Le Poignard

We all know I'm obsessed with not using the mouse, right?

Maybe...

Or maybe I'm obsessed with not switching between keyboard and mouse!

I'd like to introduce my newest dictionary, the Poniard. The poniard is the left-handed dagger of Steno. It was used in place of a shield during polite European swordplay, and was quite the discovery. A poniard was easier to carry when shopping for the Mrs. than even the smallest shield, allowed the user to be offensive, and generally looked cool on a gentleman's hip. Now, just like a dashing Renaissance swordmaster, anyone will be able to sally forth in style while fending off rude emails.

This steno poniard is a left-handed dictionary. Using it, I'm able to type 99% of anything I'd ever type with both hands, but without releasing the mouse at any point. It's perfect for all flavors of editing. With the right hand firmly wielding the mouse I slash the cursor madly wherever I have text to expunge, cut it with the left, click again where it needs pasting, drop it in with the left, and fly bravely into the next grammatical disaster to begin again.

Using nothing but my trusty poniard, I am able to type this paragraph entire (to include arrowing around and adding random punctuation - like! and? 4 no good "reason", or 'cause' if you'd rather. And, yes, the lowly ` and * can be found.) Things like [], {}, and <> are present, of course, as are =, +, ^, and /. I tweaked the number system so 1234567890,10,11,12 are all available through the Nimble Number System and added the traditional punctuation marks with them. Shift-8 gives you a *. I've also built in F 1-12 with any one of shift, control, and alt.

Yes, that paragraph entire was typed using the poniard. My right hand was lazily draped across the back of the couch the entire time. I achieved a stunning 3 words per minute doing so. Needless to say, that's with no muscle memory, since I just finished building it, but I'm beginning to feel the love. A year from now, I'd love to be up to 20 words per minute with it. That's okay, because I intend to use it mostly as an editing enabler.

Things like arrowing around, pasting, deleting, and typing individual letters to make a plural of a lonely word work great with this system. Things like alt-F4 and ctrl-W are breathtakingly easy. It was actually made to ctrl-A, ctrl-C, ctrl-V and does so with STKPWRO/KRO*/SRO*.

You'll recognize the C and the V, and gather adding an O adds the control key to the stroke. The A is the new stroke there, being STKPWR (best read as Z+R). It's always been the vowels that killed any singlehanded system, and not just E and U. Every consonant can be made using the 7 keys of the left fingers. It's the vowels that stubbornly refuse to fit. I've treated the left-hand keyboard as 7 keys plus 4 modifiers (being the #, *, A, and O). Using those 11 keys, I've generated something like 250 strokes. It's a bit tight, but I've tried to impose some order.

The consonants are unchanged. The vowels are all Z-based. Z+R=A, Z+R*=O, Z+H=E, Z+H*=U, Z+HR*=I. Yes, I is a full mash of all finger keys. Adding the traditional steno A-key adds "shift" to the letter. That's how you make a capital letter. Adding O adds "control". Adding AO does not add "shift-control" to the letter, as you might expect, but adds "alt". So, you can add the 3 main modifiers to the keys, but not in combinations like shift-control or alt-control. So far, that's not hurt me. If I deem it necessary, I've got an idea for that, but it will be complex and I'm going to let the stuff I have sink in a bit before I try to go that far.

The action keys, like return, backspace, delete, page up and down, tab, et cetera are all available and use the patterns already proven in the Nimble Single Stroke Commands dictionary. Again, adding shift, control, and alt is done the same way as the letters.

The function keys were a little tricky, but I've gone with the Nimble Number System again, and this time added *. So, hitting a nimble 8+* will give you F8. Add an O to that, and you have control-F8.

And then things get even stickier. Sorry. It's the best I was able to do, and I'm getting quite comfortable with it. The next 16 patterns are all just shape-based.
SKWH: ,.!?
STPR :;/\
SKPH ([{<
STWR  "'`*

Make the shape to get the first character in the list. Add A for the second, add O for the third, add AO for the fourth. And then, if you add * to any shape, you get a variation of the plain character. You might get a close bracket or a space-less version of the same punctuation.

Just one more note to make here. I lost two left-hand-only briefs that I cared about. Other's mileage may vary. I lost KPA* to force upper case without a space. At the same time, I needed a way to force lowercase as well, so I put all that on STK. STK forces lower, STK* forces upper case, and STKA* forces a blank space then upper. If you feel more need to keep using KPA than to have X, though, you can just add a KPA* at the end of the dictionary to override the dictionary's default.

