Android steno keyboard

[Brent]

Thought this could use it's own thread...

Here's what I've come up with today:

I made the keys bigger, and the touch-spot smaller.  re-arranged the vowels a bit, and changed the way the input works.  It's better than it was, but still not ideal.  I wasn't feeling the multi-row thing.  (perhaps it just needs more explaining)

I also added a path line, which seems to make aiming easier.

I kind of prefer the idea of forming strokes by using several short drags, instead of one long one.

I put a send button on the right, and you can just drag over it at the end of your stroke to send.  Or, you can stop your stroke before that to make corrections, and click send to submit the stroke.  (I may reverse this later, and use the button to "hold" (ie. not send) the stroke which would otherwise auto-send when you lift your finger)

(dictionary still needs work, sorry)

[Mirabai Knight]

dude this  is pretty damn nice {!} no more accidental key hits {.} I love it {!}

[Daiko]

Gosh, would it be okay if one were to port this to iOS? I don't know how currently, but I would love to try... also, please make this available on the Google Play store too so more people can find & download this...

[Brent Nesbitt]

It still needs a bit of work, but I am planning on putting it in the Play store when it is ready.

Feel free to port it to IOS.  That would be great!  The source code is at: https://github.com/brentn/StenoKeyboard

On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 12:54 PM, Daiko <daikon...@gmail.com> wrote:

Gosh, would it be okay if one were to port this to iOS? I don't know how currently, but I would love to try... also, please make this available on the Google Play store too so more people can find & download this...

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[Daiko]

Suggestion: could we call this, StenoGlide (or something else) instead?

Steno Keyboard is a generic name that makes it hard to find meaningful & relevant results when you search for it and since this is similar to Swype a name hinting at how this app is used seems more appropriate- thoughts?

[Indy Siverd]

On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 1:38 PM, Daiko <daikon...@gmail.com> wrote:

Suggestion:  could we call this, StenoGlide (or something else) instead?

​Given that iNames are very popular in the AppStore, iPlover might be a fine name with "Stenography" and "Keyboard" and "300 WPM!!!!!" in the description.

I had originally talked to Mi​rabai about using "iPlover" about 2 years ago when I was mocking up an iPad app, but then I realized there is a reason I'm a sysadmin and not a programmer, so it never got further than the mockup interface code and I let my iOS dev account expire.  So I'm not going to use the iPlover name.  If you want it, have at it!

Also, a legal issue, if Plover is *only* GPL'ed that doesn't technically work with the iOS App Store terms of use.  Although the only claims I've heard made are *developers* of OSS code objecting to other people putting those apps into the App Store (even for free).  I believe that the MIT License is compatible with the App Store.  The may all be sillyness. 1) I Am Not A Lawyer.  2) Our developers seems like extremely reasonable people that want steno everywhere.

So it may be worth "Dual Licensing" plover as GPL and MIT.  That was if someone else wants to add it to a larger bundle of GPL code, then it is all GPL and everyone is happy. If someone want to put it in the App store, it is MIT license, so everyone is happy. The other advantage of a Dual License is that if you feel someone is abusing the MIT aspects of the license, you go back to GPL only and they're legally stuck on a particular version while development continues.

Indy

--

Indy M. Siverd
 msi...@alum.mit.edu

[Daiko]

Thank you very much, I hadn't even considered liscences at all before, but that is very important... sadly, I am not an iOS developer, just an interested individual who likes Open-Source & the ability to type fast (amongst other things) so I'm glad to see that others are aware of the work that needs to be done for Plover to get on to iOS. c:

[Brent]

I haven't uploaded this for awhile, but it's quite a bit more stable now, and even has some settings to play with.  Still no custom dictionaries, but I'll be working on that soon.

Here is the link to the github apk, for anyone who wants to try the latest version:

https://github.com/brentn/StenoKeyboard/blob/master/StenoKeyboard/StenoKeyboard.apk

Thanks.

