4 ms·

Wouldn’t a T9 keyboard work better for people who texted before the smartphones? I imagine it’s like riding a bike: I’d probably be able to type blindly with on

Wouldn’t a T9 keyboard work better for people who texted before the smartphones? I imagine it’s like riding a bike: I’d probably be able to type blindly with one thumb again after a bit.

uoaei 5y ago
T9 suffers from slow input speeds. In the worst case you are required to click the same button four times for a single character.
- nvr219 5y ago
  That's not what T9 is. T9 is predictive text - you hit a combination of keys and it guesses what word you meant. Here is an emulator: https://www.sainsmograf.com/labs/t9-emulator/ https://www.sainsmograf.com/labs/t9-emulator/ Type `422537` to receive `hacker`. You hit `2` twice to get `ac`, not `b` - and it picks `ac` given the context.
  - Skunkleton 5y ago
    T9 works well for common words. The poor doctor this keyboard(stick?) is being foisted on would not have a good time.
    - jopsen 5y ago
      Tweak it with a custom dictionary. I think the only limit is the time it takes to train a human to write using such keyboard. And perhaps more problematic how bored said human would get, and hence, give up :)
- Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
  In the worst case, yes. But the most common case was a single tap per letter.
jopsen 5y ago
Coupled with a custom dictionary exactly. I'm sure you could even make T5 though it probably works less well with only 5 keys. For those who don't remember: T9 would have one key for "abc", own for "def" and so on. You didn't have to tap the first two key twice to type "be". You would simple tap the first and the second key, then it would look for words matching "(a|b|c)(d|e|f)" and conclude the most common such word is "be". I think you could further argument it with grammar awareness, so really you tapped the length of the word. For ambiguous words you would have a key to switch between words. Everything was deterministic, so you'd quickly be able to type without looking.
- jhanschoo 5y ago
  You can waive the prediction too if you allowed people to swipe on those keys too akin to a modern Japanese mobile input method. For latin script you can combine them: 1 for a or b or c, swipe left for a, swipe up for b, swipe right for c, etc.
  - jopsen 5y ago
    That's kind of cool... But the upside to prediction is that you don't even need to know how to spell perfectly. Maybe letters that sound similar could be on the same key... If you were to reinvent the system.

Wouldn’t a T9 keyboard work better for people who texted before the smartphones? I imagine it’s like riding a bike: I’d probably be able to type blindly with one thumb again after a bit.

uoaei 5y ago

T9 suffers from slow input speeds. In the worst case you are required to click the same button four times for a single character.

nvr219 5y ago
That's not what T9 is. T9 is predictive text - you hit a combination of keys and it guesses what word you meant. Here is an emulator: https://www.sainsmograf.com/labs/t9-emulator/ https://www.sainsmograf.com/labs/t9-emulator/ Type `422537` to receive `hacker`. You hit `2` twice to get `ac`, not `b` - and it picks `ac` given the context.
- Skunkleton 5y ago
  T9 works well for common words. The poor doctor this keyboard(stick?) is being foisted on would not have a good time.
  - jopsen 5y ago
    Tweak it with a custom dictionary. I think the only limit is the time it takes to train a human to write using such keyboard. And perhaps more problematic how bored said human would get, and hence, give up :)
Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
In the worst case, yes. But the most common case was a single tap per letter.

jopsen 5y ago

Coupled with a custom dictionary exactly. I'm sure you could even make T5 though it probably works less well with only 5 keys. For those who don't remember: T9 would have one key for "abc", own for "def" and so on. You didn't have to tap the first two key twice to type "be". You would simple tap the first and the second key, then it would look for words matching "(a|b|c)(d|e|f)" and conclude the most common such word is "be". I think you could further argument it with grammar awareness, so really you tapped the length of the word. For ambiguous words you would have a key to switch between words. Everything was deterministic, so you'd quickly be able to type without looking.

jhanschoo 5y ago
You can waive the prediction too if you allowed people to swipe on those keys too akin to a modern Japanese mobile input method. For latin script you can combine them: 1 for a or b or c, swipe left for a, swipe up for b, swipe right for c, etc.
- jopsen 5y ago
  That's kind of cool... But the upside to prediction is that you don't even need to know how to spell perfectly. Maybe letters that sound similar could be on the same key... If you were to reinvent the system.