Re: Adaptive Peaks in Typing

NA Sides wrote:
On Sun, 1 Feb 2009 16:28:42 -0800 (PST), Robert Carnegie
<rja.carnegie@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

NA Sides wrote:
On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:21:56 GMT, Cheezits <Cheezits32@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

NA Sides <nongo10_1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[etc.]
So, do you still use a QWERTY keyboard mapping? And, if so, why
haven't you shifted to a demonstrably superior layout? Perhaps your
conservatism in this matter isn't entirely unrelated to their reasons
for sticking with creationism.

Or maybe alternative keyboards are too hard to find.

If you're using Windows, you can chose Dvorak as an alternate keyboard
mapping. If your using a standard Windows keyboard, some of the
characters printed on the keys won't be the ones they produce under a
QWERTY mapping, but your reflexes will readjust if you aren't having
to constantly shift between one and the other. I can type twice as
fast as I could before shifting to Dvorak, but if you asked me to name
the characters that each key produces in a Dvorak mapping, I couldn't
do it off the top of my head, but my fingers know how.

In the workplace, you may need cooperation from the IT department to
use Dvorak, and it may not be provided.

I read that Dvorak's benefits initially were exaggerated to the point
of hoax or fraud, which put me off. On touchscreen pocket organisers
I've been using Fitaly - look it up if you're curious - which is
stylus-operated, and I found it didn't interfere with my typing.
Abstract organiser script, though, interfered with my handwriting.
Then I got some kind of RSI, and so I started using Fitaly on PCs with
touchscreen as well, instead of typing.

I sometimes use a freeware program called click-n-type that has an
onscreen keyboard with editable keymappings. I think I'll try a
Fitaly-like mapping with it. Of course I'm just biding my time until
implants are available that can automatically convert one's thought's
into error-free prose ;0)

I still haven't gotten around to trying out Windows Vista's speech
recognition - standard all versions - but it's well spoken of. At
least that's how it seems to come out :-) ("Personally I found it to
be a load of excellent". No, no - I made that up!)

I think you get to try the actual Fitaly on Windows free for two
weeks. Having learned it on another device first was one bonus for
me, but another benefit of the real thing that at the time I couldn't
find elsewhere, for typing plain English, is that you can stroke
instead of tapping letters for shift. Until there was a good Windows
version, I tried to build my own too, and hunting for the shift key
was a nuisance.

It takes a while to learn - I think there's a trainer tool, I made one
on my own as well - and the last times I tested speeds, I was touch-
typing 40 words per minute on keyboard but only making 20 words per
minute on Fitaly. But touch-typing is ruled out for me now. And as a
programmer, I found previous speech-recognition incarnations didn't
allow me to input technical gibberish. Even mixing speech and symbol
typing didn't work when I tried it, because the machine took a while
after my speaking to do the recognising. I'd have to wait till it
caught up and then do typing, then speak again, or things got in the
wrong order. Maybe modern PCs perform better at that.

I wonder how much of a benefit from learning a new keyboard is just
from disciplined practice and erasing bad habits...

If choosing a keyboard, I'd recommend one with curved or tilted rows,
so that you don't have to hold your wrists straight out. And make
that choice before you even find it uncomfortable - because in my
case, serious and apparently permanent damage showed up about as
suddenly as having a piano keyboard lid slammed on your hands. (But
that isn't what happened.)

I also was unable to use a regular bicycle any more, leaning my body
weight on my wrists - so I got an Electra Cruiser, which allows a more
leaning-back posture.

.

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