my keyboard.

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pinkyache said:

Failing that I wonder if you could use the joystick and mouse, or two joysticks.

Hm. T9's inventors did actually start out with the idea that it could be used on joysticks. "They started investigating the most efficient way to do text input using only eight eye positions or joystick directions." (from the validconcept article)

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davkol said:
shaaniqbal said:

After all, it was thought by some that full n-kro wasn't possible over USB yet the MS Sidewinder X4 for example does it fine.

It doesn't. It has an awkward ~17KRO achieved through matrix optimization.

Says up to 26 simultaneous keys on the Amazon page. I'll test it later. I amend my wording then to "a useful amount of KRO", at least for steno and gaming, compared with most keyboards.

Other keyboards are closer (CM Storm QF Pro/TK), but still not perfect.

What is "perfect"? Perfect for what?

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davkol said:

I'll check those out. The advantage of mice and keyboards though is their ubiquity over joysticks etc.

pinkyache once suggested use of a clarinet for a new layout. Sounds cool but how many people have clarinets lying around?

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davkol said:

Proper NKRO implementation is far more reliable than the #KRO mess. Soarer has already explained it several times, e.g. here or here.

And soarer knows everything and he posted on an internet forum, so it must be true.

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davkol said:
shaaniqbal said:
davkol said:

Proper NKRO implementation is far more reliable than the #KRO mess. Soarer has already explained it several times, e.g. here or here.

And soarer knows everything and he posted on an internet forum, so it must be true.

You can check the USB HID standard, keyboard USB reports, that known bug in MS Windows up to Win7 SP1 or source codes of community-developed controllers by yourself. I've already done some of it.

All very well, but I've never once experienced a problem of keys not registering on my Sidewinder X4 with steno, which is what I use it for. Must be a real "mess" of a keyboard.

The bug was reported and fixed anyway, confirmed by my never experiencing a problem. The keyboard receives largely positive Amazon reviews and other Plover/steno users report no problems.

Last edited by shaaniqbal (06-Feb-2014 05:20:23)

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davkol said:
shaaniqbal said:
davkol said:

You can check the USB HID standard, keyboard USB reports, that known bug in MS Windows up to Win7 SP1 or source codes of community-developed controllers by yourself. I've already done some of it.

All very well, but I've never once experienced a problem of keys not registering on my Sidewinder X4 with steno, which is what I use it for. Must be a real "mess" of a keyboard.

Exposing the fallacy of "good enough" software

So I click that link, and I'm taken to a page where someone is basically trying to sell their book.

The Sidewinder X4 is not only "good enough" for steno, it has in my experience of using it for steno, no problems with unregistered keys. So in that sense it is "perfect". I asked you what you defined as perfect. I have not come across a steno outline that requires more than 17 keys pressed together.

So you rely on a fallacious strawman argument.

You davkol argue not from experience but your own theories. You are more interested in pretending to be the expert on everything. Please go away.

And read: Nirvana fallacy

Last edited by shaaniqbal (26-Feb-2014 02:15:13)

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Will you stop with the "please go away" nonsense, you big troll.

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No. This is my thread, I don't like people who waste my time on ridiculous arguments and who prefer that to speaking from experience.

It's been going on since the beginning of this thread. People constantly voicing their uninformed opinions.

I don't think you'd like it if I came on your thread and started acting like I knew everything.

The troll here is you DreymaR, I have asked politely before that you too stop commenting here.

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I'm thinking about semi-ambiguous layouts. For instance, the bottom row of QWERTY could be merged with the middle row. That alone would reduce a lot of motion, but wouldn't result in the high number of conflicts of having every letter on one row.

I'll upload the practice file for that soon.

Last edited by shaaniqbal (11-Apr-2014 01:11:38)

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You haven't asked politely that I'm aware of, but used some lame Brit sarcasm and general unpleasantness. And I will have you know that this was a respectful community with largely open-minded discussions before you came along – sometimes heated and lacking in balance, but never quite as inflammatory and insulting as you seem to instigate them. You may not be aware of it, not having seen the difference and seemingly lacking self-awareness.

Maybe all nice people who sometimes like to throw out opinions and thoughts without checking references or spending time on proper research beforehand should just take your advice and leave "your" thread. Then you can hobble around in here on your own. I wish Shai would tell you off (or me, if he thinks I'm the one that's out of line here!) for your childishness, but his style of moderation is usually low-key so I don't have too high hopes in that respect.

