4 ms·

QWERTY keyboards show the English dominance of tech

15 points by devonnull 2y ago

freedomben 2y ago
> Technologies such as the T9 phone keyboard or the Palm Pilot handwriting alphabet briefly achieved some adoption. Kind of tangential to the article, but Graffiti[1] (the Palm Pilot handwriting alphabet) was really quite amazing. It was remarkably simple, and once you learned it, you could write stuff fast. I literally wrote several long papers on my Palm Pilot, while out and about. I'm honestly shocked that it didn't stick around and become widespread. I thought for sure it was the future and the future was bright! What happened to that? Did it just die a typical proprietary death along with the device? Has anybody implemented it for something else, like Linux? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_%28Palm_OS%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_%28Palm_OS%29
- terinjokes 2y ago
  ACCESS (fka PalmSource) had the rights to Graffiti and released an Android keyboard a long time ago. I remember finding the motions were not as good without a stylus, and stopped using it. I see it's no longer available. If anyone has the floppies for the Tandy Z-PDA, Casio Z-7000, or AST GRiDPad version of Graffiti from 1994, do get in touch. I'd love to get them archived.
- devilbunny 2y ago
  Graffiti was very, very good, and unlike Newton used a lot of simplified gestures for letters rather than trying to transcribe handwriting, but the acme was Swype, which was bought and killed. There is nothing on its level to this day.
illuminant 2y ago
The QWERTY keyboard invited tech. You can try Dvorak if your on the wild side, though OSS and industry assimilation will adopt and support any alternative.
browningstreet 2y ago
I can’t even swap control and caps lock because I can’t control all the keyboards in my life. Somehow, somewhere.. someone made this choice for all of us and none of us can unmake/correct it. My pinky finger is angry.
- acchow 2y ago
  This feature is built into MacOS. For other OSes, I’m sure you can just do some config changes
  - paulryanrogers 2y ago
    Since when? I've had to use Karabinder Elements for that
    - sorahn 2y ago
      At least 2 or 3 major versions of macOS. Search for “modifier keys” in system preferences.
    - acchow 2y ago
      approx 2016 Before that, the modifier keys remapping was missing "caps lock" so you needed a custom solution like you were using
paulryanrogers 2y ago
They never say what better would look like for any of the other languages. I imagine there are physical constraints to deal with, at least if discrete and binary buttons are involved. The article doesn't even say how others have adapted QWERTY for their uses. Perhaps accordion motions?

15 points by devonnull 2y ago

> Technologies such as the T9 phone keyboard or the Palm Pilot handwriting alphabet briefly achieved some adoption. Kind of tangential to the article, but Graffiti[1] (the Palm Pilot handwriting alphabet) was really quite amazing. It was remarkably simple, and once you learned it, you could write stuff fast. I literally wrote several long papers on my Palm Pilot, while out and about. I'm honestly shocked that it didn't stick around and become widespread. I thought for sure it was the future and the future was bright! What happened to that? Did it just die a typical proprietary death along with the device? Has anybody implemented it for something else, like Linux? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_%28Palm_OS%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_%28Palm_OS%29

terinjokes 2y ago
ACCESS (fka PalmSource) had the rights to Graffiti and released an Android keyboard a long time ago. I remember finding the motions were not as good without a stylus, and stopped using it. I see it's no longer available. If anyone has the floppies for the Tandy Z-PDA, Casio Z-7000, or AST GRiDPad version of Graffiti from 1994, do get in touch. I'd love to get them archived.
devilbunny 2y ago
Graffiti was very, very good, and unlike Newton used a lot of simplified gestures for letters rather than trying to transcribe handwriting, but the acme was Swype, which was bought and killed. There is nothing on its level to this day.

illuminant 2y ago

The QWERTY keyboard invited tech. You can try Dvorak if your on the wild side, though OSS and industry assimilation will adopt and support any alternative.

browningstreet 2y ago

I can’t even swap control and caps lock because I can’t control all the keyboards in my life. Somehow, somewhere.. someone made this choice for all of us and none of us can unmake/correct it. My pinky finger is angry.

acchow 2y ago
This feature is built into MacOS. For other OSes, I’m sure you can just do some config changes
- paulryanrogers 2y ago
  Since when? I've had to use Karabinder Elements for that
  - sorahn 2y ago
    At least 2 or 3 major versions of macOS. Search for “modifier keys” in system preferences.
  - acchow 2y ago
    approx 2016 Before that, the modifier keys remapping was missing "caps lock" so you needed a custom solution like you were using

paulryanrogers 2y ago

They never say what better would look like for any of the other languages. I imagine there are physical constraints to deal with, at least if discrete and binary buttons are involved. The article doesn't even say how others have adapted QWERTY for their uses. Perhaps accordion motions?