< Return to Video

Steno! by Emile Swarts

  • 0:03 - 0:04
    DREW: You ready?
  • 0:04 - 0:05
    Okay.
  • 0:05 - 0:07
    EMILE: So hi, everyone.
  • 0:07 - 0:09
    I just wanted to know --
  • 0:09 - 0:12
    has anyone used steno?
  • 0:12 - 0:13
    Steno keyboarding?
  • 0:13 - 0:14
    No one?
  • 0:14 - 0:15
    By show of hands?
  • 0:15 - 0:16
    Except for Drew?
  • 0:16 - 0:17
    No one?
  • 0:17 - 0:19
    Okay, well, that's awesome, because...
  • 0:19 - 0:21
    Prepare to be amazed.
  • 0:21 - 0:24
    Maybe the best thing that you never tried.
  • 0:24 - 0:26
    Could be.
  • 0:26 - 0:27
    So what is steno?
  • 0:27 - 0:30
    It's a specialized,
    non-alphanumeric,
  • 0:30 - 0:31
    chorded keyboard layout.
  • 0:31 - 0:36
    Non-alphanumeric
    meaning that not all the letters of the alphabet
  • 0:36 - 0:37
    can be found on the keyboard,
  • 0:37 - 0:41
    and you actually get them
    by pressing different chords.
  • 0:41 - 0:43
    It also works with phonetics,
  • 0:43 - 0:46
    so as opposed to
    typing out individual letters,
  • 0:46 - 0:48
    like you do with a typewriter-style keyboard,
  • 0:48 - 0:50
    you do words.
  • 0:50 - 0:53
    So you can see how this already benefits things.
  • 0:53 - 0:57
    It's almost like object-oriented programming
    to procedural programming,
  • 0:57 - 0:59
    is one way you can think of it.
  • 0:59 - 1:02
    It's typed using a stenotype,
  • 1:02 - 1:05
    and back in the day,
    they used to look like that thing,
  • 1:05 - 1:08
    where you put your code
    on a piece of paper,
  • 1:08 - 1:10
    so not very good for us.
  • 1:10 - 1:12
    This machine must be about...
  • 1:12 - 1:14
    More than 100 years old.
  • 1:14 - 1:17
    Nowadays, they look like that.
  • 1:17 - 1:20
    So if you wanted to plug it into USB,
  • 1:20 - 1:22
    you would need something like that.
  • 1:22 - 1:25
    And then why should you care about this?
  • 1:25 - 1:28
    Us all being developers,
    and especially liking Vim,
  • 1:28 - 1:30
    we do a lot of typing,
  • 1:30 - 1:35
    and the thing about qwerty,
    or even Colemak or Dvorak,
  • 1:35 - 1:37
    is that you'll get RSI.
  • 1:37 - 1:39
    If you work for eight hours straight,
  • 1:39 - 1:42
    just constantly typing,
  • 1:42 - 1:43
    you will get RSI.
  • 1:43 - 1:46
    And this is one of the things
  • 1:46 - 1:48
    that is solved.
  • 1:48 - 1:52
    So that's a huge win,
    and I'm sure we all always look out for that.
  • 1:52 - 1:56
    Significantly faster than qwerty.
  • 1:56 - 2:00
    So we speak at about 180 words per minute,
  • 2:00 - 2:05
    and the top speed for qwerty
    is about 160, without, you know,
  • 2:05 - 2:08
    Guinness Book of World Record exceptions.
  • 2:08 - 2:11
    So it's much faster.
  • 2:11 - 2:16
    And I think the record for steno
    is at about 360 right now.
  • 2:16 - 2:18
    People reach 300 words per minute,
  • 2:18 - 2:22
    and they say in six months,
    you'll be on 160 words per minute.
  • 2:22 - 2:25
    So it's way faster than qwerty.
  • 2:25 - 2:28
    Fluency and efficiency of text entry,
  • 2:28 - 2:31
    which is something we all know about,
    using Vim.
  • 2:31 - 2:35
    It's just that --
    the rhythm that you have while working.
  • 2:35 - 2:39
    And you'll get more of this
    when you focus on words,
  • 2:39 - 2:42
    and not just letters,
    typing in individual letters.
  • 2:42 - 2:46
    It's an emergent technology,
    even though it's been around for hundreds of years.
  • 2:46 - 2:51
    In the context of us using it,
    us developers using it,
  • 2:51 - 2:55
    it's quite an emergent technology,
    so that's quite exciting.
  • 2:55 - 3:01
    If you wanted to use this,
    obviously you need a modern stenotype
  • 3:01 - 3:05
    with a USB cable,
    that would plug in, like we saw previously.
  • 3:05 - 3:08
    So there are a few problems with that.
  • 3:08 - 3:09
    They're really expensive.
  • 3:09 - 3:11
    Bloated proprietary software.
  • 3:11 - 3:14
    And highly monopolized market.
  • 3:14 - 3:17
    So that's the problem, right?
  • 3:17 - 3:20
    But then, luckily for us,
    along comes Plover.
  • 3:20 - 3:23
