Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!lambert
From: lambert@cwi.nl (Lambert Meertens)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Typing versus Handwriting
Message-ID: <8181@boring.cwi.nl>
Date: 12 Jun 89 21:12:11 GMT
References: <1440001@hp-ptp.HP.COM> <11581@megaron.arizona.edu>
Sender: news@cwi.nl
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 49

In article <1440001@hp-ptp.HP.COM> garye@hp-ptp.HP.COM (Gary_Ericson) writes:
) My theory is that typing speed in a bad environment (when you can't touch-type
) efficiently) approaches the speed of handwriting, especially when you get into
) handheld sizes.  I would say that the notion that typing is always faster than
) handwriting applies only to when both are done in optimal environments.  In
) bad environments, I'd wonder if handwriting would win or tie.

In article <11581@megaron.arizona.edu> gln@arizona.edu (Gary L. Newell) reacts:
)) I think that your theory is incorrect. Average writing speeds for English
)) are 1.5-2.5 characters per second (with peak rates approaching 5-10 
)) characters a second for things like a sequence of 1's).

How does it follow that Gary_E's theory is incorrect?  I would think the
major objection is that it is unfalsifiable in the Popperian sense, since
if typing speed far exceeds writing speed in a certain environment,
defenders of the theory could easily maintain that that particular
environment is not bad.

I am not a touch-typist; in spite of concerted efforts to become one I
would keep typing things like "exrtaordianrily".  Compounded with "shift
over" errors, counting the time needed for making the corrections, my speed
was at the best (after more than a month of only touch-typing) less than
ten words per minute.  With two fingers (one of which is mainly moving
between the shift key and ESC), I get 2.3 characters per second FOR PLAIN
TEXT.  My hand-writing speed is... 2.3 characters per second.  So I am my
own portable "bad environment".  Much of the stuff I do is anyway riddled
with non-alphabetic characters (like in *(c->buf.pos++)), which are
differently placed on each of the three keyboards I regularly use and half
of which are shifted -- touch-typing is no help there!

I have noticed, by the way, that I am not really doing much worse on this
kind of text (where every typo must be corrected!) than my touch-typing
colleagues.

Gary L. N. also states:
)) The only time that handwriting interfaces would improve upon keyboard entry
)) is for large alphabet languages like Chinese or for applications using a
)) small set of gestures or math. symbols.

I would approach this differently:  Keyboard entry condemns us to stay
bound to a small set of symbols, which may be OK for some applications, but
which blocks development in many areas: engineering, mathematics, chemistry.

If a good handwriting interface were available, I would use it immediately,
quite possibly exclusively.

-- 

--Lambert Meertens, CWI, Amsterdam; lambert@cwi.nl