My custom Plover board build
Timothy Aveni
Mirabai Knight
I just posted about it:
http://plover.stenoknight.com/2015/03/another-awesome-diy-plover-board.html
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Mirabai Knight, CCP, RDR
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Timothy Aveni
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Charles Shattuck
Charley.
Timothy Aveni
Charles Shattuck
Charley.
Timothy Aveni
Charles Shattuck
Timothy Aveni
Charles Shattuck
Charles Shattuck
Charley.
Timothy Aveni
I don't blame you for your love of subroutines... I adore functional programming and do most of my casual programming in JavaScript. But in the Arduino environment, I was looking to load the code onto the board and forget about it. I'm not such a huge fan of this language. It's not nearly as cozy as JavaScript.
paulo paniago
Hello Timothy,
I want to add my vote to same comment Caruso did:
“By the way, your custom plover keyboard is so cool, and well documented too!”
and also:
“Thank you for sharing it!!!”
I’ve been training stenotype from almost two years now, and a question that has always been in the back of my mind during this training was: “Considering a lifetime usage; is this a good investment – in terms of time and energy?”
In other words, I’ve been consistently training one hour a day. I consider this to be more than worth, since I’ll be able to use it for the rest of my life.
But then there comes the question: “Will I be able to use it for the rest of my life?”
Even if a reliable and effortless technology of, for instance voice recognition, came to replace steno as fastest input system, I would still prefer to type.
Personally, as I always say: “I would feel like a retard, in a closed room, talking to a computer”. (Actually I read that somewhere in the net, but I indentified so much with the phase, that I decided to absorb it as my own)
But then, after many years ahead of practice until achieve proficiency, since this skill is dependent on specific hardware, what if no one else uses steno anymore? What if all the companies in this market came to bankruptcy and, for any technical reason, the gaming keyboards didn’t needed n-key rollover anymore? And so, what if I wasn’t able to find a machine to continue my practice?
It’s initiatives (“iniciativas” don’t know the right word in English) like yours and from Charles Shattuck that makes me comfortable in my efforts.
You two make it sound like if anyone can make his own steno keyboard.
That is vitally important for me.
And, by the way, you guys are giving some interesting conversation. I can’t understand the technical details to say anything, but I guess a tutorial on “How to make your own steno-keyboard”, fusing both your experiences would be nice to have, somewhere easily accessible in the Plover site.
I don’t know if Mirabai would like this idea: a link to that tutorial, in an important and visible page of the Plover site. But I leave here my two cents.
Theodore Morin
--
paulo paniago
I didn´t know the n-key rollover technology was so accessible.
Thank you for that information. I guess I can continue my practice without those worries.
Thanks again!!!
Timothy Aveni
Emanuele Caruso
I agree with the other comments here, you don't really have to worry about GPL software disappear any time soon, because the license makes it very difficult for such a software to disappear.
And I am also very proud to say that also all Stenoboard design files and software is released under a GPL license, so we are already safe on the hardware side too, besides probably not having any issues with NKRO keyboards availability anyway.
Emanuele Caruso
stenoboard.com
paulo paniago
(I excluded the message before because I had posted it in really big letters)
Hello Timothy
“Ted is right; the hardware that Plover requires isn't going away any time soon”
Thanks for answering and reinforcing that.
“That ended up being kind of verbose and probably a bit redundant,”
I really don’t think so. I believe motives and motivation is crucial for anyone deciding to invest that amount of time training something. Brevity is good, but not at the cost of clear communication.
“Can you imagine being taught the Plover theory and told to manually build a dictionary from the ground up? That would be completely awful.”
Actually that’s what I’ve been doing in the last two years. I am proud to say, and I generally repeat it to exhaustion, that I believe I am the first human ever to have learned to stenotype in Portuguese from an open source project: )
“I'm just uncomfortable with the idea that I rely so heavily on an input method that is so inherently complex.”
Now, even though I’m not found of voice recognition myself, that doesn’t seam to be so relevant for me. It can be a deciding factor to you, since you have the skills to build a steno-software from ground. But, considering our definition of simplicity… what you consider simple now would be, perhaps, an ultimate challenge, twenty or thirty years ago – before the modern day simplified programming languages. And what we consider complex now, might be trivial twenty years ahead, with new technologies and improvements in artificial intelligence.
“Plover is so revolutionary because instead of having to purchase a system that costs a few thousand dollars and then enroll in stenography school, anyone can pick up stenography with an Internet connection and what is essentially a readily-available piece of hardware.”
Just decided to repeat your comment : )
paulo paniago
Hello Caruso,
That is very good to know, especially coming from you, since you already have practical and commercial knowledge in the subject.
And thanks for making the Stenoboard – hardware and software – totally under GPL license, now the creature can survive it’s creator: )
paulo paniago
About that last comment.
“Plover is so revolutionary because instead of having to purchase a system that costs a few thousand dollars and then enroll in stenography school, anyone can pick up stenography with an Internet connection and what is essentially a readily-available piece of hardware.” – Timothy Aveni
I am actually impressed to see that theirs is not as many plover users today, even it being for free. I guess maybe people only give value for things when they have to pay for them. Here in my city, more than ten years ago when a steno class was opened, there were some students after it. Now you have a world-accessible software, and there are so few of us.
Timothy Aveni
Actually that’s what I’ve been doing in the last two years. I am proud to say, and I generally repeat it to exhaustion, that I believe I am the first human ever to have learned to stenotype in Portuguese from an open source project: )
Emanuele Caruso
Actually that’s what I’ve been doing in the last two years. I am proud to say, and I generally repeat it to exhaustion, that I believe I am the first human ever to have learned to stenotype in Portuguese from an open source project: )That's incredible! I'd love for you to write a post somewhere detailing your experiences and pitfalls you encountered, even though I don't personally see myself creating a stenography dictionary from scratch any time soon. It'd be cool to have some insight into the process of theory/dictionary synthesis.Timothy Aveni
I second this, that incredible!!! And I'd love to see such a post as well!
By the way, I would be very happy to host such a post on openstenoblog.blogspot.com
Emanuele Caruso
stenoboard.com
paulo paniago
Hello Timothy,
Thanks very much for the interest. I though I was only going to write about my experiences when there were other Brazilians interested in Plover.
And Caruso, it would be an honor for me to be one of the first posts in stenoboard’s blog.
Here, I’ve started doing my first scratch. But I would like to have we some feedback and corrections before posting it.
“{My experience in Open Source Stenotyping
By Paulo Paniago.
As I am proud to say, and I always repeat it to exhaustion: I believe I am the first human ever to have learned to stenotype in Portuguese, from an open source project.
