Spreading Open Steno Project and Plover in Germany

[anobo]

Dear all,

it is still almost one year ahead..., 

but one has to set some goals (resolutions) for the year!

I am planning to have some words on the Open Steno Project and 

on Plover at the next Chaos Communication Congress (CCC) in 

(most likely) Hamburg (Germany) between Christmas and New 

Year 2016 [1].  This probably is the largest event by and for 

computer enthusiasts in Europe.

My idea is to have 1 or 2 so called lightning talks (e. g. one on 

the Open Steno Project and another one on Plover) and perhaps 

some self-organised session to spark the interest in steno.

The format "lightning talk" [2] is a 3 to 5 min talk about a specific 

topic.  Please see some examples here: [3], [4], [5].

Questions:

1) Is there already some material (especially slides) available,

   which can be re-used (content, style, layout)?

   Otherwise I would just recycle some of the websites.

2) Anybody out there, who would like to help with the preparation

   as well as at the congress?

3) What are the "most wanted" topics, which need support?

   

For the self-organised sessions you can find some more

information here: [6].

I could imagine some kind of steno introduction course.

Questions:

1) Who can donate/bring HW to the event?

   Meaning especially boards (e. g. nkros with keycaps,

   stenoboards, softhrufs, stenosauruses, ergodoxes,...) 

   with the accordingly prepared laptop computer (Linux, Apple, 

   Windows, the more various the better).

2) Anybody, who can join with a helping hand and who can

   write at decent speed (unfortunately I have just started

   Steno and I am afraid, that I won't be as impressive as

   it could be)

Others:

There is an angel project within the congress to provide live 

subtitles/captioning for the main talks and subtitles after the 

congress to (all) talks.  So, for this any help is appreciated [7].

@Mirabai, Ted, Hesky, Joshua, Emanuele, Scott and also everybody

else: It would be an honor and a pleasure to welcome you!

[1] https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/wiki/Main_Page

[2] https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/wiki/Static:Lightning_Talks

[3] https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7558-lightning_talks_day_2

[4] https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7559-lightning_talks_day_3

[5] https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7560-lightning_talks_day_4

[6] https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/wiki/Static:Self-organized_Sessions

[7] https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/wiki/Static:Volunteers#Subtitle-Angel

Best regards

 

Andreas

[anobo]

One addition:

1) Who can donate/bring HW to the event?

   Meaning especially boards (e. g. nkros with keycaps,

   stenoboards, softhrufs, stenosauruses, ergodoxes,...) 

   with the accordingly prepared laptop computer (Linux, Apple, 

   Windows, the more various the better).

Any working steno machine is also appreciated. 

[Mirabai Knight]

Ooh, I'd love to caption this! Are the talks mostly in English, in
German, or a mix of the two? If in English, please contact me!
mir...@whitecoatcaptioning.com. (':

[Scott Urueta]

This is far off enough that I'll surely have PCB-based soft hrufs in production. I will happily donate a demo board.

[mucmi...@googlemail.com]

Hello Andreas,

I've finished the configuration for the german keyboard layout for plover successfully on linux for NKRO-Keyboard.

In the attachment you can find the two python-files, that I've tweaked for the german keyboard layout.

I changed the following two files for getting the german NKRO-keyboard-layout working:

On linux the path of the files, that are used by plover when running is:

./usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/plover/

You need root access rights to change the files there.

First I made a backup copy of the following file:

./usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/plover/steno.py

Then I edited the original file (steno.py) and replaced all the content by the content of the file "steno-german.py" that you can find in the attachment. Then save the file "steno.py"

Then I made a backup copy of the following file:

./usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/plover/machine/sidewinder.py

Then I edited the original file (sidewinder.py) and replaced all the content by the content of the file "sidewinder-german.py" that you can find in the attachment, too. Then safe the file "sidewinder.py"

That's all !!!

Start plover and press [Configuration...] and choose "NKRO Keyboard" in "Machine" section.

From now on, plover runs the german keyboard-layout, that is:

S B G R * R M G S 'N

S T D L * L B D T 'E

A U O I

Even the Plover Stroke Display shows the headline with the german steno key order.

I explicitely recommend to copy the contents of the files like mentioned above and not to copy the files from the attachment and then rename them, because linux works with access rights for each single file. Obviously the files in the attachment will not have the root access rights of your linux system. But the original files, that where placed by plover, have already the fitting access rights for your linux system. Linux nerds can copy the files, because they know how to chenge the file access rights.

For windows it would be necessary to make the changes mentioned above in the user's home path in the built sub directory of the plover directory and then compiling plover to a new exe. But I haven't done that until now.

Furtheron I started to build up a German dictionary in libreOffice Calc, that can be opened in MS Excel, too. The dictionary can very easily be copied from the spread sheet to the original plover dictionary.

This spread sheet file can be generally used for every latin written language to build up a json-dictionary for plover.