[Mirabai Knight]

hey   this  looks HAEU/KW-BG/TH/HRAOBGS/TPAPB/TAFBG HAEU/KW-BG/TH/HRAOBGS #Return well  maybe  the  stroke  buffer  needs some  HAEU/KW-BG/TH/HRAOBGS/R-R/WEL/PHAEUB/-T/STROEBG/PWUFR/TPHAOEDZ/SOPL/WORBG work  ,  but  this  thing  HAEU/KW-BG/TH/HRAOBGS/R-R/WEL/PHAEUB/-T/STROEBG/PWUFR/TPHAOEDZ/SOPL/WORBG/WORBG/KW-BG/PWUT/TH/THEUPBG/S seriously rad  . color  me extremimextremely  impressed ! 

[Brent]

Hey Mirabai, how did you get all those strokes to show up?  Was that just typing in your email app (which app)?  Or was there some app-switching, cut/pasteing going on too?  Or was it a result of the undo stroke?  (I was having problems with that too - but not to this extent).

[Mirabai Knight]

Yeah, no app switching or cut-pasting. Just from pressing the * key too much, I guess. Weird, huh? I thought I should leave it in by way of a bug report.

[Brent Nesbitt]

Yes, perfect.  I definitely need to get that undo working properly.  Thanks.

[Brent]

Hey Mirabai (and everyone)

Here is a new version of the StenoKeyboard app for Android. (now called StenoIME)

It is a complete rewrite from what I had before, and when it's done, should be alot better.  

It supports multiple dictionaries, and 2-finger swype.  If a word is ambiguous, it will appear just above the keyboard until a stroke that disambiguates it. (or you can tap the word)  Click the button in the middle of the keyboard to set your dictionaries.

If you want to see what I'm working on next, get an OTG adapter ($2 or $3), and plug your sidewinder into the tablet with this installed.

Happy New Year!

[Mirabai Knight]

Hey, this is incredibly exciting (and I'm totally buying an OTG
adapter immediately), but it crashes whenever I try to load a
dictionary. I've tried both .json and .rtf format; no dice. I'd
personally be pretty happy with just the default dict.json file that
comes with Plover (which I also tried loading), since it's more or
less my own personal dictionary, but it doesn't seem to have a default
dictionary option. Help?

I'm on a Droid X, running KitKat (4.4). Deleted previous Steno
Keyboard apk. Tried rebooting; still no dice. :(

[Scott Urueta]

A while ago I saw a post on reddit about Plover and so a few days ago I decided to go ahead and try it out because I already had an NKRO keyboard.

I've been learning on my phone (Nexus 5 & KitKat) with an OTG cable and ploverdojo, which works flawlessly for me. However, I am stuck only doing drills because there is no general IME on Android.

Thanks so much for working on this; this app is exactly what I was hoping would be made. Unfortunately, I also cannot load any dictionary file to it.

[Brent Nesbitt]

Okay, darn!

I just combined the dictionary code from steno lookup.  Have you installed that app?   Can you load dictionaries with it?  (.rtf is not supported yet)
Also, do you know how much ram your phone has?

I am thinking I need to include the default dictionary with both apps in the future.  Unfortunately I am back to work today, so it may take a week or two.

[Scott Urueta]

I just installed your Steno Lookup app and it crashes when trying to add a dictionary in the same way the keyboard app crashes. I doubt ram would be an issue as I have 2 gb ram total and 1.2 gb free when I try to load the dictionary file.

[Brent Nesbitt]

Okay thanks Scott - so it's definitely a part of the shared code.  

Did you install from the apk I uploaded to the Google group, or the play store beta?  If the apk, would you mind signing up for the beta, ( https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.brentandjody.stenodictionary) and installing the play store version - and then causing it to crash.  

This is my first app in the play store, but my understanding is that it will send me some info about crashes so I can debug it.

Thanks.

On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 9:05 AM, Scott Urueta <edi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I just installed your Steno Lookup app and it crashes when trying to add a dictionary in the same way the keyboard app crashes. I doubt ram would be an issue as I have 2 gb ram total and 1.2 gb free when I try to load the dictionary file.