# Give the left hand ability to force to "lower", "upper", and "upper with space" commands
values['STK'] = '{^^}'
values['STK*'] = '{^}{-|}'
values['STKA*'] = '{}{-|}'

And then I needed to replace WR for were. I used WE*R. Again, if you don't expect to need the right arrow, you can create an override and get it back.
# Add-ons to make up for briefs we've overwritten
# Replace WR (were)
values['W*ER'] = 'were'

Okay. That about does it for a first introduction. If enough people think this has potential and want documentation I'm sure I can be persuaded. Here's hoping someone else thinks it's a useful idea.

Poniard

Nimble Numbers - Update

Stenography is full of exciting discoveries. In this case, my discovery was how hard it was to change 3 years of learning the original steno numbering system. Sigh. I've taken the Nimble Number System and converted it for use with the original 4 numbers. Nimble's system was more efficient, but I've had to take the less painful route because I'm a wimp. So be it.

The Nimble Number system v2 is now available to any Plover user on any Plover-compatible keyboard of the classic Ireland 23- key layout.

The classic stenography numbering system uses: STPH- for 1, 2, 3, and 4; -FPLT for 6, 7, 8, and 9; and AO- for 5 and 0. You can create a number of arbitrary length, as long as that number is in steno order. At some point, someone introduced the idea of adding -EU to any pair of numbers to reverse them. So, using classic steno, you can write any 2-digit number and several longer numbers if you're lucky. It was always a fun game to see how few strokes you could use to type a long number. With some cleverness, you could often find a 3-digit or even 4-digit single stroke.

Nimble's system is superior. He uses STPH-in combinations to create every digit from 0-9. That's the best thing about his system. The counting numbers to 9 are all on the left hand. Beyond that, though, he then replicates the pattern on -FPLT to make a 2-digit number, on -RBGS to make a 3rd digit, and on SKWR- to make a fourth digit. That's sweet. And for one more great piece of goodness, he uses AOEU to add marks like the $ and %. I don't actually know what the combinations are he uses, but I didn't let a little thing like complete ignorance slow me down. I've created my own.

AOEU can create 16 combinations, so I've created the ability to add 16 decorations: $, ., :, -, (), and / in several different forms. You can now single-stroke $12.34, (1234), 18:00, and 12.34%. Granted, they're all finger-twisters, but you don't have to start to that way. I'm certainly not.

I'm getting used to the idea by working mostly with 1 and 2 digit numbers. They're pretty easy. I'm also getting up to speed pretty quickly on IP addresses, which use some 3-digit numbers. 3 is not too hard. I do have to say, the 4-digit numbers are very hard because I had to compromise the S- key. The original system relied on the S- being split into two keys. I could not do that. Instead, wherever you would hit the lower S-, you have to hit the *. It's a sad accommodation, but it still leaves those numbers available to me if I ever find one I need to use a lot.

So, the dictionary comes with 3 Help Strokes. Hit #-F, #-P, and #-L to see the following 3 bits of detailed help:

I need to improve this, but I'll put it out here now as a full disclosure thing.

#-F
....Writing Nimble Numbers
....How to stroke the numbers 0-14
...H 4 
..P. 3 
.T.. 2 
S... 1 
..PH 7 
.TP. 6 
ST.. 5 
.TPH 9 
STP. 8 
STPH 0 
S..H 10 
.T.H 12 
S.P. 11 
S.PH 14 
ST.H 13


#-P
....Nimble Numbers Table of Possibility
....Single stroke 1, 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers with all modifiers
---
- Bare number
.... 3 32 321 3217 
- Leading decimal
.O.. .3 .32 .321 .3217 
- Central decimal
.OE. .3 3.2 3.21 32.17 
- $ alone
A... $3 $32 $321 $3217 
- $ with central decimal
AOE. $.30 $3.20 $3.21 $32.17 
- Trailing colon
..E. 3: 32: 321: 3217: 
- O'clock
AO.U 3:00 32:00 321:00 3217:00 
- Trailing hyphen
A..U 3- 32- 321- 3217- 
- Negative as -
AO.. -3 -32 -321 -3217 
- Leading (
A.E. (3 (32 (321 (3217 
- Negative as()
A.EU (3) (32) (321) (3217) 
- Trailing )
..EU 3) 32) 321) 3217) 
- Percent symbol
...U 3% 32% 321% 3217% 
- Percent with central decimal
.OEU .3% 3.2% 3.21% 32.17% 
- Trailing /
AOEU 3/ 32/ 321/ 3217/