The root path to the dictionary used by plover at runtime is:

/home/<username>/.local/share/plover/dict.json

where <username> is the name of the user you work with in your linux system.

Or you just open it from your home-root with showing hidden files turned on:

/.local/share/plover/dict.json

So this file can be changed in linux without root access rights.

That is very comfortable because building up a dictionary for a new language needs editing again and again and again.

If you want to keep the original plover dictionary, make a backup copy of this file first!!!

You can find the "ploverdict-german.ods" (just 210 lines) in the attachment, too.

Strokes are in the A column.

Translated Outputs are in the B column.

Comments are in the D column.

The C column contains the formula, that build the json-format.

To get plover this dictionary running copy the entire C-column and paste it into the dict.json file mentioned above and replace all the content of the dict.json file this way by selecting the entire content (Ctrl+a) and then pasting. Save the dict.json. Start plover. It will work with your dictionary.

The second sheet in the Calc-file is named "README" and contains explanations.

There is also mentioned how to configure the autocorrection in LibreOffice Calc to get uncurled quotationsmarks when typing them into B-Column in the case you want plover to have quotation marks in the output. Just for the case, plover doesn't like typographic quotation marks in the json file.

The reasons why I choosed LibreOffice Calc to built up the german dictionary:

1. Building up the dictionary for a new language means editing the dictionary again and again and again. Editing the dict in the spread sheet is much more easier than in the json file.

2. You need not to care about the json-Format while editing. The formulas in Column C enshure the correct format. You just focus on the strokes and the output translations. If you build up the dictionary in the json-file each forgotten quotationmark or comma or colon or the space after the colon will cause plover to display, that the dictionary is not usable because of errors. But plover does not say, in which line the first error occured. So you would have to search in thousands of lines for the wrong writing. Horrible!!! Put it is not the job of Plover to have a correct dictionary.

3. You can add comments to each single stroke translation line after the C-column. For example notes why you choosed this translation or a note on potential conflict strokes. json format does not provide any possibility to add comments.

4. You can sort your dictionary in the spread sheet freely. Before copying it to the json-file, you have to ensure, that the first line and the two last lines are in the right position. Plover sorts the json-File on runtime to it's needs when you add stroke translations via the configuration menu of plover. From this time on your sort is gone forever in the json-File. But that doesn't matter, if you have your original dict kept in the spreadsheet file.

5. Plover is for free, LibreOffice Calc is for free.

6. Plover dict comes with 122701 entry lines in the moment. Limit of maximum rows is one million in LibreOffice Calc and MS Excel (from 2007 on), too. Pretty enough for a dictionary. Professional dictionaries have more than two hundred thousand lines, but far away from a million.

7. You could add formulas in the spread sheet for stroke validation (see the readme sheet in the file) to get indicators, where there is an invalide usage of keys or steno key order.

Plover comes with additional dictonaries in the assets subdirectory for decimal numbers, number fractions, integer numbers, money numbers, percent numbers, time numbers, prefixes, prefix misstrokes, suffixes and suffix misstrokes.

I did not care about them until now.

I tried some of the strokes, but plover did not translate them. So I guess, these dictionaries do not conflict my german json dict.

Hope all this will help to spread the open steno project in Germany.

Building up the dictionary in a spread sheet is just my personal approach.

I just want to share the idea.

Feel free to do your own way.

Best regards

Mike

[Hesky Fisher]

I once gave a lightning talk about steno and used these slides:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17aOvk6gYQAGLfoPxXoaEJpY1bvMFPSErPs3lWO2ixxc/edit?usp=docslist_api

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[Hesky Fisher]

Here is a better link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kSmn4TlyJS5hDUrvcQnqr2VruXuqOuDftimN6D3F4Qw/edit?usp=sharing

Sorry to those who tried the first link. It doesn't work...

[anobo]

Dear all,

thank you for your contributions so far.

@Mirabai: most of the talks are in English, some of the talks are in German (of a total of 2+ hour session).  Please refer to the links I have provided for an example.  I would be more than happy to welcome you.

@Scott: thanks for your generous offer.

@Mike: wow, that is great.  This means we could even do some German.  The critical point will now be the completion of the dictionary.  I presume that will be much work...

@Hesky: thank you.  I think this is usable for the workshop as it explains some backgrounds of the theory.  For the lightning talks I would like to focus on the whole open steno project and plover respectively.

I have started  page on the plover wiki.  I am looking forward to your contributions as well as peer reviews.

You can find it via: http://stenoknight.com/wiki/Main_Page -> inside the Users Box -> Events -> ChaosCommunicationCongress2016_33c3 (current working title, I may change this again upon necessity).

Please be a little bit patient with me for the time being... :-).

Andreas

[Ellis Pratt]

Josh Lifton's lightning tak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwYOi9tDOIY

[Theodore Morin]

@Hesky I am curious about your lightning talk, you decided to focus on the theory? How did it go?