After Caruso, the stenoboard’s creator, invited me to tell my story in his blog, I decided to write my “experiences and pitfalls (…)creating a stenography dictionary from scratch” because “It'd be cool to have some insight into the process of theory/dictionary synthesis” (in the words of Timothy Aveni).
I’ve learned to stenotype thanks to Plover, the first open steno-project and now an umbrella source for other free public license steno related softwares and hardwares – such as a clone project for android (by Brent), games for speed up learning, }” … (I need to know the names of the games in here, I didn’t gave them much attention before because they are specific for English, also what is the name of that other one steno software made for windows?)… “{beginners lessons (by Zachary Brown) and the stenoboard itself.}”
(Here, above, I though of starting with an introduction having the stenoboard as reference.)
“{I already wanted to learn steno more than twelve years ago. Just didn’t because of the prices in classes and equipment. Since I am hard of hearing, I couldn’t possibly justify those expenses for my parents at the time – to become a captionist? If I had a normal hearing I bet could give a convincing excuse of learning it “just in case” I needed a different job.
That’s to Plover I began to learn steno two year ago, even before the stenoboard was released. I only had a textbook of exercises, Plover configured for English, and some guidance from Mirabai (stenographer behind Plover project) in her “Aviary” forum. I remembered those were tuff times. The layout for English was different from the brasilian-portuguese one:
{link to a Brazilian steno keyboard layout}
So that meant that even if I wanted to write my whole theory down, I would have to use a machine with the wrong steno codes. But that was exactly what I did at first, even neglecting some of Mirabai advices in contrary, She said that, by doing so I was not going to attain the intuitive notion of…}”… (I will copy her comment here from the aviary) … “{so I started to write my own dictionary “with the right typing, the right output transcription in Portuguese, but with all the wrong steno codes”. That meant I was not able to read my own dictionary.
In those days, Plover didn’t had an “add translation” window, so I had to turn Plover off, open the dictionary file and type the words missing.
It was laborious to say the least, and looking back, I can’t believe I had the courage to do so.
But already in that time, I have had an idea to make the steps easier. After learning how to use a program called ukelele, that enabled me to make different layouts for the conventional keyboard – I set two different ones: One in my native “qwerty” typing – a dvorak styled keyboard developed by Brasilian Ari Caldeira – and the other one, with the letters in the same position as the American steno layout.
So, to write the dictionary with plover off, I set the keyboard to the qwerty version of the American steno layout, closed my eyes, and than typed, one by one the letters in the order they should appear in an steno paper, than I changed the layout to my native “qwerty” typing and then wrote the corresponding Portuguese word. Naturally I made many mistakes and had to do countless corrections in the process.
At that time, I was hoping for a feature to change layouts in Plover. But since it was taking too long, and I couldn’t find a programmer myself to do the job, I decided to change the layout myself, even though I knew nothing about programming and was even afraid to look at files.
After reading about a programmer who made those changes for Polish language}”
(I have to find reference about this. I believe it was someone trying to create a whole new theory for Polish language, which, by the way, doesn’t had any steno theory yet.)
“{and again guided by some of Mirabai’s tips, I’ve searched the files, changed one letter and than tested. Did again, and again until it finally gave a result by changing a layout output letter.
I had no idea of what I was doing, and only latter, I found that those were the “compiled files”.
I couldn’t believe it, when I had correctly changed the whole layout myself – after months of tedious and insecure blind typing to the dictionary.
I guess Mirabai have even got embarrassed when I posted in the Aviary: “I finally made it myself… and it was so easy” just a few messages after she said: “I wish I had the expertise to that for you”}"
(Sorry for posting that in Caruso’s blog Mirabai, but I just couldn’t avoid it, ha ha ha!)
"{Since then, with a sidewinder as my steno machine, I had consistently trained one hour a day and it took me nine months just to cover all the lessons in the book. I don’t know if I was slow because I had to write the dictionary, because of insecurity, since I never had a clear idea if what I was learning was in the same line as my steno theory, or if I am simply a slow learner.
Nothing against being the last option, of slow learner, at least that puts me in the “persistent” category.
I’ve started my steno training in May 2013 and after one year, even though slow, I was already using steno for everything.
My strategy for grounding up my dictionary was to be conservative. Even to create my own briefs I generally only defined a word in my dictionary when I was confident of the theory behind it. In the other moments I relied heavily on spelling. I had set my spelling, in plover, to resemble as much as possible my “qwerty” typing (br nativo) – even at the cost of sacrificing some common briefs – and I use it for about ten percent of my typing in Portuguese. – I spell, as I am doing here, most of the times when typing in English.
I believe I have about one third of the speeches speed now, but that is already a bit faster and a lot more comfortable then my qwerty typing was – with the additional motivation that, while doing it I’ll get faster and faster, and, what is more important for me, I’ll get a fluency closer to the speed of my thoughts.}"
Owain
Paulo, also remember that the ErgoDox will always be buildable... But also note that there will always be N-key roll over keyboards, as it's a relatively cheap way to market to gamers and it's useful especially for games like DDR. I would also like to add that these efforts are awesome. Hopefully we start seeing some of these using the Stenosaurus' Matias keys, soon.
Emanuele Caruso
Hello Timothy,Thanks very much for the interest. I though I was only going to write about my experiences when there were other Brazilians interested in Plover.
And Caruso, it would be an honor for me to be one of the first posts in stenoboard’s blog.
Here, I’ve started doing my first scratch. But I would like to have we some feedback and corrections before posting it.
I think that it will be also very motivating since most people just have to learn an existing theory, which is orders of magnitudes easier than writing a new steno theory from scratch while learning to stenotype it!!! Amazing!!!
I can't wait to have your permission to publish it, what a honor this is for me!!!
By the way, even after you decide to publish it, you can always send me corrections so that I can properly edit the published post.
Here some suggestions:
1. tuff -> tough?
2. "(Here, above, I though of starting with an introduction having the stenoboard as reference.)"
If you really want that, I would be very pleased, but really that's not necessary at all! ;)
3. "So, to write the dictionary with plover off, I set the keyboard to the qwerty version of the American steno layout, closed my eyes, and than typed, one by one the letters in the order they should appear in an steno paper, than I changed the layout to my native “qwerty” typing and then wrote the corresponding Portuguese word. Naturally I made many mistakes and had to do countless corrections in the process."
I am not sure I fully understand the process here, maybe you could explain that also with a simple example?
4. "(Sorry for posting that in Caruso’s blog Mirabai, but I just couldn’t avoid it, ha ha ha!)"