#-L
....Writing Several Nimble Numbers
....How to stroke 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers
The first digit of any number is typed on the STPH- keys
The second digit of any number is typed on the -FPLT keys
The third digit of any number is typed on the -RBGS keys
The fourth digit of any number is typed on the -*KWR keys
The fourth digit is a mess. Sorry. The S- could not be reused
so substitute the * for the S-, so it's out of sequence

so substitute the * for the S-, so it's out of sequence

To download and play with the dictionary, click here:
Nimble Numbers 2
To download and use the Nimble Numbers system with the single command dictionary, click here:
Nimble Single Stroke Commands 2

Nimble Numbers

Stenography is full of exciting discoveries.

No, really, it is.

Okay, well stenography is full of things that excite me, and when the community user Nimble mentioned he had a new way to write numbers, I was completely stoked. His system relied upon a custom keyboard, though, and therefore was not usable by me.

Enter determination.

The Nimble Number system is now available to any Plover user on any Plover-compatible keyboard of the classic Ireland 23- key layout.

The classic stenography numbering system uses: STPH- for 1, 2, 3, and 4; -FPLT for 6, 7, 8, and 9; and AO- for 5 and 0. You can create a number of arbitrary length, as long as that number is in steno order. At some point, someone introduced the idea of adding -EU to any pair of numbers to reverse them. So, using classic steno, you can write any 2-digit number and several longer numbers if you're lucky. It was always a fun game to see how few strokes you could use to type a long number. With some cleverness, you could often find a 3-digit or even 4-digit single stroke.

Nimble's system is superior. He uses STPH-in combinations to create every digit from 0-9. That's the best thing about his system. The counting numbers to 9 are all on the left hand. Beyond that, though, he then replicates the pattern on -FPLT to make a 2-digit number, on -RBGS to make a 3rd digit, and on SKWR- to make a fourth digit. That's sweet. And for one more great piece of goodness, he uses AOEU to add marks like the $ and %. I don't actually know what the combinations are he uses, but I didn't let a little thing like complete ignorance slow me down. I've created my own.

AOEU can create 16 combinations, so I've created the ability to add 16 decorations: $, ., :, -, (), and / in several different forms. You can now single-stroke $12.34, (1234), 18:00, and 12.34%. Granted, they're all finger-twisters, but you don't have to start to that way. I'm certainly not.

I'm getting used to the idea by working mostly with 1 and 2 digit numbers. They're pretty easy. I'm also getting up to speed pretty quickly on IP addresses, which use some 3-digit numbers. 3 is not too hard. I do have to say, the 4-digit numbers are very hard because I had to compromise the S- key. The original system relied on the S- being split into two keys. I could not do that. Instead, wherever you would hit the lower S-, you have to hit the *. It's a sad accommodation, but it still leaves those numbers available to me if I ever find one I need to use a lot.

So, the dictionary comes with 3 Help Strokes. Hit #-F, #-P, and #-L to see the following 3 bits of detailed help:

#-F
....Writing Nimble Numbers
....How to stroke the numbers 0-14
...H 0 
..P. 1 
.T.. 2 
S... 3 
..PH 4 
.TP. 5 
ST.. 6 
.TPH 7 
STP. 8 
STPH 9 
S..H 10 
.T.H 11 
S.P. 12 
S.PH 13 
ST.H 14


#-P
....Nimble Numbers Table of Possibility
....Single stroke 1, 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers with all modifiers
---
- Bare number
....  1 12 123 1234 
- Leading decimal
.O..  .1 .12 .123 .1234 
- Central decimal
.OE.  .1 1.2 1.23 12.34 
- $ alone
A...  $1 $12 $123 $1234 
- $ with central decimal
AOE.  $.10 $1.20 $1.23 $12.34 
- Trailing colon
..E.  1: 12: 123: 1234: 
- O'clock
AO.U  1:00 12:00 123:00 1234:00 
- Trailing hyphen
A..U  1- 12- 123- 1234- 
- Negative as -
AO..  -1 -12 -123 -1234 
- Leading (
A.E.  (1 (12 (123 (1234 
- Negative as()
A.EU  (1) (12) (123) (1234) 
- Trailing )
..EU  1) 12) 123) 1234) 
- Percent symbol
...U  1% 12% 123% 1234% 
- Percent with central decimal
.OEU  .1% 1.2% 1.23% 12.34% 
- Trailing /