I am cooking up a talk and I'm having trouble finding where to start; it can start with the theory, the history, what stenography is, how expensive it is, how fast it is. I'm not sure where to start to keep people's interest. Any hints?

--

[Hesky Fisher]

I gave that talk at an open format lightning talk session, where people just presented on whatever they wanted. The audience consisted of a bunch of engineers. I figured if I talked about steno without explaining how it worked then they would be unsatisfied. The talk went fine. People were marginally interested.

I gave a much more fun talk once at an event called Nerd Nite. Mirabai live captioned while sitting on stage and was a huge hit. I tried to cover all the aspects you mentioned though I think the theory part turned out to be the least interesting to the audience. Overall, the audience seemed to really enjoy it though I suspect it had a lot to do with Mirabai.

Those slides, including speaker notes are here: 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lkWhqX7sGo04Uchtf2rdPLKcoAWgLjApGiUCRZiGQH8/edit?usp=sharing

I didn't read the notes verbatim, of course.

[Theodore Morin]

Aw, thanks Hesky, that's a huge help.

[Thorsten Haßiepen]

Hello Mike,

do you know how to install these modifications on a mac?

Best regards
Thorsten

[mucmi...@googlemail.com]

Hello Thorsten,

I don't know how to install these modifications on a mac. I'm running plover on linux.
I assume, that it is the same process like for windows:
Change the files in the build directories and then starting an appropriate python tool on the mac to get an executable file that includes the python interpreter for OSX and the plover files.

Best regards
Mike

[Thorsten Haßiepen]

Thanks!

[anobo]

Dear all,

long time, that I did not post...

Time is up and the 33C3 will be opening its doors soon.  I now applied for a lightning talk and would ask for your feedback regarding the slides attached and the corresponding rough text below.  Bear in mind, that I will only have 5 min :-(.

Details regarding the talk application is here: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2016/wiki/Lightning:Open_Steno_Project

----- Text Begin -----

The Open Steno Project - Presentation at the 33C3.

Ok then, everybody ready to my introduction of the Open Steno Project?

-----1->2

I will briefly introduce Stenography and why it is needed, why all of

you should have a look into it and why you should start learning it.

Then I will explain how it is working and the current status.

At the end I show you the future issues of the project.

-----2->3

No,

-----3->4

I am not going to talk about the trouser suit in the lower right corner.

-----4->5

I will talk about what the two in the middle do.  They do Steno the "old fashioned"

way with a sheet of paper and a pencil.

-----5->6

As we are at the congress and we only know about computer hardware and software

did you ever wonder how some TV stations can show subtitles during their live shows?

-----6->7

BTW: You can also see it here at the C3, although this is a little bit different from

Steno and I would call it crowd sourced subtitles.

The subtitle angles doing an awesome job here in hall 1 and 2 please give a warm

round of applause to them!

Thanks.

-----7->8

Let's have a look at some writing speeds.  As you can see, there is limit for

qwerty/dovrak and the like.  Also speech recognition is currently below

average speech.  Speech recognition has other issues, which we can talk

about afterwards.

As you can see even an amateur stenographer can reach 200

words per minute, which is the same as average speech!

-----8->9

What makes Steno so fast?  It is a phonetic and not a letter by letter writing method aiming for speed.

With a computer you are chording, meaning pressing multiple keys at the same

time which the computer translates with the dictionary into syllables or even

complete words.

-----9->10

We need Steno for barrier free, accessible events and shows.  It is also

useful for word by word protocols due to its speed.  And now the

pay wall comes down as the proprietary hardware and software can

be replaced by the Open Steno Project.

-----10->11

There is open source hardware available.  Same is true for the software.

Additionally learning resources and documentation make it possible

for all of you to start right now with Steno!

-----11->12

OK, some more details on the software.  Founded by Mirabai Knight from New York City

the main part is Plover.  This is the stenography engine written in Python by

Hesky Fisher and Ted Morin.  

Plover is available for Linux, Mac, and Windows and it contains an comprehensive

English dictionary.  

For learning a broad range of online books, wikis and for the advanced

users the Steno Arcade game helps to improve the Steno abilities.

-----12->13

On the hardware side, the easiest way to start is a real NKRO keyboard

and I mean real!

-----13->14

Thanks to 3d printing great alternatives to a real steno

machine are now possible and available.

Just to show you here a few:

Stenoboard from Italy

-----14->15

Stenomod

-----15->16

Ergodox

-----16->17

Soft/hruf

-----17->18

You can also connect most of the proprietary steno machines.

-----18->19

Where to go from here?

There are a lot of things, however the most important one is this:

Try it out, start using it!  And then improving it.

-----19->20

I have a stenoboard and a softhruf keyboard with me, if someone is

interested just call me on 7886 and you can have a first trial.

-----20->21

Thank you for listening.

----- Text End -----