Hi hi hi, don't worry about that, I am very pleased and honored to see the words "Mirabai", "Plover's blog" and "Aviary" on the Stenoboard's blog!!! ;)
Emanuele Caruso
stenoboard.com
paulo paniago
Hello Caruso,
Thanks for the corrections. I think I will follow them all. I really got to work on this part:
“3. "So, to write the dictionary with plover off, I set the keyboard to the qwerty version of the American steno layout, closed my eyes, and than typed, one by one the letters in the order they should appear in an steno paper, than I changed the layout to my native “qwerty” typing and then wrote the corresponding Portuguese word. Naturally I made many mistakes and had to do countless corrections in the process."
I am not sure I fully understand the process here, maybe you could explain that also with a simple example?”
And about using the stenoboard as a reference, I’m still thinking about it. It will sound cheap if the way your keyboard is immersed in my story looks like “hidden propaganda”, and readers generally hate those kinds of posts. But since it is the stenoboard’s blog, I felt that it would be coherent to add it here and there, only once or twice.
For instance, I forgot to write the one part that I was thinking a bit like:
“That’s to Plover I began to learn steno two year ago, even before the stenoboard was released.”
In that part, I was going to write something like:
“Thanks to Plover I began to learn steno two year ago, that was before the stenoboard was released. In those days the most economically available keyboard was wicrosoft’s sidewinder.”
And than give some information about the sidewinder like:
“the very first of it’s kind that could have n-key rollover even being a membrane (circuit or switches)”
I am also thinking about adding the stenoboard in the conclusion, saying something like "that’s why hardware technologies like the stenoboard are valuable.”
But I am still afraid of the effect it might have.
Anyway, I can’t work on it today, probably tomorrow at night I’ll be able to grab that text some more, and, after all, it is obviously important to me, since it is my story: )
Emanuele Caruso
Of course I'll be very biased to talk more about stenoboard related stuff there in my posts, but really that is not the main purpose of the Open Steno Blog. I see it more as a companion to the already existing, beautiful and precious official Plover blog kept by Mirabai!
I fully understand your desire to make your post as good as possible, no hurry, feel free to take all the time that you think is appropriate!
Thank you so much for doing all this!!!!
Emanuele Caruso
stenoboard.com
Mirabai Knight
blog is off to a brilliant start. I can't wait to see more! And Paulo,
you're amazing. Your words about Plover have been so gratifying to me;
I can't even tell you how much. Both of you are seriously just the
best. (':
paulo paniago
Hello Mirabai, thank you so much for the feedback. Since we never know how a text will sound to a reader, your words serve as encouragement, showing me that I am in a good direction. Although I came yesterday to realize that maybe I should change that direction. Please follow the explanation to Caruso, for my reasons. I’m feeling it’s better, but I am afraid it became a bit prolix.
So Caruso, about direction… after what you said, I decided to erase all references to the stenoboard except for a brief explanation. I also decided to change my goals in this text. I figured that, experienced stenographers would already have a marketed professional machine, so most of the users that came to your site, and who would actually read my story, would be beginners interested in the stenoboard. This way, instead of writing for ploverers and steno users already comfortable with terms in steno dialect, I decided to simplify as much as possible my vocabulary. Also, since it will be one of the very first texts in your site, I guessed it would set me the opportunity to explain some basic elements of steno in my story.
And about already posting it in your blog to make corrections latter… I would feel more comfortable receiving critics here, before it became available to a larger audience.
Also I didn’t had time to go through all the text yet. So I made only half of the rewriting today. Here is my second version. The broad letters are modifications from the last post.
“{My experience in Open Source Stenotyping
By Paulo Paniago.
As I am proud to say, and I always repeat it to exhaustion: I believe I am the first human ever to have learned to stenotype in Portuguese, from an open source project.
After Caruso, the stenoboard’s creator, invited me to tell my story in his blog, I decided to write my “experiences and pitfalls (…)creating a stenography dictionary from scratch” because “It'd be cool to have some insight into the process of theory/dictionary synthesis” (in the words of Timothy Aveni).}”
(I will change the above paragraph later. I’ve posted Timothy’s comment because he had expressed so well the purpose of my text. But since it is my story, I guess I should be explaining it with my own words. Sorry for removing your credits Timothy!)
“{I’ve learned to stenotype thanks to Plover, the first open steno-project and now an umbrella source for other free public license steno related softwares and hardwares – such as a clone project for android (by Brent), games for speed up learning, }” … (I need to know the names of the games in here, I didn’t gave them much attention before because they are specific for English, also what is the name of that other one steno software made for windows?)… “{beginners lessons (by Zachary Brown) and the stenoboard.
“{I already wanted to learn steno more than twelve years ago. Just didn’t because of the prices in classes and equipment. Since I am hard of hearing, I couldn’t possibly justify those expenses for my parents at the time – to become a captionist? If I had a normal hearing I bet I could give a convincing excuse of learning it “just in case” I needed a different job.
I decided to learn steno after a lot of resistance, since I had just invested great amount of time and energy learning to type in another unconventional keyboard – a brasilian “dvorak” styled layout called br nativo, which was developed by Brazilian programmer Ari Caldeira.
A dvorak keyboard functions the same way as conventional keyboards – known as “qwerty” – with the only difference being the order of the letters:
{Link showing br nativo}
As an over simplification, the main advantage of dvorak keyboards, when compared to qwerty, is that the most frequently used letters are in accessible positions, for instance, having all the vowels in the middle column. Whereas there main difference between qwerty and stenotyping, is that in the stenomachine you press many buttons at once.
It may sound difficult, but there are abbreviation principles that enable you to press fewer keys than what would correspond to in conventional typing. This way, the program uses an internal “dictionary” to convert the abbreviated “strokes” into common words. Generally speaking, you learn the logics behind your steno theory and than condition yourself to type by “sound” and/or memorization.
Well, and here is where my struggles began: Since the steno system is so dependent on the arrangement of keys – the keyboard layout – that also meant that this organization should be optimized to work as best as possible for their native language or theory.
Unfortunately, for me, phonetic differences between English and Portuguese lead to differences in steno keyboard layouts.
{link or picture to the Brazilian and to American steno keyboard layouts}
As you can see, many letters are in different order.
So, if I wanted to begin my training, I would have to change the keyboard layout inside plover program. It would have been so much easier if, in a another scenario, the keyboards in both languages where the same. If that was the case, and since I have a reasonable English, I could have learned Plover for English, absorbed that basic layout into muscle memory, and than only later worry about adapting it to Portuguese.
As I said, after a lot of resistance, when I finally made my mind, I was so convinced to learn steno, that I brought the keyboard first, before dealing with the problem of keyboard layouts.
