Neat display-oriented laptop... but what is it?! - Page 2

Snappy! · 01-23-2007, 11:53 PM

ahem ... I beg to differ ... I'm a coder of 20+ years and I touch type pretty well ... especially while coding!

nekokami · 01-24-2007, 09:07 AM

My typing skills definitely improved after I started seriously programming. One of the best programmers I know attributes some of his skill to the fact that he touch-types at 60wpm.

That being said, I do know some technical types who don't touch-type. Just not very many programmers.

These days, I touch-type so automatically that even having to learn to use a sticky caps key would slow me down. I'm not saying it wouldn't be quite useful to have a soft keyboard on such a device, just that I'm not sure I could touch-type on one.

A soft keyboard could be a real advantage in typing Chinese or Japanese (especially kanji), though. Type a radical, then order characters by stroke count or by frequency of use... I can think of a couple of good potential systems.

JDShaffer · 01-30-2007, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWood

Or maybe we could just add a Virtual Keyboard to what we already have. If they can do a QWERTY they should be able to do an 88 key piano.

Just FYI, it's been done already:

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/t.../virtual-piano

Cheers,
Jeffrey

JDShaffer · 01-30-2007, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

A soft keyboard could be a real advantage in typing Chinese or Japanese (especially kanji), though. Type a radical, then order characters by stroke count or by frequency of use... I can think of a couple of good potential systems.

Not sure if most Japanese people here (in Japan) would be able to use a radical based system! Just about everyone is popping in their kanji with the roman spellings... so a fancy kanji for DREAM (romanized as yume) would be entered as typing in y-u-m-e and then SPACE to activate the "kanji lookup". Typically the kanji we want is right there, so you can just his ENTER, but sometimes it requires a quick up-arrow or down-arrow. Not the best system, but far faster than searching by radical.

Cheers,
Jeffrey

nekokami · 01-30-2007, 08:34 AM

That's interesting. I've got an input system like this for my computer, and I use it just this way. But I had the impression that Japanese speakers weren't always that familiar with romaji. Maybe that info is out of date now. Japanese dictionaries still provide radical-stroke count lookup, but are Japanese speakers searching by romaji spelling now?

In any case, the Chinese speakers I know seem not to like the pinyin method of entry and lookup (which is what I use, since I do tend to lean on pinyin and I'm more likely to recognize the character I want from a list than to remember a 4 digit code or whatever). Maybe because there are too many characters with the same pinyin spelling, even including tones.

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01-23-2007, 11:53 PM	#16
Snappy! Addict Posts: 260 Karma: 4256 Join Date: Feb 2006 Device: SHARP Zaurus C1000	ahem ... I beg to differ ... I'm a coder of 20+ years and I touch type pretty well ... especially while coding!

01-24-2007, 09:07 AM	#17
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	My typing skills definitely improved after I started seriously programming. One of the best programmers I know attributes some of his skill to the fact that he touch-types at 60wpm. That being said, I do know some technical types who don't touch-type. Just not very many programmers. These days, I touch-type so automatically that even having to learn to use a sticky caps key would slow me down. I'm not saying it wouldn't be quite useful to have a soft keyboard on such a device, just that I'm not sure I could touch-type on one. A soft keyboard could be a real advantage in typing Chinese or Japanese (especially kanji), though. Type a radical, then order characters by stroke count or by frequency of use... I can think of a couple of good potential systems.

01-30-2007, 08:34 AM	#20
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	That's interesting. I've got an input system like this for my computer, and I use it just this way. But I had the impression that Japanese speakers weren't always that familiar with romaji. Maybe that info is out of date now. Japanese dictionaries still provide radical-stroke count lookup, but are Japanese speakers searching by romaji spelling now? In any case, the Chinese speakers I know seem not to like the pinyin method of entry and lookup (which is what I use, since I do tend to lean on pinyin and I'm more likely to recognize the character I want from a list than to remember a 4 digit code or whatever). Maybe because there are too many characters with the same pinyin spelling, even including tones.

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