Jarne Firmware Update

Tharelia says:

Further update for Jarne users: April 6 evening build will now automatically migrate your user dictionary from on-chip flash to external flash, and update to the latest dictionary storage version at the same time.

This has several advantages:

* The external flash is rated for 100k writes, instead of 10k writes.

* The external flash is much larger. The user dictionary on the Jarne has expanded to 1MB instead of 256kb (compare with 512kb on pico boards)

You can see it's worked as you'll be on version 3 and have larger hash and data block usages available after.

Froj!

StenoHarri made Froj, a shorthand dictionary generator:

Froj converts Edinburgh's pronunciation dictionary into stenography outlines using theory rules and brute force.

Every rule depends on four things:

Spelling

Phonetics

previous keys

Prefixes/roots/compounds/suffixes

Every rule outputs three things:

chord

ambiguity (for conflict resolution)

description (for FrojBot)

Typey-Type Updates!

Di has done it again!

Better suffix hints: Typey Type's now a bit smarter at suggesting longer suffix translations over shorter ones. For example, to write "suitors", Typey Type will now suggest `SAOUT/O*RS` instead of `SAOU/TOR/-S` because the `^ors` suffix is longer than the `^s` suffix. Typey Type now also ranks affixes a bit like how it tries to show better stroke hints and hide misstrokes. This means that even when using personal dictionaries, Typey Type should give you better stroke hints when there's no exact dictionary entry for a word and it suggests using affixes to write it out.

Better fingerspelling behaviour: I updated lessons and the Typey Type dictionaries to help fix a rare issue that sometimes causes issues with stray spaces while fingerspelling. Props to JRJurman, Monniasza, Paul Fioravanti and others that have helped with various parts of that.

Added links to steno demos: I added links on Typey Type to interactive steno demos so it's easier for people to try steno straight away in the browser without setting anything up. Props to Waldir for sharing their experience about exploring steno.

Links and more details here.

Rate Limiting in Javelin

Tharelia writes:

People have asked for a way to slow down Javelin's output multiple times, to support software that cannot handle the default output rate. There is now an initial mechanism to do this; though it will likely change in the future. Firmware's 2025-03-16 and later have this ability, and it'll show up in the Settings Tool too. The pico builds work to these timings already, even with the hacky implementation; so going to leave that as is for now. Get a firmware 2025-03-19 or later for these features + some important fixes recently. Note: The rate limit is the rate that keyboard packets are sent to the computer, not the rate of characters. e.g. A character with a shift will send a shift-press, a letter-press, then a letter release, then shift release.

Javelin Update!

Tharelia writes:

Javelin Update
Firmware
Fixed retro_toggle_asterisk
Fixed sendText() on Jarne / Jarne Blade
Added a number of new fonts
More performance improvements
Added support for Cirque Touchpad, with auto-detection for all existing modules on Halcyon Kyria
javelin-steno-rp2040 repository renamed to javelin-steno-pico and can now build for rp2040, rp2350-arm and rp2350-riscv Added Game of Life screensaver to Halcyon Kyria layout
Javelin is making progress on multi-language support
You can now run Javelin with another layout, however, it only supports a single language on a device at a time at the moment.
This also supports defining extra parsing even if you want to just use standard English/extended English - for example, you can define "J" to be SKWR, then add dictionary entries such as "JET" -> "jet", or "JAFL" -> "javelin"'


Web Tools
Added Condition and Set Value action in Visual Editor.
Added Double Press activation in Visual Editor
Added code to visual editor generated scripts to prevent sticky steno keys when ModTap keys are used on the steno layer.
Added hesitation times to paper tape export
Added support for building firmware for other languages
Added support for working with other languages in various tools

JSON dictionary to Anki Deck Script

Warren has made a Python script to turn a JSON dictionary into an Anki deck so you can study it flashcard-style!

Plover2CAT v3.1.0

The excellent plants writes on the Plover Discord:

Plover2CAT v.3.1.0 can be installed directly from the plugin manager!

You can now set highlight colors for different text elements. There are many bug fixes and speed improvements under the hood. See the changes here.

Plover2CAT will be migrating to Qt6 following Plover 5 development. This will be the last feature update for Plover 4 except for urgent bug fixes.

Plover 4 is finally here!!