[Brent Nesbitt]

...oh, and what "file manager" are you using to choose your dictionary?  Dropbox?

[Mirabai Knight]

I just selected my dictionary from my Downloads folder.

[Scott Urueta]

Sure thin. I installed the play store version and let it crash, but now it has a report button so I hit that. I'm assuming you'll be getting the report now.

[Brent Nesbitt]

Yep, I see it.  I'll see if I can figure it out tonight :)

On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 11:19 AM, Scott Urueta <edi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sure thin. I installed the play store version and let it crash, but now it has a report button so I hit that. I'm assuming you'll be getting the report now.

[Brent Nesbitt]

Okay, I'm not real happy with this solution yet, but it should get you up and running.

Can you sign up here: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.brentandjody.stenoime 

and grab the version in the play store?  That way I'll get crash reports automatically.

Thanks.

Brent.

(PS Last time it took a couple hours to appear on the play store - and I JUST uploaded it now).

[Scott Urueta]

It didn't take too long to show up. But as you can see from the report, it still crashes :c

I have two other phones laying around with different versions of Android I should be able to test on for you if I can find them.

[Brent Nesbitt]

Okay, as far as I can tell, this is an issue with the way files are handled changing in KitKat.  I have one kitkat device, but it works fine for me (using ES File explorer, and Dropbox)

What app are you using to select the dictionary?  Would you mind trying either Dropbox or ES File explorer?  Both work on my KitKat device.  And I will install whatever you are using, and try to reproduce the problem on my device.

Thanks for your help in debugging this.

[Mirabai Knight]

yay! ES file exploreer is working! no capitalsation and the delete is a little wonky, but otherwise pretty damn good !

[Brent Nesbitt]

Okay, I need some details, what do you mean by no capitalization?

And yes, undo works a word at a time rather than a stroke at a time.  But it works even after repositioning the cursor, which I thought made more sense on a touch screen.  Does that make sense? or am I off base there?

[Mirabai Knight]

In Plover, {.}, {?}, and {!} are special definitions that supply an implied capitalization flag for the following letter.

the thing about delete being wonky was because I had written capital and then accidentally wrote AEUBGS instead of AEUGS, and when it deleted the error, it wound up deleting part of the previous word, which was odd. just happened again. I misstroked odd, and when I pressed asterisk to clear the mistranslation, it deleted was as well as odd. still, this is fantastic! vastly better than before. I'm going  try to use  this as my main keyboard! thanks again so much for doing this !

[Brent]

Okay, that's great feedback.

I wasn't aware that those 3 endings were treated specially.  I will add that at some point.  I'll also try that particular deletion sequence and figure out what is going on.

Thanks for the encouragement!

[Mirabai Knight]

Possibly it's because untranslates aren't counted  as words for some reason, so it deletes the last correctly translated word instead? but  anyway, it's great ! I'm so happy with it. so much better than Swype ! 

[Brent Nesbitt]

Untranslates?

On Jan 2, 2014 7:35 PM, "Mirabai Knight" <askel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Possibly it's because untranslates aren't counted  as words for some reason, so it deletes the last correctly translated word instead? but  anyway, it's great ! I'm so happy with it. so much better than Swype ! 

--

[Mirabai Knight]

Strokes that don't match to a dictionary definition, so they come out as raw steno.

[Brent Nesbitt]

It is supposed to keep track of the words that are actually output, and delete a word at a time.  If it gets confused or if the cursor is moved, it falls back to delete-until-it-find-a-space mode.

On Jan 2, 2014 7:35 PM, "Mirabai Knight" <askel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Possibly it's because untranslates aren't counted  as words for some reason, so it deletes the last correctly translated word instead? but  anyway, it's great ! I'm so happy with it. so much better than Swype ! 

--

[Brent Nesbitt]

Oh, interesting thought.

On Jan 2, 2014 7:57 PM, "Mirabai Knight" <askel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Strokes that don't match to a dictionary definition, so they come out as raw steno.

