Keyboard layouts are incredibly fascinating. For the amount of typing that is done today it feels like we are collectively still in the Dark Ages of textual input.
A while ago on HN there was link to a talk from a stenographer (the people who do court reporting and other live transcription). They achieve the highest WPM by using a smaller keyboard and pressing "chords" of multiple keys at the same time, which map to sounds or words. Over time each individual customizes their "dictionary" to meet their usage/needs.
From there it's easy to imagine a future where children are given devices that fit their hands like gloves or wii-motes that convert motions to text, with a system that adapts and grows with them over time.
Stenographers need to optimise for input speed, almost everyone else doesn’t have that requirement.
Right, max WPM isn't necessarily everything (though it's a pretty good proxy for overall effectiveness of the tool), what's more interesting is the way the device can adapt to the user. The programmers complaining about the symbol keys could create mappings that make those easier/more natural (combined with a device with a more ergonomic form factor). Technically you can kind of do this with a regular keyboard via macros/expansions/remapping but it would work a lot better if the with a device that was designed with that in mind.
I think it's possible to take this idea and use it for us programmers, without going full stenographer.
For example you could map j + k to send escape, which would be very useful for a vim user. Or have other symbols easily reachable, without having to resort to layer modifiers.
I never worked with dvorak or bepo but I felt qwerty or azerty are enough.. it's a bit like a guitar, things are not optimal, painful at times but you can do wonders anyway with some training.
A while ago on HN there was link to a talk from a stenographer (the people who do court reporting and other live transcription). They achieve the highest WPM by using a smaller keyboard and pressing "chords" of multiple keys at the same time, which map to sounds or words. Over time each individual customizes their "dictionary" to meet their usage/needs.
From there it's easy to imagine a future where children are given devices that fit their hands like gloves or wii-motes that convert motions to text, with a system that adapts and grows with them over time.