Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!icdoc!qmc-cs!harlqn!jcgs From: jcgs@wundt.harlqn.uucp (John Sturdy) Newsgroups: comp.std.misc Subject: Re: Chord keyboards Message-ID: Date: 31 Jul 89 13:40:07 GMT Sender: news@harlqn.UUCP Organization: Harlequin Ltd, Cambridge, England Lines: 22 A few minutes ago, I followedup mentioning the MicroWriter as the only chord keyboard I've encountered, and mentioning it is typically half as fast to use as eg a QWERTY keyboard; thinking again, I realised that there are also braille-machine keyboards (six "dot" keys - 3 for each hand; a space key in the middle; and new-line on one side, backspace on the other (I think) for the little fingers). These are also about half qwerty speed, for an experienced user. Aside: there is also a "braille shorthand" machine, writing onto paper tape for note-taking; the key arrangement is the same, but there is a strange extra feature: the length of the paper advance after each character depends on how fast the keys are released. Individual users develop their own abbreviations using this (I don't know whether there are any standard abbreviation systems using the character spacing.) -- __John When asked to attend a court case, Father Moses took with him a leaking jug of water. Asked about it, he said: "You ask me to judge the faults of another, while mine run out like water behind me." jcgs@uk.co.harlqn (UK notation) jcgs@harlqn.co.uk (most places) ...!mcvax!ukc!harlqn!jcgs (uucp - really has more stages, but ukc knows us) John Sturdy Telephone +44-223-872522 Harlequin Ltd, Barrington Hall, Barrington, Cambridge, UK