Since Plover has the capacity to turn an inexpensive n-key rollover keyboard into a steno machine, I brought the cheapest compatible device at the time: the Microsoft’s SideWinder, which was the first gaming keyboard to have anti-ghosting technology, even though being actuated by membrane circuits. Generally speaking, all other keyboards with n-key rollover were more expensive because they had mechanical switches designed to give “tactic” feedback similar to that of ancient typewriters.
By n-key rollover or anti-ghosting technology, I mean that the keyboard has capacity to recognize many keys pressed at once – that basic feature of any stenomachine. Whereas professional machines cost a few thousand dollars, that keyboard was conveniently affordable.
Although gaming keyboards with their native “qwerty” alignment are not accurate, fast or ergonomic as traditional stenomachines to be classified as professional equipment. They can be used as a “student” tool, idealized to help entering the steno world.
While other hardware solutions derived from the niche Plover created, such as the stenoboard – with parallel column keys and split keyboard design – could be placed somewhere in between gaming keyboards and the professional stenotyping machines. I could consider myself equipped with the basics.
So, thanks to Plover, I began to learn steno two year ago. I only had the sidewinder, a textbook of exercises, Plover configured for English, and some guidance from Mirabai, the stenographer behind Plover project, in her “Aviary” forum. The Aviary forum was the place, in that project, for beginners to post their thoughts, frustrations, expectations, and mainly to ask for help. But there was no one else, in there, with any request vaguely similar to mine. I knew close to nothing about stenotyping and wanted to learn a steno theory from a project that was not even adapted for my language.
I remember those were though times
So that meant that even if I wanted to write my whole theory down, I would have to use a machine with the wrong steno codes. But that was exactly what I did at first, even neglecting some of Mirabai advices in contrary, She said that, by doing so I was not going to attain the intuitive notion of…}”… (I will copy her comment here from the aviary) … “{so I started to write my own dictionary “with the right typing, the right output transcription in Portuguese, but with all the wrong steno codes”. That meant I was not able to read my own dictionary.
In those days, Plover didn’t had an “add translation” window, so I had to turn Plover off, open the dictionary file and type the words missing.
It was laborious to say the least, and looking back, I can’t believe I had the courage to do so.
But already in that time, I have had an idea to make the steps easier. After learning how to use a program called ukelele, that enabled me to make different layouts for the conventional keyboard – I set two different ones: One in my native “qwerty” typing – a dvorak styled keyboard developed by Brasilian Ari Caldeira – and the other one, with the letters in the same position as the American steno layout.
So, to write the dictionary with plover off, I set the keyboard to the qwerty version of the American steno layout, closed my eyes, and than typed, one by one the letters in the order they should appear in an steno paper, than I changed the layout to my native “qwerty” typing and then wrote the corresponding Portuguese word. Naturally I made many mistakes and had to do countless corrections in the process.
At that time, I was hoping for a feature to change layouts in Plover. But since it was taking too long, and I couldn’t find a programmer myself to do the job, I decided to change the layout myself, even though I knew nothing about programming and was even afraid to look at files.
After reading about a programmer who made those changes for Polish language}”
(I have to find reference about this. I believe it was someone trying to create a whole new theory for Polish language, which, by the way, doesn’t had any steno theory yet.)
“{and again guided by some of Mirabai’s tips, I’ve searched the files, changed one letter and than tested. Did again, and again until it finally gave a result by changing a layout output letter.
I had no idea of what I was doing, and only latter, I found that those were the “compiled files”.
I couldn’t believe it, when I had correctly changed the whole layout myself – after months of tedious and insecure blind typing to the dictionary.
I guess Mirabai have even got embarrassed when I posted in the Aviary: “I finally made it myself… and it was so easy” just a few messages after she said: “I wish I had the expertise to that for you”}"
(Sorry for posting that in Caruso’s blog Mirabai, but I just couldn’t avoid it, ha ha ha!)
"{Since then, with a sidewinder as my steno machine, I had consistently trained one hour a day and it took me nine months just to cover all the lessons in the book. I don’t know if I was slow because I had to write the dictionary, because of insecurity, since I never had a clear idea if what I was learning was in the same line as my steno theory, or if I am simply a slow learner.
paulo paniago
Hello Caruso,
Just to say I’m still working on the text. I guess I can post something by Tuesday night.
Emanuele Caruso
Emanuele Caruso
paulo paniago
(I decided to erase the previous post, and re-post it in two parts, because the text was not fully shown in my computer)
Hello Caruso,
Giving example to clarify was a great idea to work that part, thank you very much.
This is my third version. Since I don’t intend to add anything, just to make corrections and paste the references that are still missing, the fourth will hopefully and finally be my last version.
Again, the broad letters are modifications from the other post.
And Mirabai, I hope my story show you the degree of my gratitude to your project and for all the transformation you generated. Again, thank you so much for all you’ve been doing.
“{My experience in Open Source Stenotyping
By Paulo Paniago.
As I am proud to say, and I always repeat it to exhaustion: I believe I am the first human ever to learn to stenotype in Portuguese, from an open source project.
My story inevitably mixes with Plover, the program from which I’ve learned to stenotype. Created by Josh Lifton, Plover is the first open steno-project and now an umbrella source for other free public license steno related software and hardware – such as a clone project for android (by Brent), games for speed up learning, }” … (I need to know the names of the games in here, I didn’t gave them much attention before because they are specific for English, also what is the name of that other one steno software made for windows?)… “{beginners lessons (by Zachary Brown) and the stenoboard (by Emanuelle Caruso).
As what lead to my interest in steno, I can say that because of an isolated lifestyle, I developed an unusual urge for writing. As the activity progressed into passion, I became interested in learning faster methods of writing, idealistically, to write as if I was just “telling something to someone”.
That’s why, more than twelve years ago, I wanted to learn to stenotype. While, fortunately, I could get my hands on a textbook of exercises, I gave up on everything related to curses, because of prices in classes and equipment. Since I am hard of hearing, I couldn’t possibly justify those expenses for my parents at the time – to become a captionist? If it weren’t for that limitation, even thou I never ambitioned a career in the area, I could have given a convincing excuse of learning it “just in case” I needed a different job.
When I discovered Plover, a free program that enabled me to learn steno with available devices, although even interested for so long in steno, it wasn’t without resistance that I decided to start. That is because I had just invested great amount of time and energy learning to type in another unconventional keyboard – a brasilian “dvorak” styled layout called br nativo, which was developed by Brazilian programmer Ari Caldeira.