This isn't your forum, even if you started a thread. Others have the right to voice their opinions and thoughts as long as they follow the forum rules, and that's how a forum works. If you want something of your own you're more than welcome to create it and invite people over. These are the Colemak forums and not your private part of the woods.

Your opinions and observations are welcome in "my" threads of course – especially if voiced respectfully.

Last edited by DreymaR (03-Feb-2014 10:20:52)

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And here we are! The QWERTY semi-ambiguous practice file, with 10/521 conflicts. I'll upload the Colemak and Dvorak equivalents later.

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Your rudeness is almost enough to put me off of trying out T9-Qwerty again.

I did contemplate experimenting with Autokey, so I went back to Phraseexpress to try and grab the word list / maps.   The pxp files don't appear to be in a human readable format.

I read how to make a text expander file, and tried to export Phraseexpress phrases for text-expander.  But that didn't seem to work, or rather, it didn't spit out an XML file that I expected (that I might have been able to process).  Maybe the free version is crippled.

Autokey appears to keep phrases/aliases in different files, so if I had even a small dictionary of mappings I'd require hundreds of files.  I don't know if that is problematic.  Autokey might import the phrases internally into a more optimised format.   It doesn't appear to be able to import phrases from other programs.  Phraseexpress will import loads of formats, that it then appears to keep captive.

It did beg the question: is there a limitation to the amount of aliases you can use in these programs?

(Perhaps I'd be better with Autokey to try and use a 'Script', rather than use 'Phrases' for something like that.)

I realise that you are using Phraseexpress to demo a T9 implementation, so perhaps performance doesn't matter for now.  I do wonder if you can use something like Phraseexpress with a huge dictionary of mappings.

I've worked out how to prototype T9 in Sublime.  So if I get the urge or inspiration in the future I might give it _another_ try.

Last edited by pinkyache (03-Feb-2014 20:45:55)

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pinkyache said:

Autokey appears to keep phrases/aliases in different files, so if I had even a small dictionary of mappings I'd require hundreds of files.  I don't know if that is problematic.  Autokey might import the phrases internally into a more optimised format.   It doesn't appear to be able to import phrases from other programs.

Can you import from a text file? This for example.

Update: I was looking through this and this. Seems like there used to be an import and export function from a single file but the developer removed it because he couldn't be bothered to rewrite the function for the new version. Maybe you could get your hands on an older version of Autokey? It's supposed to be able to import and export to json format.

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shaaniqbal said:
DreymaR said:

Imagine typing with two mice! :) If the mouse inputs could be separated, of course (not possible with today's USB HID standard).

Yeah, why not? After all, it was thought by some that full n-kro wasn't possible over USB yet the MS Sidewinder X4 for example does it fine.

With two mice we could also have something like Keymonk for swyping.

For unambiguous typing on a mouse we could use multitap.

It's generally accepted that mice aren't so ergonomically sound

In the interests of accuracy, this is accepted by whom? Your sources?

I have a small wireless high precision laser mouse that fits my hand perfectly and I must say it is just as pleasant to use as my keyboard.

There is a software that apparently enables dual mice. It's called GlovePIE. It supports "Mice with up to 5 buttons and 2 scroll wheels" on Windows.

You run a script called MouseParty and it claims to allow control of up to four mice.

Interestingly, one person wanted to use it for gaming specifically because their wife suffered from carpal tunnel.

It even claims to let you control PC games with a Nintendo Wiimote!

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I've set up a GitHub repository so anyone can contribute their work for this project. Thanks to Peter Kamb, developer of the One Hand Keyboard for the suggestion.

https://github.com/shaaniqbal/T9-QWERTY/

While text replacement programs suffice for demoing how it works, I hope we can have a standalone app (like Plover or One Hand Keyboard).

Things we could work on:

- A standalone program
- Letter grouping optimization tool
- Dictionary generation tool
- Efficiency analyser
- Context sensitive prediction
- Partial word prediction
- Autocomplete
- Autocorrect
- Personal dictionary that learns what you type with QWERTY (equivalent to multitap on a phone)
- Whatever else you or I can think of

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I've just noticed that the T9-QWERTY pxp file was down all this time. Here's the reuploaded file:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/j69bn … QWERTY.pxp

Anyway, we're making headway folks. Someone called Folio has kindly volunteered to help start things off on the coding side. See the thead: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=56009.0

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