AOEU  1/ 12/ 123/ 1234/

#-L
....Writing Several Nimble Numbers
....How to stroke 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers
The first digit of any number is typed on the STPH- keys
The second digit of any number is typed on the -FPLT keys
The third digit of any number is typed on the -RBGS keys
The fourth digit of any number is typed on the -*KWR keys
The fourth digit is a mess. Sorry. The S- could not be reused

so substitute the * for the S-, so it's out of sequence

To download and play with the dictionary, click here:
Nimble Numbers
To download and use the Nimble Numbers system with the single command dictionary, click here:
Nimble Single Stroke Commands

Single Stroke Commands

Most people control their computer like a first-person shooter computer game. With one hand on the keyboard and the other flipping back and forth between computer and mouse. It's a point-and-click game for them, played for a living wage, and frankly most people are happy to let their time slowly drain away in just this way. They type a bit,  let the computer catch its breath whilst switching to the mouse, drift the pointer over to the next target, click it, give the computer another nap while swinging their hand back to keyboard, type again at long last, and repeat 1,500 times per day.

Others are not so easily amused.

These people, the lazy and hard to please folk who demand their computer take no pointless breaks, control their computers like a guitar, performing several actions at once. They never take their hands off the keyboard, and issue complex commands with a stroke or two. They compose a new message, switch from email to browser, create a new tab, log on to a remote computer, switch to an ssh prompt, issue commands, copy configuration lines to a text editor, and get hacking without "lifting" at any point, at full throttle throughout.

This is the magic of "keyboard shortcuts", and they're almost enough to run a computer at full throttle, but even the mighty shortcut keys have a problem. Mere mortals cannot use them without lengthening their fingers another inch or so and learning to twist them with precision across two rows of keys to find distant Alt, Super, and Function keys in all their critical combinations and sequences.

Only stenographers can truly run at full throttle. Only stenographers have every keyboard shortcut at their fingertips.

Download the Single Stroke Commands Dictionary

Using the Single Stroke Commands dictionary within Plover, every keyboard shortcut is under your fingers in the home position. Install the dictionary per usual procedures, then hit the following key combinations to activate each keyboard shortcut.


To hit the 4 arrow keys:

KPR-FRLG is [Up] as {#Up}{^}{>}

TWH-FRLG is [Down] as {#Down}{^}{>}

SK-FRLG is [Left] as {#Left}{^}{>}

WR-FRLG is [Right] as {#Right}{^}{>}








To hit page up and page down with home and end keys

PHR-FRLG is [Page_Up] as {#Page_Up}{^}{>}

WHR-FRLG is [Page_Down] as {#Page_Down}{^}{>}

KPWR-FRLG is [Home] as {#Home}{^}{>}

TPWH-FRLG is [End] as {#End}{^}{>}







To hit named action keys

TKP-FRLG is [Escape] as {#Escape}{^}{>}

TKW-FRLG is [Tab] as {#Tab}{^}{-|}

SP-FRLG is [Space] as {#Space}{^}{>}

SHR-FRLG is [Return] as {#Return}{^}{-|}







Any of the keys above can be combined with modifiers, along with any fingerspelled letter key. So, you can hit "[Shift]-[End]" or "[Super]-[T]" or "[Control]-[Shift]-[Alt]-[Tab]". The following diagrams show how to use the right hand to add modifiers to any key hit with the left hand, be it a shortcut key or a simple letter.

?-FRLG is [?] as {#?}{^}{-|}

?*FRLG is [Control]+[?] as {#Control_L(?)}{^}{-|}

?-FRBLG is [Shift]+[?] as {#Shift_L(?)}{^}{-|}

?-FRLGTS is [Alt]+[?] as {#Alt_L(?)}{^}{-|}

?-TSDZ is [Super]+[?] as {#Super_L(?)}{^}{-|}

?*FRBLG is [Control]+[Shift]+[?] as {#Control_L(Shift_L(?))}{^}{-|}

?*FRLGTS is [Control]+[Alt]+[?] as {#Control_L(Alt_L(?))}{^}{-|}

?*FRBLGTS is [Control]+[Shift]+[Alt]+[?] as {#Control_L(Shift_L(Alt_L(?)))}{^}{-|}