A dvorak keyboard functions the same way as conventional keyboards – known as “qwerty” – with the only difference being the order of the letters:
{Link or picture showing br nativo}
http://dvoraknativo.blogspot.com.br
This is Ari Caldeira’s br nativo, the dvorak layout I learned before steno
As an over simplification, the main advantage of dvorak keyboards, when compared to qwerty, is that the most frequently used letters are in accessible positions, for instance, having all the vowels in the middle column. Whereas there main difference between qwerty and stenotyping, is that in the stenomachine you press multiple buttons at once.
It may sound difficult, but there are abbreviation principles that enable you to press fewer keys than what would correspond to in conventional typing. This way, the program uses an internal “dictionary” to convert the abbreviated “strokes” into common words. Generally speaking, you learn the logics behind your steno theory and than condition yourself to type by “sound” and/or memorization.
Well, and here is where my struggles began: Since the steno system is so dependent on the arrangement of keys – the keyboard layout – that also meant that this organization should be optimized to work as best as possible for their native language or theory.
Unfortunately, for me, phonetic differences between English and Portuguese lead to differences in steno keyboard layouts.
{link or picture to the Brazilian and to American steno keyboard layouts}
https://www.stenograph.com/pages.aspx?docid=248
(Brazilian steno keyboard)
As you can see, many letters are in different order.
So, if I wanted to begin my training, I would have to change the keyboard layout inside plover program. It would have been so much easier if, in another scenario, the keyboards in both languages where the same. If that was the case, and since I have reasonable English, I could have learned Plover for English, absorbed that basic keyboard layout into muscle memory, and than only later worry about adapting it to Portuguese.
As I mentioned earlier, after a lot of resistance, when I finally made my mind, I was so excited to learn steno, that I brought the keyboard first, before dealing with the problem of keyboard layouts.}”
(actually I began to learn steno, in my laptop - appergiating. Then I brought the SideWinder but I believe I better simplify this story)
“{Since Plover has the capacity to turn an inexpensive n-key rollover keyboard into a steno machine, I brought the cheapest compatible device at the time: the Microsoft’s SideWinder, which was the first gaming keyboard to have anti-ghosting technology, even though being actuated by membrane circuits. Generally speaking, all other keyboards with n-key rollover were more expensive because they had mechanical switches designed to give “tactic” feedback similar to that of ancient typewriters.
By n-key rollover or anti-ghosting technology, I mean that the keyboard has capacity to recognize many keys pressed at once – that basic feature of any stenomachine. Whereas professional machines cost a few thousand dollars, that keyboard was conveniently affordable.
Although gaming keyboards with their native “qwerty” alignment are not accurate, fast or ergonomic as traditional stenomachines to be classified as professional equipment, they can be efficiently used as a “student” tool to enter the steno world.
Even thou later hardware solutions derived from the niche Plover created could be placed somewhere in between gaming keyboards and professional stenotyping machines – such as the stenoboard, with parallel column keys and split keyboard design – I could consider myself equipped to start my training
So, thanks to Plover, I began to learn steno two year ago. I only had the sidewinder, a textbook, Plover configured for English, and some guidance from Mirabai, the stenographer behind Plover project, in the Aviary forum. The Aviary forum was the place, in that project, for beginners to post their thoughts, frustrations, expectations, and mainly to ask for help. But there was no one else in those days with any request vaguely similar to mine. I knew close to nothing about stenotyping and wanted to learn a steno theory from a project that was not even adapted for my language.
paulo paniago
About my textbook, I would like to add that, although it was vital for my learning, it was only a textbook of exercises. It had brief explanations in each lesson followed by many exercises to apprehend them. But unfortunately for me, the exercises came with no answers. Those would be in the machine itself configured as the student’s dictionary.
I remember those were though times. One day I had an idea that couldn’t believe I haven’t thought of it before: I could use the program with the “wrong” keyboard layout, but with the right typing and right transcriptions – all coherent with my Portuguese steno theory. This way, the steno codes would all be wrong, because the machine was configured to use the US keyboard layout, but it would still be perfectly useful as a stenomachine. Although I new the idea worked, it would be awful, because I would not be able to read my own dictionary.
The “dictionary”, in steno dialect, is basically a simple but extremely long “binomial” list of codes versus meaning. It is the file that the program uses to transcribe the steno codes into common words.
If I always typed correctly and never changed any basic line in my theory, that idea could work indefinitely. But if that was not the case and I eventually decided to change rules or make big corrections, an indecipherable dictionary would be the perfect vision of hell.
Anyway, I was so obsessed with at least starting my training that I decided to put my plan in practice, even neglecting some of Mirabai’s advices in contrary. She said that, by doing so I was not going to attain the intuitive notion of…}”… (I will copy her comment here from the aviary)
“{In those days, Plover didn’t had an “add translation” window, so I had to turn the program off, open the dictionary file and manually type the words missing. Looking back, even thou I didn’t recognized at the time, I can’t believe I had the courage to start my dictionary from a blank page.
To illustrate how the dictionary file worked and how I could write it with “the wrong steno codes but the right typing and right transcription”, let me give you an example:
Let’s say I wanted to define the word “bar” in my steno dictionary:
In my brazilian portuguese theory “bar” would be written with the stroke: “TPAR”
So it would appear “binomially” this way in my dictionary file:
"TPAR": "bar",
Although with the American layout, the same word pressing the same physical keys, would have to be written this way:
"KWAF": "bar",
So, to accomplish my plan, I would have to define the whole dictionary file in a language that I could not possibly read.
I remember some tricks I used to make the process of writing that strange dictionary easier, but to which I don’t have the ability to properly explain. Basically, after some installations and configurations I set two layouts using a program called Ukelele – Ukelele is not a steno program; it just makes “qwerty” layouts.
Than with my eyes closed I pressed each key, one at a time, in the order they should appear in the steno paper. While with the eyes closed, I would be “thinking” that I was typing “TPAR”, but because of the configuration I did, it would appear as “KWAF” in the file. Than I opened my eyes, changed back the layout, and wrote the corresponding word: “bar”.
It was laborious to say the least. Naturally I made many mistakes and countless corrections in the process.
At that time, after months of tedious and insecure blind typing to the dictionary, I was hoping for some steno enthusiast to contribute with a feature to change layouts in Plover. And also, since I couldn’t find a programmer to do the job, I finally decided to change the layout myself, even thou I knew nothing about programming and was even afraid to look at files.
While guided by some of Mirabai’s tips, I searched the internet for people who had already made similar changes in Plover. That ended up giving me two names: Aziz Yemloul and Krzysztof Smirnow.
Both have made profound modifications in Plover’s keyboard layout because of linguistic issues, and fortunately for me, both posted their procedures in internet forums.