Thanks to the heroic efforts of the amazing mkrnr and many other wonderful devs over the past many years, Plover 4 has at long last been officially released! What a wonderful day! Infinite gratitude and appreciation to everyone who has come together to make this happen!!!

Plover v4.0.0rc5 released!

The marvelous mkrnr says:

Plover v4.0.0rc5 released

Adds Linux Wayland support, as requested by many. Huge thanks to @LilleAila | 5 wpm / 70% for the implementation! Adds a new button to the plugins manager that allows installation via a GitHub URL. Thanks to @plants!

Please check out the GitHub release page for all changes and for the installer files.

We want to release plover v4.0.0 soon, so we'd love some testing and feedback for this release candidate

Plover Development Taking Off!

Thanks in large part to the wonderful mkrnr, the Plover GitHub Repo is buzzing at the moment! Our devs have been fixing and updating and doing a ton of important maintenance work. It's wonderful to see this rejuvenation, and I'm so grateful for everyone's help. Infinite appreciation and admiration to all our contributors! If you'd like to pitch in, contact mkrnr on the Plover Discord for guidance!

Javelin Updates!

Tharelia writes:

Here's an update on what's happened in Javelin recently:

**Firmware**

- Added support for the Halcyon Kyria (rev4), including the Halcyon TFT LCD Display Module

- Added a default layout for both Kyria rev3 and rev4

- Added support for Bluetooth to Serial bridging

- Added split version detection, to prompt for updating the pair side when necessary

- Added support for encoders

- Added hWheelMouse() script function for horizontal scroll wheel support

- Added console set_rgb array support to better support

- Improved documentation for scripting https://github.com/jthlim/javelin-steno/blob/main/script.md

- jeff-modifiers now only applies to embedded steno mode

- Added the ability to secure console access and flash writes via script.

- Fixed wpm spiking after unicode characters when linux_ibus was used.

- Paper Tape and Steno Layout web tools are now functional even when not using embedded steno.

**Web Tools**

- Added Serial Bridge tool, to enable wireless usage of Windows programs that normally require a usb connection.

- Added initial cut/copy/paste support to the Visual Editor

- Added undo/redo to the Visual Editor

- Changed mechanism handling tap and double tap to make more cases work as expected.

- Added prefab support to Visual Editor. This is done to make it easier to use scripts written by others.

- Added RTF dictionary support to firmware builder.

- Added option to ignore bad entries to firmware builder.

- Improvements to compiler to generate better output for Taipo implementation

- Fixed negative values not showing properly in global values tool

The Musical Uni!

You've heard of The Starboard Saxophone. Now get ready for...

The Musical Uni!!

This is all by Lynn from the Plover Discord, and I think it's HUGELY impressive and cool. It makes me want to join an all-steno machine band! Who's with me?!

Steno Glossary

Grahp has compiled a useful steno glossary that might come in handy if you've been reading people chatting about steno in the Discord or elsewhere and have been wondering about what all the jargon means.

Javelin Extended Stenotype support

Tharelia writes:

I've been working for a while on generalizing Javelin to support more than just WSI layout.

Today, the first milestone has been reached — support for extended stenotype. Javelin now defaults to extended stenotype internally. This means that you can use `^` and `+` in your stroke definitions. These can be added to your JSON dictionaries, then built as usual. You will also need to update the keyboard layout to select these keys.

Many places in Javelin have been updated to support this. In particular, dictionaries used to store 3 bytes — 24 bits — to represent the strokes. This was sufficient, as WSI uses just 23 keys. However, with the addition of these two new keys, there are now 25 keys possible. The easiest solution would have been to make everything use 4 bytes -- 32 bits -- however, previous magnum dictionaries that fit in 16MB would no longer do so. So Javelin has two dictionary implementations - and if a `+` (the 25th key) is used, then just that dictionary will use the larger format. Other updates have happened across the firmware builder, web tools and firmware so that most things work seamlessly as expected.

There are still some areas that haven’t been updated with extended layout:

1. On screen paper tape displays

2. On screen steno layout displays

3. Web tools steno layout

This is still work in progress, but extended stenotype is a big step forward.

Grab a build of Javelin dated 2024-12-31 or later, and make sure to update the keyboard layout with the keys if you want them!

P.S.: Yes, this means you can have a dedicated, folded shrimple key now.