I'm sure there are some programmers or writers using stenography successfully, but I don't think it's practical personally. My bottleneck when programming is not typing speed but how quickly I can decide on what to type next. I can type at 130 WPM on a qwerty keyboard, it just is not a bottleneck.
Moreover, it's not easy to learn. Assuming you're a decent typer on a regular keyboard, you are going to be slogging through typing for at least a year, and then who knows. Some people seem to be incapable of achieving the high speeds that you're seeing professionals reach. There were people at my school that were there for 4+ years, seemingly unable to reach the graduation speed/accuracy requirements despite practicing more than I ever did.
The speeds are also misleading. People see 240+ WPM and think that's the end of it, but that speed and accuracy is typically measured differently than it should be. The WPM count does not typically include the proofreading and editing after the fact. Meaning you can have typos, you can leave words out, it's fine as long as you can properly decipher the typos / what was actually said based on context.
There are stenography standards you can learn, but to actually achieve the speed you're looking for people end up making their own language constructs to shorten things (called briefs at my school). Maybe you're a court reporter and you hear a lot of phrases such as "Did there come a time" - you might shorten this entire sentence to one keystroke. Everyone ends up typing in their own bastardized version of the standard unique to them.
I left stenography because I felt like it was destroying my body. It takes a toll on your hands, shoulders, body.
Ultimately the entire process of getting good at stenography is very time consuming, I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze. Just my two cents, good luck to you if you do decide to pursue it.
I'm going to stick with it, but I can see why people require years of training before they become court reporters or whatever.
Oh, and all these keyboards dedicated to steno that have like 12g activation force switches? I can see why they do that. I have 60g switches, and it's quite a bit of effort to press two keys with the same finger (which is often required). I might build myself a dedicated steno keyboard, and swap the sprints in the keys with something lighter.
I was surprised to discover that learning steno theory is much like learning a new foreign language due to the use of steno word dictionaries, and it takes most learners a few years of full-time study to get fast. (Of course, like with foreign languages, a small percentage of learners are able to go much faster.)
I think I'd prefer to put effort into a chording system with more predictability and less memorization (I've heard that Velotype might be a good match). Or failing that, I'd rather learn an actual new foreign language :)
People who have tried Dvorak keyboards find it difficult when they need to work away from their personal desktop / notebook. I got far more value out of simply learning to touch type well. That is never having to look at the keyboard - eyes on the screen at all times.
Lots of people try out Workman / Dvorak / Colemak, but I see very few top typists using custom keyboard layouts. You can definitely.
Always used to piss me off... my ex typed ~120 while I typed ~70wpm. Both of us engineers. Completely demolished me anytime we fought over chat. ;)
Well, maybe one piece of advice for a small boost in speed -- I got into mechanical keyboards for a few years, and eventually had to conclude that full height keys slow me down a lot compared to cheap laptop chiclet keyboards, so eventually I swapped back to using those.
FWIW I also did 8 years of music as a kid (mostly woodwinds).
I don't look at the keys, and I _think_ my form is okay but I have no idea. I, too, never learned the "right" way, I've just been typing on a keyboard for ~75% of my life so over time it got faster.
One thing I notice when I compare my typing to people who are >90wpm is the sound is different. My typing sounds very "staccato", whereas you lucky fast people... it seems to sound quieter? smoother?
shrug face
[1] Sort of an obscure one, but there's a good reason to learn it! http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/carpalx/
[2] A warning though, you may become addicted to these games :)
Link is dead, but it's in archive.org. Thanks for that! Really cool. I love the idea of using a model driven approach. That link is gold.
Yeah, I considered learning dvorak in the early 2000s, when it was spreading like wildfire through my social group. I decided not too after having several friends gripe about the annoyance of typing on a qwerty keyboard after going dvorak.
But, it's 2021 now. I can't remember the last time I typed on a computer I didn't control! So maybe now it's time to switch to a custom key layout, entirely data driven by sampling my key presses over a few months. :)
I actually visited it before posting (and did again now), but just a minute later I sneakily edited the "http" in because the first time I typed "https" and the website wouldn't load, could that be it? They've even added another layout to the "layouts analysis" page 4 days ago!
Btw, you don't need to have a 100% customized layout, you can use one of the pre-optimized presets.
Anyway, definitely try it out, the worst that can happen is you won't feel safe anymore leaving the house without a flash card with AutoHotkey.
Yup! Apparently my browser is "helpfully" rewriting HTTP URLs to be HTTPS, what could possibly go wrong? facepalm False alarm, sorry...
I imagine it is similar to any other skill though. Practice. I'm sure there are web apps. You'd just have to put in some time each day for a period and you'd improve.
Its not a steno keyboard, but I think its better suited for programming and general writing.
It has two modes, entry mode and chord mode:
- In entry mode you press each key to make words like a normal keyboard. - In chord mode, you press multiple keys at the same time and the internal processor rewrites the word correctly or something like that.
There are two types, CharaChorder and CharaChorder Lite: - The Lite its like a regular keyboard, but you can use the chord entry mode. - The original one instead of 1D keys, uses 4D keys that are like joysticks.
My main editor for example (vscode) heavily uses modifier based shortcuts and with less keys the overlap of modifiers and normal characters is too high and becomes confusing for me. I already have basic characters mapped to modifiers, ie click for tab, hold for ctrl and click for space, hold for layer2. Moving to chord based shortcuts might help but that means completely changing both my input and ways of working at the same time.
And I don't know how flexible VS Code is in terms of keybindings, but I like to use Space as a leader key for many of my additions. So instead of e.g. Ctrl-x I press Space followed by x. It can be still just as fast with some muscle memory.
I own several steno specific keyboards, and the Uni is my least favorite. An EcoSteno seems just to be overall better if you want a solid body keyboard, but my preference is a Georgi if you can get ahold of one.
Afaik stenography has some standard dictionaries that you can start out with. But as you said it's expected to modify it because everyone writes different kinds of texts and stenography is all about optimizing for speed.
Plover isn't just learn this general theory and you're good to go. It's more like learn this theory, and you'll be able to type 85-95% of your sentence really fast.
Also, whenever you get to word that's not in your dictionary, you go from typing say 150wpm to basically 0. It's pretty easy to make a command to toggle plover on and off to type normally (and also to quickly add a word), but when you have to do it almost every sentence, it gets old quick.
Every time you switch to a new subject, you're probably going to have to add words to your dictionary for awhile. Squid Game just came out and you want to type the Koreans names, going to add new words. Your kid told you about this new game Roblox? New bundle of words. Supply chain just failed and you want to pretend you know what you're talking about and write comments about it on the internet? New bundle of words.
This isn't an issue for professionals, but it's frustrating from an amateur prospective. Using plover is very binary. When it works, it's incredible, when it doesn't, it sucks.
P.s. gboards has a board [2] (and qmk firmware) designed for it.
Open Steno Project – freeing stenography https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29035644
> Traditionally, getting started with steno cost thousands of dollars. We enable anyone to learn stenography for free
> The Open Steno Project [was] formed to support Plover and related projects