Aziz Yemloul changed Plover in comprehensive aspects to adapt it to the French steno system. He ought to do much more than what I intended, because of specificities of his system. That is because, even thou both converged to many similarities, the French machine was invented independently from their North American counterpart. As a consequence, they used a physically different keyboard called “Grandjean” or “Continental”:
https://www.stenograph.com/pages.aspx?docid=250
As you can see, the continental steno keyboard is angled and symmetrical. By symmetrical, I mean that it uses the same number of keys for both hands.
Whereas Yemloul made a complete project – which included not only a physically different keyboard, but also full orthographic rules to manage the French dictionary – what Krzysztof Smirnow wanted to do was even lengthier.
Smirnow was willing to adapt Plover for Polish language. The complication to his goals was that there has never been any theory for that language. So, he would not only have to create a steno theory himself, but also decide through all it’s technical specifications, from keyboard layout to physical arrangement to frequencies relating terminations and prefixes.
To solve orthographic issues, he envisioned a physically different keyboard. The reason, according to him, was that because of complexities in Polish language, he would need a keyboard with more keys. This way, he was looking forward for another symmetrical organization. But his keyboard, instead of looking like the French “continental”, would be similar to the American steno machines, although with four keys, instead of one, for the little left finger.
Unfortunately for him, and following his explanation, Plover was made in such a way that increasing the number of keys and defining particular characters from Polish language would not be feasible without major modifications to the program’s base – which would then require rebuilding Plover almost from ground. Consequently, as of the last time I read it, Smirnow was still dealing with those obstacles.
So, reading their posts about how they managed to change the keyboard layouts, that all looked like fragmented answers for me, since I understand basically nothing about programming. Even combining their answers with suggestions from a Brazilian professional pen shorthand writer who emailed me telling how he made those changes it in his linux system, I still didn’t new what to do.
About this Brazilian, he asked me not to mention his name. That is because, here in Brazil, court reporting is taken by pen shorthand writers called “taquígrafos”. Since there is resistance and natural hostility from established professionals intimidated by the “rise of the machines”, he feared for prejudice from his colleges, if they ever discovered he was after steno. Unfortunately – or fortunately for me, since it reinforces my pretended position as the “first human ever to learn to stenotype in Portuguese from an open source project” – I believe he quit steno since he vanished from any of our e-mailed correspondence.
I had even visited a Brazilian university searching for students acknowledged in python programming to help me change the layouts, but to make an already long story short; after a weekend only messing files in Plover, I finally found what I guessed was the configuration to the keyboard layout.
They were written in a really strange language and I couldn’t believe a programmer was able to deal with them. Without having any idea of what I was doing, I changed one letter and tested. Then corrected it back, changed another letter and tested. Repeated that process again and again until it finally gave a result by replacing an output letter from the keyboard layout.
I couldn’t believe that was actually happening.
Only latter, I discovered that those were the “compiled files”. Compiled files, with the extension “.pyc”, are generated by the program itself, in a language used the computer to process and are not meant to be readable by human.
Again, I couldn’t believe it, when I had correctly changed the whole layout myself – It looked like magic to me when I saw my keyboard working as a Brazilian steno machine. I guess Mirabai even got embarrassed when I posted in the Aviary: “I finally made it myself… and it was so easy” just a few messages after she said: “I wish I had the expertise to do that for you”.
Since then, with a sidewinder as my steno machine, I had consistently trained one hour a day and it took me nine months just to cover the lessons in my textbook. I don’t know if I was slow because I had to write the dictionary from blank, because of insecurity, since I never had a clear idea if what I was learning was in the same line as my steno theory, or if I am simply a slow learner.
I don’t bother much being the last option, of slow learner, at least that puts me in the category of “persistent”.
I’ve started my steno training in May 2013 and after one year, even though slow, I was already using steno for everything.
My strategy for grounding up my dictionary was to be conservative. Even to create my own briefs I generally only defined a word in my dictionary when I was confident of the theory behind it. In the other moments I relied heavily on spelling. I had set my spelling, in plover, to resemble as much as possible my “qwerty” typing (br nativo) – even at the cost of sacrificing some common briefs – and I use it for about ten percent of my typing in Portuguese. – I spell, as I am doing here, most of the times when typing in English.
Now, after almost two years since that fatigued beginning, I believe I have about one third of the speeches speed, which is already a bit faster and a lot more comfortable then my conventional typing was – with the additional motivation that, while doing so, I’ll get faster and faster, and, what is more important for me, I’ll get a fluency closer to the speed of my thoughts.}"
Emanuele Caruso
the "bar" example really helps in understanding the initial process of writing the dictionary.
And the article is getting very detailed, I love it!!!!
I look forward to the final version!
Emanuele Caruso
stenoboard.com
paulo paniago
Hello Caruso, I finally finished and now you have my permission to post my text in your blog. Hope many people read it. And also, I would like to ask you that, if there is no problem with copyright material, could you post the pictures of the keyboard layouts, in your blog, instead of just showing the link?
“{My experience in Open Source Stenotyping
By Paulo Paniago.
As I am proud to say, and I always repeat it to exhaustion: I believe I am the first human ever to learn to stenotype in Portuguese, from an open source project.
My story inevitably mixes with Plover, the program from which I’ve learned to stenotype. Founded by Mirabai Knight and Josh Lifton, Plover is the first open source steno program and now an umbrella project for other free public license steno related software and hardware – such as a clone project for android (Steno Keyboard by Brent Nesbitt), interactive lessons with games for speed up learning, (QwertySteno by Mike Neale), didactic material (Learn Plover by Zack Brown) and printable 3D keyboard (Stenoboard by Emanuele Caruso).
As what lead to my interest in steno, I can say that because of an isolated lifestyle, I developed an unusual urge for writing. As the activity progressed into passion, I became interested in learning faster methods of writing, idealistically, to write as if I was just “telling something to someone”.
That’s why, more than twelve years ago, I wanted to learn to stenotype. While, fortunately, I could get my hands on a textbook, I gave up on it because of prices in classes and equipment. Since I am hard of hearing, I couldn’t possibly justify those expenses at the time – to become a captionist? If it weren’t for that limitation, even thou I never ambitioned a career in the area, I could have a convincing excuse of learning it “just in case” I needed a different job.
When I discovered Plover, a free program that enabled me to learn steno with available devices, although even interested for so long in steno, it wasn’t without resistance that I decided to start. That is because I had just invested great amount of time and energy learning to type in another unconventional keyboard – a brasilian “dvorak” styled layout called br nativo, which was developed by Brazilian programmer Ari Caldeira.
