Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Plover v2.5.8 Released!

There's a new release of Plover, which improves CPU usage when in TX Bolt mode. Download it here!

26 comments:

Unknown said...

My keyboard and laser cut keys have arrived. I'll be looking and see how possible it will be to integrate into my work life as I have done in the past with other keyboard layouts.

Bryan said...

Is there a list of machines that are compatible with Plover? I'm running Windows XP laptop and a Stenograph machine. I really love your open source mission, but I'm going to have to buy software (or a new machine) if I know it won't work with what I have. Thank you!!!

Mirabai Knight said...

Jason: Fantastic! Have fun!

Bryan: Here ya go. http://stenoknight.com/wiki/N-key_rollover#Confirmed_working_steno_machines

We work with most Stenograph machines, though sadly not the Diamante (yet). A Windows XP laptop should work fine, though. The main thing is that we don't support Stentura protocol over USB; you have to use a USB-serial converter or Bluetooth connection. Hope that's okay!

Jaded said...

Hello, I posted earlier and I have had no response. I have installed my elan CYBRA and my computer recognizes it but my configuration is not on the Plover system. Does anyone know how to fix this so I may use Plover with my elan.
Thanks ahead of time.

xkirstenangelx@aol.com

Bryan said...

I'm not sure what you mean by usb-serial converter. I have serial plugged into the steno machine, and usb plugged into the laptop, in one single cable, and all I'm getting is "Stentura disconnected." Are you suggesting I bypass usb entirely with a serial to serial cable?

Mirabai Knight said...

Bryan: Hm. Yeah, I wonder if the issue might be in the cable. I know people have made it work by using a serial cable from their Stentura, then hooking it into a separate USB-serial converter, and hooking the end of that into the USB port of their computer. Sadly, that might be what you need. Sorry. :(

Mirabai Knight said...

Jaded: I'm sorry. I don't know much about making the Cybra work with Plover. Maybe you could post your issue on the Plover Google Group? Some of the people on there are more technically minded. http://groups.google.com/group/ploversteno

Sorry for the trouble!

Bryan said...

Thank you! I'll try another cable. If that works it will be a cheap fix.

jessic said...

I have a Cybra with Plover. I use the realtime cable 35648 to 30548 (purple in machine, black serial end) plugged into a serial to USB adapter (I have several. some don't work). The USB end then goes into the laptop. You need to hit the second and third buttons from the left together to go into TX Bolt, which is what I use in the Plover configuration.

Bryan said...

Update: I haven't found a cable or adapter that will connect my Stentura to my computer and have Plover recognize it, so I've decided Plover does not work with the Stentura 400 SRT. The only question now is do I buy software, or buy a machine that will run Plover?

Mirabai Knight said...

Hey, Bryan. I just checked, and several other people are able to make the Stentura 400 SRT work with Plover, so I think it's either the adapter or something in your configuration settings. Do you mind joining the Google Group and asking for tech support? They're much better at handling these sorts of things than I am.

Jason said...

When I installed Plover 2.5.8, I got a message that said, "[Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/Applications/Plover.app/Contents/Resources/dict.json".

Where did the dictionary go?

Jason said...

I should have said when I start 2.5.8, of course. The installation went fine.

Jason said...

Bryan, be careful about cables. I ordered one to replace my kludgy setup and couldn't get it to work. Then I hooked my old cable up to the new adapter ends, and it was fine. I'm not sure how or why I got sent a new cable (with adapters, which is what I really needed, so I was okay anyway) that didn't work, but it does happen, apparently.

Jason said...

Oh, about that error, I did check the package contents of plover.app 2.5.8, and that file isn't there. There are other dict files, but not dict.json.
Also, 2.5.7 was fine.

Jason said...

Bryan, you need two cables. One that is supposed to connect to the serial port on your steno machine and the serial port on your computer; and a serial to usb converter that will let you hook that serial cable to your laptop if it doesn't have any serial ports.
If your computer has serial ports, then the serial cable from the steno machine is all you need, but there aren't many computers that have them these days.
Also, you might want to try what jessic does with her Cybra, and run your steno machine in tx bolt. I don't know how to do that on a stentura 400 srt, though.

Felipe Siciliano said...

Hi Mirabai!! I've downloaded the source code for windows and made a change in the stentura.py archive, so the table key match the brazilian stentura. The problem is that I have no idea on how I transform the source code into plover.exe. Could you help me? Maybe if I send to you the modified stentura.py you can generate the plover.exe for me...

Mirabai Knight said...

Hey, Felipe! Thanks for doing that. I'm afraid I have no idea how to do that, but Hesky would. Or you could post the question to the Google Group. Either way!

Anonymous said...

Okay, folks out there using Plover for their professional "steno-ing", I would like to do an NPR challenge (grin). I'm ponying up $25 a month as a regular donation to support this incredible project, and sure hope others will follow suit. Software/hardware development is time-consuming and expensive. I think there are at least a couple dozen out there who are able to pony up the same, for an incredibly worthy project. Here's to hoping I am right. -- Mark Crossley

Anonymous said...

I finally committed a few bucks a month to this worthy project - which is both time-consuming and has incurred cost. It is only $25, but if there were a couple dozen folks (who use Plover regularly, as I do) willing to do the same, then Plover and Stenosaurus can take off and become even more of a reality. Any takers? -- Mark Crossley, Sacramento CA (Certified Court Interpreter, ASL, and CART provider)

Carlos said...

So I am a digital court reporter in Florida. I was going to be attending steno school, but as you explained the steno schools are really just scams. I have a brand new machine, but when I found this I was like OMG!!! I was talking with friends about how the industry is so historic. You learn by listening to a teacher read dictation from a book. BORING! But, I would learn it so much faster with these type of games, etc. So I am looking to actually do the court reporting that I currently do digitally (electronically) and then now I want to integrate this. I think this is exactly what the court reporting industry has been looking for. It's AWESOME! Is there anyway that you can direct me how I would go about doing this? Also I found some gaming laptops that allow multi-strokes up to 10 at once. Can you give any recommendations on any laptops that you might know about as the one I saw online was $2,200.

Mirabai Knight said...

I'm afraid 10-key rollover isn't enough to do steno (you need at least 16; ideally more), so sadly there aren't any laptops, gaming or otherwise, that are suited to the task. You can buy a Sidewinder X4 for $50, though, which will work with any laptop. Good luck!

Mirabai Knight said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mark Crossley (Sacramento CA) said...

Okay, for Elan Cybra, what you have to do is connect the cable, turn on the machine, and then of the six top buttons, you hold down the innermost and middle left buttons simultaneously at the same time - hold down until you hear a beep. Then, go to Plover Configure, and in TX Bolt (use NO OTHER SETTING) hit Configure. Then in Serial Port Configuration, hit Scan (should bring up COM1 - drop down menu, select COM4. Hit OK, then hit Save. Should work fine. At least, for me, it does.

Jaded said...

Mark-I tried what you said still to no avail :/ I know that my computer recognizes it because it makes the noise when I plug it in. I wonder what is the issue?

Jaded said...

Do you have the USB from the square/round plug or the old school plug that looks like a monitor plug?