--

[Mirabai Knight]

I wonder if it's also partly because you keep a stroke in the buffer before outputting it, so when I know I've just  made a misstroke and press the asterisk to clear it, it deletes the last word on the screen as well as the  stroke still in the buffer?

[Scott Urueta]

I was originally just using the default that came with my N5, but I installed ES File Explorer and it gave me the option to open it the "android way" or the "file way". The latter is what works.

From the tiny bit of steno I know so far, this is amazing! It doesn't play well with my physical keyboard, though. Is it supposed to yet?

[Brent Nesbitt]

Is that a physical keyboard on the device, or plugged in by USB?  The USB thing is a work in progress.  I don't think it will work with a built in keyboard though.

[Scott Urueta]

Plugged in with USB. I've been using it with ploverdojo and it works perfectly. I've made a very comfortable layout. Oddly, I just realized it shows up as two separate keyboards. Maybe that is how it gets full NKRO to work through USB instead of PS/2 because I once heard about NKRO not normally working through USB or something like that.

[Brent Nesbitt]

Very cool.  

Yeah, the code for that is not finished yet.  I'd like to get things fairly robust with the virtual keyboard first, then get the physical keyboard working, and finally, actual steno hardware (which I've had no luck with so far).

[Brent]

Hey guys,

I just published Steno Keyboard to the public Play Store - so feel free to download it and play (and review :) )  It is a virtual steno keyboard that you can use on your phone or tablet instead of the default keyboard.

I think I have now fixed all the issues with undo, spaces, and capitalization.  Email me if you find any more issues.

It isn't as "smart" as the full-blown Plover in spelling words with prefixes and suffixes yet, as I haven't build the orthography part yet.  (there is not room on a phone to keep a second dictionary in memory, so it will never be as good as Plover's)

I removed the ability to plug in a keyboard to the public version - since that part isn't quite ready yet, but those on this list can download the beta version (currently 1.01), which has that feature re-enabled.  Just go to https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.brentandjody.stenoime and sign up for the beta team.

Thanks for your help in getting it this far!

Brent.

 

[Hesky Fisher]

Hey Brent,

How expensive is file seeking and reading on an Android device? If it's fast you might be able to create a file based hash table instead of loading all the dictionaries into memory.

Hesky

--

[Brent Nesbitt]

I hadn't thought about that.  I guess since it's not on a spinning disk, realtime lookups might be fast enough.  

I'll look into it,

In the end I want it to be responsive up to at least 200wpm with a steno machine or keyboard plugged in, if that's possible.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Brent]

Hey anyone testing my Android steno keyboard:

I have uploaded a new version to the beta section of the store.  This one has the missing "orthography" module to handle odd English suffixes. (including that disk-based word-list Hesky mentioned) 

It does, however, significantly increase the resources required to run.  So I would appreciate any feedback about whether it is unresponsive or has other issues.  

If any of you are using it with a USB keyboard, I am ready for some feedback on that as well - especially due to the much higher speeds it needs to keep up to with a keyboard.

BTW: It may take longer to launch the first time now, as it has to copy the wordlist database out of the apk file.  Again, let me know if this makes for a poor experience.

Thanks alot for helping me test this!

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.brentandjody.stenoime

[Scott Urueta]

It loads and runs very smoothly. I am too new at this to type fast but I can't imagine there could be much slowdown regardless of how fast I could type because the word pops up instantly.

The hardware keyboard selection switch is greyed out for mine. Would this only work with the Sidewinder or is there some step I am forgetting/missing?

[Brent Nesbitt]

Hi, and thanks.

The hardware keyboard switch does nothing at the moment.  If you are using the beta version (v1.1), it is turned on by default.

It should work with any hardware keyboard, but of course, non-NKRO keyboards will have difficulty typing many chords.

Brent.

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 12:38 AM, Scott Urueta <edi...@gmail.com> wrote:

It loads and runs very smoothly. I am too new at this to type fast but I can't imagine there could be much slowdown regardless of how fast I could type because the word pops up instantly.

The hardware keyboard selection switch is greyed out for mine. Would this only work with the Sidewinder or is there some step I am forgetting/missing?