?-FRBLGTS is [Shift]+[Alt]+[?] as {#Shift_L(Alt_L(?))}{^}{-|}

?-BTSDZ is [Shift]+[Super]+[?] as {#Shift_L(Super_L(?))}{^}{-|}

?-PTSDZ is [Alt]+[Super]+[?] as {#Alt_L(Super_L(?))}{^}{-|}

?-PBTSDZ is [Shift]+[Alt]+[Super]+[?] as {#Shift_L(Alt_L(Super_L(?)))}{^}{-|}






Hitting the F1, F2, etc. function keys, you hit the simple navigation pattern of -FRLG with the appropriate left-handed number key. You can also add Control, Shift, and Alt to these function key presses. To hit the function keys from 6-9, you use the left hand simple navigation pattern of TKHR-, along with any desired modifier.

1-6R8G is [F1] as {#F1}{^}{>}
2-6R8G is [F2] as {#F2}{^}{>}
3-6R8G is [F3] as {#F3}{^}{>}
4-6R8G is [F4] as {#F4}{^}{>}
56R8G is [F5] as {#F5}{^}{>}
106R8G is [F10] as {#F10}{^}{>}
14R-6R8G is [F11] as {#F11}{^}{>}
12-6R8G is [F12] as {#F12}{^}{>}


2K4R-6 is [F6] as {#F6}{^}{>}
2K4R-7 is [F7] as {#F7}{^}{>}
2K4R-8 is [F8] as {#F8}{^}{>}
2K4R-9 is [F9] as {#F9}{^}{>}





The "[Super]" key is known to Windows users as the "Windows Key" or "Win Key". The "[Super]+" combination is powerful. Hitting -TSDZ with any number 1-5 immediately switches focus to the numbered application as pinned to the Windows Taskbar. You can add Shift or Alt to the Super+number combination. To hit the numbers from 6-9, use the combination STK-.

1-9SDZ is [Super]+[1] as {#Super_L(1)}
2-9SDZ is [Super]+[2] as {#Super_L(2)}
3-9SDZ is [Super]+[3] as {#Super_L(3)}
4-9SDZ is [Super]+[4] as {#Super_L(4)}
59SDZ is [Super]+[5] as {#Super_L(5)}


12K-6 is [Super]+[6] as {#Super_L(6)}
12K-7 is [Super]+[7] as {#Super_L(7)}
12K-8 is [Super]+[8] as {#Super_L(8)}
12K-9 is [Super]+[9] as {#Super_L(9)}





There are only 2 more goodies at this point: repeat commands and strokable help.

Repeat Commands
Stroke any number from 2 to 20, 30, 40, or 50 plus the asterisk and then a command stroke, and that stroke will be submitted that number of times. #H*/KPR-FRLG (which is seen by Plover as 4*/KPR-FRLG), for example, will send "[Up]" 4 times, and you will go up 4 lines.

Strokable Help
Stroking 0* and then a command stroke will print out what that stroke does, like:
    [Up]
Stroking 1* and then a command stroke will print out exactly the definitions you see above, like:
    KPR-FRLG is [Up] as {#Up}{^}{>}

I expect this will prove most useful for those who want to create a phonetic brief for an otherwise hard to remember stroke. Of course, I'd rather give the user a way to type the command they want and have the dictionary print out how to stroke it, but the world doesn't always give us our druthers. To make up that lack, I've written this document, and hope it proves helpful to you.

There are weaknesses in this system. Some are intrinsic and others can be repaired. It's intrinsic to the shortcut key system itself that many are hard to find, to learn, and to remember. I recommend learning them one program at a time and only at a speed at which you can add them to your regular, daily usage without causing excessive stress. A repairable weakness is how the key combinations can be daunting. Anyone with the motivation could come up with a more easily memorable, phonetic name for each combination they use frequently.

If I can help, drop me a line.

Kevin

Links:
Download the Single Stroke Commands Dictionary

Mouse vs keyboard: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sjost/csc423/examples/anova/efficiency.pdf
This study compares the tedious alt+letter+letter method of keyboard navigation. The single stroke commands dictionary allows you to go faster than this document understands. Still, it's a good bit of work.

Links to loads of keyboard shortcuts: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12445/windows-keyboard-shortcuts

Create your own shortcuts:  https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/create-keyboard-shortcuts-windows-10