Add QWERTY steno support (typing and diagrams) in the Discover mode

[waldyrious]

I've been reading about stenography, taking notes and watching videos for a long time, but never actually got started because it feels like the initial barrier to entry is a bit too high. I would love to be able to try out steno in a zero-setup environment and then, if the experience feels compelling, decide to invest the time to actually learn it properly. It seems to me that Typey Type is very well positioned to be such a resource for absolute beginners and curious onlookers who are still on the fence. 😃

The support for QWERTY in the KAOES game (#164) is great, but that assumes one already has had some exposure to which QWERTY keys correspond to which steno ones. It seems like the Discover mode could be a great place to provide a hands-on introduction to steno for complete beginners using a QWERTY keyboard.

I would assume something like a new QWERTY entry in the "Steno layout" dropdown in the settings sidebar would be a good way to make this option available. That should allow both QWERTY-as-steno input in the text box (currently each character is inserted normally rather than interpreted as steno input), and ideally the diagrams should also be adapted to the QWERTY Layout:

In case this is a desirable feature, is there anything I could do to help bring it to life? Or perhaps there is already something like that out there that I'm not aware of? Let me know! 😃

[didoesdigital]

Thanks for sharing this @waldyrious ! It's useful to hear about the barriers to getting started with steno and how Typey Type might help.

For a zero-setup environment, the two main options I'm aware of are the Stenopad and the interactive steno demo on stenoknight's site (and its standalone equivalent https://stenoknight.com/plover/ploverdemo/ploverdemo.html). It might be worth just mentioning both of these on the Typey Type about page and in the KHAERT chatbot responses.

[didoesdigital]

As for building features into Typey Type…

A) Diagrams:

i) One option is showing a QWERTY keyboard diagram and highlighting the QWERTY letters you need to press to achieve a particular word, possibly with the steno keys emphasised over the non-steno keys e.g.:

ii) Another option is showing steno keys on a QWERTY keyboard layout:

B) The steno engine:

i) One option is providing a "steno engine" in the browser to turn QWERTY text like "wnup" from a regular QWERTY keyboard into steno output like "test". The two demos above appear to do this. There are limitations to what can be achieved in the browser compared to a full steno engine like Plover.

ii) Another option is using the Plover engine, which would turn text like TEFT into "test" before it ever reached the browser. This is what Typey Type currently supports.

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There's been a bit of confusion around what's possible with Typey Type because there's a common misconception that Typey Type knows what keys you pressed on an external steno machine so people believe it "should" be able to tell you exactly which key you mis-pressed, but it cannot. If we built a steno engine into Typey Type using option B)i) I expect that would further mislead people about what's possible. Just a consideration.

I'm personally not excited about the complexity of building a full steno engine in the browser and the complexity of integrating it in the Lesson interface, which already has a lot going on, including custom dictionary support and multi-lingual steno layouts. I also want to continue supporting all modern browsers.

It could be good to have a stand alone game in the Typey Type games for specifically catering to this scenario of trying steno with a QWERTY keyboard. Maybe something like the interactive steno demo on stenoknight's site but instead of showing you what you have typed and what you did press, focusing on what you should press to type a few words. It could include only words you can write with 6 or fewer keys because most QWERTY keyboards don't support more than 6 keys pressed at the same time. e.g. "dnol wv awnik vl wenm" for WELG TO STEPB/OG/TPEU to write "welcome to stenography".

[waldyrious]

Thanks for the detailed response! I was aware of Stenopad (and Plover Pad/Ploverdemo), but I was hoping for a resource that would allow learning how to type using steno-in-QWERTY rather than just practicing it. The Lesson interface (especially the Discover mode) seemed ideal for this — but I would be happy with a stand-alone game too!

A) Diagrams

I believe it would be more accessible for beginners to see the QWERTY key labels as a reference, rather than the steno keys. However, it doesn't need to be an either/or choice. I have seen some diagrams that combine both and that might be ideal. The one I like the most is this one that's in the Plover wiki:

B) Steno engine

I am not sure I fully understand what you mean when you say that Typey Type (only?) supports using the Plover engine. Does that mean that if I don't have Plover installed, I would not be able to input steno using a QWERTY keyboard?

[didoesdigital]

Thanks for sharing the details and the diagram example, @waldyrious.

Regarding your question:

Does that mean that if I don't have Plover installed, I would not be able to input steno using a QWERTY keyboard?

Yes, at the moment Typey Type lessons only support the B) ii) scenario where some external steno engine translates key strokes to English words. (The KAOES game QWERTY mode kind of cheats and will handle 1-letter key presses but no more than 1! It's extremely simple and does not actually work like a real steno engine at all.)

At the moment, if you don't have Plover (or any other steno engine) installed and you pressed "s" on the QWERTY keyboard in a Typey Type lesson it would just type "s".

On the other hand, if you had:

1. installed Plover
2. set its machine setting to "keyboard" (because you're using a QWERTY keyboard), and
3. "Enabled" it

… and then you pressed "s" on the QWERTY keyboard in a Typey Type lesson, Plover would:

• treat that "s" key press like a steno K key (as you can see on the diagram above)
• translate K to "can", and
• output "can" into the Typey Type lesson.

I hope that makes sense!

[waldyrious]

That does make sense, yeah. Again, that's a bit of a higher barrier to entry than would be ideal, but I suppose Typey Type isn't meant for absolute beginners 😅

I briefly wondered if the arpeggiating technique, coupled with the KAOES game's QWERTY mode, might allow regular QWERTY (non-Plover) users to use Typey Typey to try the steno waters, in a nicer, more guided UI/UX than Stenopad/Ploverdemo currently offer — but I'm not sure it would be worth it in the end, because it negates one of the key aspects that make steno advantageous over regular typing (i.e. simultaneous pressing of multiple keys).

That means that the only way for this to come to life as a zero-setup entry point for the steno-curious would be the option you describe above as

One option is providing a "steno engine" in the browser to turn QWERTY text like "wnup" from a regular QWERTY keyboard into steno output like "test".

Regarding that, I am curious about what you mean by:

There are limitations to what can be achieved in the browser compared to a full steno engine like Plover.

What are these limitations? Could it be that they are not as relevant for a beginner's experience? And are they fundamental due to the nature of QWERTY keyboards, or just edge cases that would require a much more complex implementation to handle them?

If it's the latter, maybe one option could be to run Plover itself in the browser, via Pyodide. A while ago I built a (very basic) web-based wrapper for a Python program, but I'm not sure if Plover would be amenable to such an adaptation. Might be worth at least considering that option, though :)

[didoesdigital]

@waldyrious it would be nice to offer a guided intro with a zero-setup steno UI.

I haven't built a browser steno engine myself so I'm unclear on what's necessary (beyond tracking a buffer of previous words to check for multi-stroke words to rewrite). If you wanted to support a non-QWERTY steno machine that works over different protocols, only some browsers support Web Serial.

@petercpark might have some insights from their work on Stenopad.