Art of Chording
1 HN recommender · recommended in 6 months, 2016–2023
2:01 · 132K views · Apr 4, 2016
A short unscripted demo of writing FizzBuzz in JavaScript with a generator function on a steno keyboard, typos included. It gives a feel for what real coding in stenography looks like.
Whenever HN asks whether you can program with steno, this is the go-to demo showing it working.
6 comments from Hacker News
There was a nice demo of using stenography for programming by one of the Open Steno Project developers: this video
(Repost of previous comment from about a month ago [LINK] as it seemed relevant, although I haven't progressed much in my proficiency yet) I have begun the path to learning stenography. Steno involves chording, or pressing multiple keys at once. Multiple keys at once means greatly improving the information density of when you type allowing professionals to type 240 words per minute (realtime), which is just not possible on single-key-at-a-time keyboards. Unfortunately most commonly available, non-gaming keyboards do not natively support multiple keys at once which is also known as n-key rollover (nkro). I ended up buying a pre-assembled, fully opensource hacker keyboard Ergodox EZ⁰, and have a custom layout firmware that matches up with the open steno project¹ . From here I am using Querty Steno² to practice my chording. Here is an example video someone did of using steno for programming a simple FizzBuzz on a different keyboard on YouTube³. In my opinion, if anyone is looking to really take their typing to the next level, chording is the only way and Dvorak/Colmak/single-key-at-a-time-layouts will never really get you there. ⁰ [LINK] ¹ [LINK] ² [LINK] ³ this video
I have begun the path to learning stenography. Steno involves chording, or pressing multiple keys at once. Multiple keys at once means greatly improving the information density of when you type allowing professionals to type 240 words per minute (realtime), which is just not possible on single-key-at-a-time keyboards. Unfortunately most commonly available, non-gaming keyboards do not natively support multiple keys at once which is also known as n-key rollover (nkro). I ended up buying a pre-assembled, fully opensource hacker keyboard Ergodox EZ⁰, and have a custom layout firmware that matches up with the open steno project¹ . From here I am using Querty Steno² to practice my chording. Here is an example video someone did of using steno for programming a simple FizzBuzz on a different keyboard on YouTube³. In my opinion, if anyone is looking to really take their typing to the next level, chording is the only way and Dvorak/Colmak/single-key-at-a-time-layouts will never really get you there. ⁰ [LINK] ¹ [LINK] ² [LINK] ³ this video
I'm the author of Art of Chording—I program full-time with steno in JavaScript (working mainly with React.) I'd love ideas on how to demonstrate coding in steno. I struggle with it sometimes because the slowest part about coding is not the input rate… it's the brain. I guess if people are looking to code "quicker"… it's not the rate of input that one would want to explore. I will say that writing comments became a lot easier when the words started to just flow onto the screen. Here are my existing videos: Unscripted: [LINK] Scripted: this video Looking forward to any suggestions on how to improve or even just the big open questions you'd want answered on this subject.
You can make custom chords for special chars and type them just as quickly as any other "word". Here's an example of someone writing some javascript code with a steno keyboard: this video I don't use it myself but I assume that it would be faster than regular QWERTY typing, but only once you've used it for several years.