Ploverizing a Mechanical Steno Machine!

Check out this amazing GitHub repo, detailing the process of turning an old non-electronic steno machine into one that's compatible with Plover! Extremely, extremely cool!!

Shrimple: A Python Dictionary for Orthospelling

Another in my series of cool Plover tricks that I don't (yet?) use personally, but that have become rather popular in the Open Steno Community. If traditional fingerspelling feels too slow, clunky, or laborious to you, you might want to try StenoHarri's Shrimple, a Python dictionary that allows you to fingerspell orthographically using chords. As helpful Plover Discord denizen Hellochap explains:

Basically it allows you to temporarily make your whole keyboard type literally, so like everything just goes to its corresponding letter. usually you have either a starter stroke to activate it, or you combine your first letter with a key like + or 🦐. and then to exit the mode you press S-P or punctuation or a Jeff’s phrase etc. Typically now we just notate whatever you use to enter shrimple with just the shrimp 🦐, regardless of if you use a shrimp key or not, just for funsies.

so in example: 🦐AB/RA/KRA/TKAB/RA/S-P -> abracadabra

And we also have other starter strokes for starting with a capital, or all caps etc.

Ingenious!

Open Steno Community Survey Results 2024

Sorry I'm rather late to the game with this one! I didn't notice that the survey results were posted back in June. But better late than never, eh?

Here are the results!

I also found this nice blog post highlighting a few of the responses. I'm so proud of the way the Open Steno community has grown and deepened over the years. It's beautiful to see.

Javelin Updates!

The amazing Tharelia (aka Jeffrey Lim, creator of Javelin and the Jarne) writes:

Hi all, there’s been a couple of scattered updates on Javelin, but here’s a summary of the key things that have changed since the last summary update in May.

Firmware
Added support for orthospelling, including an example configuration for Shrimple.
Added mouse controls; mouse button presses can be configured in the visual editor. (requires firmware dated August 3 or later)
Added layouts for Corne v3 and Kyria rev3 so they can use the visual editor under the Script web tool
Added templates, using commands =set_value and =transform
Added commands: :stitch, :stitch_last_word
Added detection of incomplete firmware dictionary uploads
Lots of performance improvements and fixes, including a JIT for the regex engine on the Jarne.

Firmware Builder
Added support for orthospelling dictionaries
The layout or script is now built into the firmware to allow easier modification later.
The download size of the base image when building a firmware has been reduced by 80%
Added new expert option to enable the firmware to send button press events.
This enables the key layout tool to show which keys are being pressed

Firmware Tools
Added Bootloader tool
Added Key Layout tool, to show the layout of the active layer.
Button presses will be shown if enabled when building the firmware.
Added Template Values tool
Lots of visual tweaks/spacing tidy ups across the tools
The Visual Editor has had a lot of upgrades to support the Jarne, including script options/templating.
Documentation for this is pending.

Steno Team on NitroType!

Steno practice is more fun with friends! Join the Steno Team on NitroType for some friendly competition!

Daniele Triumphs at Intersteno!

A guest post from the amazing Daniele Casarola, who just won second place in Audio Transcription - Seniors Division at Intersteno using Plover!! So incredibly impressive and cool!!!

The 54th Intersteno concluded on July 17, 2024, a biennial event held in Katowice, Poland.

The event lasts a week, during which speed writing professionals gather.

This year, the Congress and its seven international competitions saw the participation of over 400 people from countries across all five continents: Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Czechia, China, Korea, Croatia, Denmark, France, the Philippines, Finland, Germany, Japan, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Romania, Slovakia, the United States, Turkey, and Hungary.

I attended my first Intersteno in 2017 in Berlin, then in 2019 in Cagliari, in 2022 in Maastricht, and finally this year in Katowice.

I have always used the stenographic keyboard and the Plover application with the plugin for the Italian method, from version 3.0 up to the latest 4 RC2.

2017 was also the year I started working as a stenographer, so my ranking in the competitions was decidedly low.

I was impressed by the speed and accuracy that the stenographers who reached the podium were able to achieve, especially the American stenographers, with whom the Italian stenographic method shares the same keyboard layout.

Even when replicating the same competition alone in the tranquility of my studio, I couldn't match the same results.

The nature in which Plover was developed allows for deep customization.

This allowed me to introduce accessibility tools and make the stenographic method more usable.

Furthermore, I was able to customize the dictionary not only in terms of abbreviations but also with additional orthographic rules, aiming to reduce the number of keystrokes as much as possible.

It was a long job, requiring a lot of patience, but with each new competition, I saw improvements.

Until July 17, 2024, when in the Audio Transcription test, I reached the second position on the podium, naturally below an American stenographer :)

Plover has always proven to be a reliable tool, performing its job without interruptions or crashes.

The experience of live competition is not like that of everyday work.

Being all gathered in a large room.

The silence, and tension accompanying the countdown.

The starting whistle and the frantic noise of fingers on the keys.

Hands starting to tremble with emotion and the vain attempt to control them.

These are moments where more than competing with others, you compete with yourself, putting into practice the training done, the new abbreviations, and trying to control your emotions.

A heartfelt thank you to the whole team that has worked on and contributed to the development of Plover, which has allowed me to reach this milestone.

Aerick Demonstrates Javelin

The ever-marvelous Aerick shows you how to embed steno on your hobbyist steno keyboard using the wonderful Javelin firmware!