[Scott Urueta]

Earlier yesterday it wasn't working but today it is perfect. Not sure what happened but it works fine with my keyboard now!

[Brent Nesbitt]

Excellent.  

Let me know if you run into any more problems.  I want to make it as stable as possible.

Brent.

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 8:44 AM, Scott Urueta <edi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Earlier yesterday it wasn't working but today it is perfect. Not sure what happened but it works fine with my keyboard now!

[Scott Urueta]

I found out what went wrong the first time for me. It was just an incredibly silly mistake on my part. I had simply plugged in my non-OTG USB cable, which looks nearly identical to my usual OTG cable.

[Tony Wright]

Hey Brent, I downloaded StenoKeyboard from the play store, and got a message that it installed successfully, but I don't see an icon for it anywhere, and when I clicked on the icon in the 'successfully installed' status message, nothing happens. How exactly does it work? Is it an setting/option I choose in my chat/email utilities? Thanks!

[Hesky Fisher]

It's my understanding that it is a keyboard so it would only be visible when you're typing. Also, you would need to choose it from the keyboards installed. Later versions of Android have a notification that shows up in the notification area when the keyboard is visible that lets you quickly switch between installed keyboards. Otherwise, you can go to Settings -> Language and Input and see the keyboard, choose it or change its settings.

[Brent Nesbitt]

Thanks Hesky,

On my device I open Settings | Language & Keyboard, and enable Steno Keyboard.  You can also set various settings from that screen.

Then, when you want to use the keyboard, open your typing app, and when the regular keyboard appears, pull down the notification shade, and you can select StenoKeyboard as the default.  You can switch back and forth between keyboards the same way.

Brent.

[Tony Wright]

Thanks Brent and Hesky! It's working on my phone and it's my new means of texting from now on. I love it!

--Tony

[Tony Wright]

Getting more excited now. I'm texting like the wind. Texting has always been traumatic for me before with my big fingers. This is a breeze. And briefs! Lovin' it!

[Brent]

Hey guys, 

I just posted an update to the Beta version of StenoKeyboard which fixes a couple of bugs, most noteably, undo is working better now.

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.brentandjody.stenoime 

[Gabriel Holmes]

I'm not entirely convinced that this type of steno is the best suited for small touchscreens that you'd have to look down at anyway. I'd love to see someone bring back a version of Gregg shorthand for small mobile devices.

On Sunday, October 27, 2013 1:01:36 AM UTC-4, Brent wrote:

Thought this could use it's own thread...

Here's what I've come up with today:

I made the keys bigger, and the touch-spot smaller.  re-arranged the vowels a bit, and changed the way the input works.  It's better than it was, but still not ideal.  I wasn't feeling the multi-row thing.  (perhaps it just needs more explaining)

I also added a path line, which seems to make aiming easier.

I kind of prefer the idea of forming strokes by using several short drags, instead of one long one.

I put a send button on the right, and you can just drag over it at the end of your stroke to send.  Or, you can stop your stroke before that to make corrections, and click send to submit the stroke.  (I may reverse this later, and use the button to "hold" (ie. not send) the stroke which would otherwise auto-send when you lift your finger)

(dictionary still needs work, sorry)

[Mike Neale]

Oooh that would be awesome!

I don't think that Gregg is "real-time ready" though :)

[stepb.rick]

Brent -

If  I'm not mistaken, a previous version of the app had a SEND button.  Could this be an option on this one too?  I find to difficult to get the whole stroke in when I'm not completely sure on the word's dictionary entry (I use a different theory and have a .rtf dictionary that isn't converted, so I'm using the default).  If not, no biggie.

-R

[Brent Nesbitt]

Yeah, you're right, my first version of StenoKeyboard had a send button, but what is out there now is a complete rewrite since those days.  

However, what you CAN do is hold one finger down on a key (or anywhere on the keybaord), while pressing the other keys, and then let go to send.  Does that work for you?

Brent.

--

[stepb.rick]

I didn't think to try that. I'll test it out!

-R