From: hymowitz@circle.cs.jhu.edu (Hymie!)
Subject: Re: Really better? (Different keyboard altogether!)
Organization: Creative Sensualities dept, Jacquie's House of Underwear
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 07:21:56 GMT

and lo, there was much rejoicing among the people, as
  ophof@SERVER.uwindsor.ca (Scott Ophof) writes:
>
>Very roughly, the keyboard layout is something like this:
>
>                  v
>         c c c c  v  c c c c     The "c" keys are the consonants,
>         c c c c  v  c c c c     digits, and punctuation marks.
>         c c c c  v  c c c c     The "v"s indicate the vowels.
>         c c c c  v  c c c c     "ns" means "No-Space".
>               ns   st           "st" means "Shift-Toggle"
>
>To make this work, the thumbs are used for vowels, and the other
>fingers for consonants on each side.

hmmm... when i look at my hands, i see that my thumbs are /lower/ than
the four fingers, making them ideal for the space bar.  to get my thumb
to the highest vwel would probably fracture my wrist.

>To "type" a word (like "pressing"), one first builds the syllable
>"pres", by depressing the "r" and "p" in the left consonant area
>with the fingers of the left hand, the "e" with a thumb, and the "s"
>in the right consonant area with a right-hand finger.  When all the
>keys you want are depressed, the following will appear on a one-line
>screen in front of the typist (built into the keyboard, and angled
>comfortably).
>Now, and only now, does one release all those keys.  This release
>commits the syllable to "paper".  As long as at least one key is
>still depressed, one can change the syllable (like using "l" and "b"
>instead of "r" and "p" to get "bles").

hmmm again... as i type this,  my right hand index and middle fingers
are bandaged together; and the right index finger is unusable.
the bandage also reduces the hand mobility.  i don't think i could
hold down three keys with my right hand even if i wanted to.

>
>Why doesn't one get "rpes"?  Or "lbes"?  Because there's this
>(removable) chip built-in that is programmed for the peculiarities
>of a particular language.  And "rp" or "lb" just ain't normal to
>English (UK or otherwise...  ;-) ).

urp!  you mean i can't write about light bulbs?  or purple people eaters?
or purple light bulbs? or purple slurpees?

>OK, let's finish the word.  Press "s" with a left finger in the left
>consonant area, "i" with a thumb, and "g" and "n" with the right
>fingers in the right consonant area.  *And* with your other thumb
>press the "ns" (No-Space) key.  Release the lot, and voila, the
>syllable "sing" will be suffinxed to "pres", making "pressing".
>Had one not used the "ns" key, one would've got "pres sing", since
>the system assumes a space between syllables unless told otherwise.

interesting assumption.  too bad it's wrong for people above
a third-grade reading level.

>Also, "gn" is less normal than "ng" in English, so if you want the
>word/syllable "sign", you make "sig", and later append "n" to it as
>a separate syllable.

see above with bandaged hand proble.  also - hwo do you guarantee
that the consonants will be on the correct side of each vowel?
it looked like only four consonants are repeated.  which ones?

>As soon as one uses a "." as last character of a "word", the system
>assumes the next word is to be capitalised, ie. it will start off a
>new sentence.  One uses the "Shift-Toggle" key to cancel this
>behaviour for this occurrance.  But one also uses it to capitalise a
>word that would normally be lower-cased.

i grant you this one concession.  i hate the shift key, and only
tolerate the control key.

>Anyone who is more up to date re Velotype is more than welcome to
>correct me; 

i hope so.  it sounds rather horrid.

>There's another keyboard out there somewhere, consisting of only
>16 keys in a 4 x 4 matrix.  Someone else mentioned something about a
>cyclist here in this thread; I think this is the same thing.  Figure
>out how many different characters one can produce with 1-key, 2-key,
>and 3-key combos.  And all that with only one hand...

ick.  it's a good thing i didn't /break/ my entire hand, or lose a finger.
(i'm told i came kinda close)

>The Velotype thing *can* be used single-handedly, btw.

oh boy - i can hardly wait to hit four keys simultaneously on differnet
ends of a keyboard with one hand. if i have my pinky on the 'a' key of
my qwerty, and the ring finger on the 's', my middle finger can't hit 'g'
and my index finger can't hit 'j'.  and that's with the /good/ hand.

--hymie
hymowitz@cs.jhu.edu                                         hymie@jhuvms.bitnet
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