A dvorak keyboard functions the same way as conventional keyboards – known as “qwerty” – with the only difference being the order of the letters:
{Link or picture showing br nativo}
http://dvoraknativo.blogspot.com.br
This is Ari Caldeira’s br nativo, the dvorak layout I learned before steno
As an over simplification, the main advantage of dvorak keyboards, when compared to qwerty, is that the most frequently used letters are in accessible positions, for instance, having all the vowels in the middle column. Whereas there main difference between qwerty and stenotyping, is that in the stenomachine you press multiple buttons at once.
It may sound difficult, but there are abbreviation principles that enable you to press fewer keys than what would correspond to in conventional typing. This way, the program uses an internal “dictionary” to convert the abbreviated “strokes” into common words. Generally speaking, you learn the logics behind your steno theory and than condition yourself to type by “sound” and/or memorization.
Well, and here is where my struggles began: Since the steno system is so dependent on the arrangement of keys – the keyboard layout – that also meant that this organization should be optimized to work better for their native language or theory.
Unfortunately for me, phonetic dissimilarities between English and Portuguese lead to different steno keyboard layouts.
{link or picture comparing Brazilian and American steno keyboard layouts}
As you can see, many letters are arranged in different order.
So, if I wanted to begin my training, I would have to change the keyboard layout inside plover program. It would have been so much easier if, in another scenario, the keyboards in both languages where the same. If that was the case, and since my English is reasonable, I could have learned Plover for English, absorbed that basic keyboard layout into muscle memory, and than only later worry about adapting it to Portuguese.
After a lot of resistance, I only decided to learn steno simply because I knew that twenty years from now, I would regret if I didn’t. When I began to try it in my computer by “arpeggiating” I got so excited that I brought a gaming keyboard even before dealing with the problem of keyboard layouts.
Since Plover has the capacity to turn an inexpensive n-key rollover keyboard into a steno machine, I brought the cheapest compatible device at the time: the Microsoft’s SideWinder, which was the first gaming keyboard to have anti-ghosting technology, even though being actuated by membrane circuits. Generally speaking, all other keyboards with n-key rollover were more expensive because they had mechanical switches designed to give “tactic” feedback similar to that of ancient typewriters.
By n-key rollover or anti-ghosting technology, I mean that the keyboard has capacity to recognize many keys pressed at once – that basic feature of any stenomachine. Whereas professional machines cost a few thousand dollars, that keyboard was conveniently affordable.
Although gaming keyboards with their native “qwerty” alignment are not accurate, fast or ergonomic as traditional stenomachines to be classified as professional equipment, they can be efficiently used as a “student” tool to enter the steno world.
Even thou later hardware solutions derived from the niche Plover created could be placed somewhere in between gaming keyboards and professional stenotyping machines – such as the Stenoboard, with parallel column keys and split keyboard design – I could consider myself equipped to start my training
So, thanks to Plover, I began to learn steno two year ago. I only had the sidewinder, a textbook, Plover configured for English, and some guidance from Mirabai, the stenographer behind Plover project, in her Aviary forum. The Aviary forum was the place, in that project, for beginners to post their thoughts, frustrations, expectations, and mainly to ask for help. But there was no one else with any request vaguely similar to mine: I knew close to nothing about stenotyping and wanted to learn a steno theory from a project that was not even adapted for my language.
paulo paniago
About my textbook, I would like to add that, although vital for me to learn steno, it was only a textbook of exercises – we call them “apostila”. It had brief explanations in each lesson followed by many exercises to apprehend them. Unfortunately for me, the exercises came with no answers. Those would be in the machine itself configured as the student’s dictionary.
I remember those were though times. One day I had an idea that couldn’t believe I haven’t thought of it before: I could use the program with the “wrong” keyboard layout, but with the right typing and right transcriptions – all coherent with my Portuguese steno theory. This way, the steno codes would all be wrong, because the machine was configured to use the US keyboard layout, but it would still be useful as a stenomachine. Although I knew the idea worked, it would be awful, since I would not be able to read my own dictionary.
The “dictionary”, in steno dialect, is basically a simple but extremely long “binomial” list of code versus meaning. It is the file that the program uses to transcribe the steno notes into common words.
If I always typed correctly and never changed any basic line in my theory, that idea could work indefinitely. But an indecipherable dictionary would be a limiting factor if I eventually decided to change rules or make big corrections.
Anyway, I was so obsessed with at least starting my training that I decided to put my plan in practice, even neglecting some of Mirabai’s advices in contrary: “Not sure that's the way you want to go, because it'll make it very difficult to understand the Portuguese steno outlines on an intuitive level; everything will be "sounded out" in a non-phonetic, illogical way, because it'll be using English layout rather than Portuguese”
In those days, Plover didn’t had an “add translation” window so I had to turn the program off, open the dictionary file and manually type the words missing. Looking back, even thou I didn’t recognized at the time, I can’t believe I had the courage to start my dictionary from a blank page.
To illustrate how the dictionary file worked and how I could write it with “the wrong steno codes but the right typing and right transcription”, let me give you an example:
Let’s say I wanted to define the word “bar” in my dictionary file:
In my Brazilian Portuguese theory “bar” would be written with the stroke: “TPAR”
So it would appear “binomially” this way in the text editor of that file:
"TPAR": "bar",
Although with the American layout, the same word pressing the same physical keys, would have to be written this way:
"KWAF": "bar",
So, to accomplish my plan, I would have to define the whole dictionary file in a language that I could not understand.
I remember some tricks I used to make the process of writing that strange dictionary easier, but to which I don’t have the proper ability to explain. Basically, after some installations and configurations I set two layouts using a program called Ukelele – Ukelele is a program designed to make “qwertys” or “dvoraks” keyboard layouts in Mac OS X system, and has nothing to do with steno – it was actually the way I found to configure Ari Caldeira’s “br nativo” in my notebook, long ago.
So than, after the two keyboard layouts was configured, I closed my eyes and pressed each key, one at a time, in the order they should appear in the steno paper. While with the eyes closed, I would be “thinking” that I was typing “TPAR”, but because of the configuration I did, it would appear as “KWAF” in the file. Than I opened my eyes, changed back the layout, and wrote the corresponding word: “bar”.
It was laborious to say the least. Naturally I made many mistakes and countless corrections in the process.
At that time, after months of tedious and insecure blind typing to the dictionary, I was hoping for some steno enthusiast to contribute with a feature to change layouts in Plover. And also, since I couldn’t find a programmer to do the job for me, I finally decided to change the layout myself, even thou I knew nothing about programming and was even afraid to look at files.