    And they solve this problem
    by producing
  • 3:23 - 3:27
    free, Open Source stenographic software.
  • 3:27 - 3:31
    So in your face, big companies!
  • 3:31 - 3:32
    You know?
  • 3:32 - 3:39
    This means that the cost goes down
    from about £3,000 to about £40.
  • 3:39 - 3:41
    So that's what they give us.
  • 3:41 - 3:43
    You can use a keyboard like that.
  • 3:43 - 3:48
    That's the Microsoft SideWinder X4,
    which is the cheapest keyboard
  • 3:48 - 3:51
    that you can buy to use steno.
  • 3:51 - 3:56
    You can get these laser-cut keys
    to make it even more like a steno machine,
  • 3:56 - 3:59
    which you actually put on your keyboard,
    and it looks like that.
  • 3:59 - 4:01
    You get the 22 keys.
  • 4:01 - 4:04
    And as you can see,
    it's not the weird qwerty matrix.
  • 4:04 - 4:09
    It actually has the keys above each other,
    the way it should be.
  • 4:09 - 4:12
    So which keyboards can you use?
  • 4:12 - 4:15
    You need n-key rollover,
    which means you have to press
  • 4:15 - 4:19
    at least 10 keys at the same time,
    to produce these words.
  • 4:19 - 4:23
    And there's a list of the keyboards that you can use,
  • 4:23 - 4:25
    if you wanted to do steno.
  • 4:25 - 4:30
    So you can look at this afterwards,
    and even have prices.
  • 4:30 - 4:32
    You can see it's pretty cheap.
  • 4:32 - 4:36
    So then I felt like I had to say
    something about steno in Vim.
  • 4:36 - 4:40
    These go together really well,
    and anything you can do
  • 4:40 - 4:42
    on a qwerty keyboard,
    you can do on a steno keyboard.
  • 4:42 - 4:46
    That's really important to keep in mind
    when you're learning it,
  • 4:46 - 4:48
    so there's nothing you can't do with steno.
  • 4:48 - 4:51
    It's a perfect match.
  • 4:51 - 4:53
    And thanks.
  • 4:53 - 4:56
    I'm Emile,
    and that was it about steno.
  • 4:56 - 5:03
    (applause)
  • 5:03 - 5:04
    >> Yeah?
  • 5:04 - 5:07
    >> Like, aren't chorded keys
    worse for RSI?
  • 5:07 - 5:09
    >> Sorry?
  • 5:09 - 5:13
    >> Aren't chorded keys
    worse for RSI?
  • 5:13 - 5:14
    >> Well, yeah,
    if we think about emacs,
  • 5:14 - 5:18
    then I know that is a popular argument with emacs.
  • 5:18 - 5:22
    But this is a non-typewriter-style keyboard,
  • 5:22 - 5:25
    so it's more like a piano,
    if you look at the keys.
  • 5:25 - 5:28
    And the way it's been engineered is --
  • 5:28 - 5:34
    mainly people with disabilities,
    who really can't type that fast.
  • 5:34 - 5:40
    So it's definitely with, like,
    trying to prevent RSI.
  • 5:40 - 5:43
    But I know that
    that is a popular argument in emacs.
  • 5:43 - 5:47
    And I'm not, like --
    I haven't used steno that much,
  • 5:47 - 5:51
    but I know that people say
    that it's way less RSI
  • 5:51 - 5:54
    than typewriter-style keyboards.
  • 5:54 - 5:56
    >> Thank you.
  • 5:56 - 5:57
    >> Can I ask another question?
  • 5:57 - 6:00
    Do you switch between steno and qwerty?
  • 6:00 - 6:03
    >> So this is quite a beautiful thing,
  • 6:03 - 6:05
    that I use Colemak,
  • 6:05 - 6:10
    and when I switched to Colemak from qwerty,
    I lost qwerty,
  • 6:10 - 6:13
    and that really sucked,
    because I couldn't use anyone else's keyboard.
  • 6:13 - 6:18
    But steno is so different,
    that it wouldn't interfere
  • 6:18 - 6:21
    with your Colemak or qwerty or whatever you use,
  • 6:21 - 6:24
    and you can still maintain both,
  • 6:24 - 6:27
    because they're just such different machines.
  • 6:27 - 6:28
    Yeah.
  • 6:28 - 6:34
    DREW: I actually have a Filco Majestouch keyboard.
  • 6:34 - 6:38
    So if anyone wants to try it out,
    I've got it set up here.
Title:
Steno! by Emile Swarts
Description:

This lightning talk was presented at VimLondon, October 2013. More details on Lanyrd: http://lanyrd.com/2013/vim-london-october-meetup/schedule/

A chorded keyboard layout that you can use in Vim. Plover makes this accessible to the world with an open source adaptation.

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Mirabai Knight edited English subtitles for Steno! by Emile Swarts

English subtitles

Revisions