While guided by some of Mirabai’s tips, I searched the Internet for people who made similar changes in Plover. That ended up giving me two names: Aziz Yemloul and Krzysztof Smirnow.
Both made profound modifications to Plover’s keyboard layout because of linguistic issues, and fortunately for me, both posted their procedures in internet forums.
Aziz Yemloul changed Plover in comprehensive aspects to adapt it to the French steno system. He ought to do much more than what I intended because, since the French machine was invented independently from their North American counterpart, it uses a physically different keyboard, called “Grandjean” or “Continental”:
https://www.stenograph.com/pages.aspx?docid=250
Although both systems converged to many similarities in practice, as you can see, the continental steno keyboard is angled and symmetrical. By symmetrical, I mean that it uses the same number of keys for both hands.
Whereas Yemloul made a complete project – which included not only a physically different keyboard, but also full orthographic rules to manage the French dictionary – what Krzysztof Smirnow wanted was even lengthier.
Smirnow was willing to adapt Plover for Polish language. The complication to his goal was that there has never been any steno theory for that language. So, he would not only have to create a the theory himself, but also decide through all it’s technical specifications, from keyboard layout to physical arrangement to frequencies relating terminations and prefixes.
To solve orthographic issues, he envisioned a physically different keyboard. The reason, according to him, was that because of complexities in Polish language, he would need a keyboard with more keys. This way, he was looking forward for another symmetrical organization. But his keyboard, instead of looking like the French “continental”, would be similar to the American steno machines, although with four keys, instead of one, for the little left finger.
Unfortunately for him, and following his explanation, Plover was made in such a way that increasing the number of keys and defining particular characters from Polish language would not be feasible without major modifications to the program’s base – which would then require rebuilding Plover almost from ground. Consequently, as of the last time I read, Smirnow was still dealing with those obstacles.
So, reading their posts about how they managed to change the keyboard layouts, that all looked like fragmented answers for me, since I understand basically nothing about programming. Even combining their topics with suggestions from a Brazilian professional pen shorthand writer who emailed me telling how he made those changes it in his linux system, I still didn’t knew what to do.
About this Brazilian, back in those days, he asked me not to mention his name. That was because, here in Brazil, court reporting is taken by pen shorthand writers called “taquígrafos”. Since there is resistance and natural hostility from established professionals intimidated by the “rise of the machines”, he feared for prejudice from his colleges, if they ever discovered he was after steno. Unfortunately – or fortunately for me, since it reinforces my claim as the “first human ever to learn to stenotype in Portuguese from an open source project” – I believe he quit steno in that very beginning, since he vanished from any of our correspondence.
I had even visited a Brazilian university searching for students acknowledged in python programming to help me change the layouts, but to make an already long story short; after a weekend only searching files in Plover, I finally found what I guessed was the configuration to the keyboard layout.
They were written in a strange language and I couldn’t believe a programmer was able to deal with them. Without having any idea of what I was doing, I changed one letter and tested. Then corrected it back, changed another letter and tested. Repeated that process again and again until it finally gave a result by replacing an output letter from the keyboard layout.
I couldn’t believe that was actually happening.
Only latter, I discovered that those were the “compiled files”. Compiled files, with the extension “.pyc”, are generated by the program itself, in a language used the computer to process and are not meant to be readable by human.
Again, I couldn’t believe it, when I had correctly changed the whole layout myself – It looked like magic when I saw my keyboard working as a Brazilian steno machine. I guess Mirabai even got embarrassed when I posted in the Aviary: “I finally changed the Plover keyboard myself… I had just to change the letters in two files” just a few messages after she wrote: “I wish I had the expertise to do it for you”.
Since then, with a sidewinder as my steno machine, I had consistently trained one hour a day and it took me nine months just to cover the lessons in my textbook. I don’t know if I was slow because I had to write the dictionary from blank, because of insecurity, since I never had a clear idea if what I was learning was in the same line as my steno theory, or if I am simply a slow learner.
I don’t bother much being the last option, of a slow learner; at least that puts me in the category of “persistent”.
I’ve started my steno training in May 2013 and after one year, even though slow, I was already using steno for everything.
My strategy for grounding up my dictionary was to be conservative. Even to create my own briefs I generally only defined a word in my dictionary when I was confident of the theory behind it. In the other moments I relied on spelling. I had set my spelling, in plover, to resemble as much as possible my “qwerty” typing (br nativo) – even at the cost of sacrificing some common words and briefs. I use it for about ten percent of my typing in Portuguese. – I spell, as I am doing here, most of the times when typing in English.
Emanuele Caruso
Hello Caruso, I finally finished and now you have my permission to post my text in your blog. Hope many people read it. And also, I would like to ask you that, if there is no problem with copyright material, could you post the pictures of the keyboard layouts, in your blog, instead of just showing the link?
well done, amazing article!!!
I just sent an email asking for permission to include the br nativo layout images, but as regards stenograph pictures they claim the copyright of all content on their website, so I think that I cannot include them, but the links.
As soon as I get a response from the br nativo guy, or a few days pass without response, I will publish it and let you all know with a new post on this group.
Thank you!!!
Emanuele Caruso
stenoboard.com
paulo paniago
Hello Caruso,
I believe you don’t need permission to publish the br nativo. Here are other links to its images:
https://aprendadigitacao.wordpress.com
http://blogparacurioso.blogspot.com.br/2007/04/qwerty.html
(third keyboard)
Can’t wait to see it : )
Emanuele Caruso
I understand I might seem paranoid here, but I need an explicit permission, either on the web or via personal email... maybe you prefer that I start publishing it with the link, and later put in the image if I eventually get the permission?
Emanuele Caruso
stenoboard.com
paulo paniago
Actually I think your doing it the right way. Better wait for permission.
the guy who invented the Br Nativo had his own site, but I believe that is gone now, so we have to get it from other peoples posts.
Good precaution.
paulo paniago
Hello Caruso!
Are you waiting for that permission to post my text? If nobody has answered you, then you did what you could. Please post it ; )
I am anxious to se my text out their (and my credits also hi hi)
I had already told many that: “I swear I’m probably the first to learn this here, I will even have my story published in a blog from a guy who invented a keyboard himself”.
Emanuele Caruso
Hi Paulo,
sorry for the late reply! I confirm that I did not receive any answer yet.
Thank you for the permission, I will post it very soon and let you know!
Emanuele Caruso
stenoboard.com
Gabriel Holmes
On Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 11:45:11 AM UTC-5, Timothy Aveni wrote:
Hey everyone!I just finished a write-up about my experience building my own Plover board, not unlike the one Charles Shattuck built a while back. Here's the link.Let me know what you think!Timothy Aveni