
Edgewrite and some of my own experiments - TBF-RnD
http://tbf-rnd.life/blog/2019/06/02/114/
======
TBF-RnD
trying to create a resource that might turn into a collaborative book

I find that there are a lot of places where keyboards doesnt cut it \- VR \-
Disabilities \- international settings \- productivity for tablets

My hope is to create a framework in code where experiments can be made and
benchmarked.

Also to create a loose umbrella organisation that can coordinate the effort.

------
bobbiechen
Jacob Wobbrock, who created EdgeWrite, also published on gesture recognition
with the $1 Unistroke Recognizer [1], which started the $ family of
recognizers. If you think there's some sort of gesture-based writing scheme
that would do better, you can use the gesture recognizer and focus directly on
how to design your gestures instead of having to implement recognition
yourself.

There's a pretty cool demo with a Javascript implementation in a couple
hundred lines here:
[http://depts.washington.edu/madlab/proj/dollar/index.html](http://depts.washington.edu/madlab/proj/dollar/index.html)

[1]
[http://faculty.washington.edu/wobbrock/pubs/uist-07.01.pdf](http://faculty.washington.edu/wobbrock/pubs/uist-07.01.pdf)

~~~
TBF-RnD
That's right I saw that. Didn't have time to add it to text yet though. I did
consider it for an implementation.

Seems like Jacob Wobbrock went on to become quite influential after his work
on this.

------
curtis
I use MessagEase[1] on my phone. I don't think I'm any faster than I would be
with the conventional keyboard, but it seems like my accuracy is a lot better.
It wasn't that hard to learn the basics, but I still have trouble with less
frequent letters and symbols. Part of that is just that I don't text a whole
lot so I don't get enough frequent practice outside of the most common
characters.

Edgewrite and Graffiti both have the advantage of leveraging off of your
existing writing knowledge, but I have to say after using Graffiti that it
sure seemed like it would be a lot faster to just abandon writing as the
metaphor altogether.

Actually, I guess that's what MessagEase originally was, since Wikipedia tells
me that it was originally released for in 2002 for the Palm.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagEase](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagEase)

~~~
333c
MessageEase seems interesting. I've just downloaded it. The swipe gestures
seem like they are slow, but maybe with practice the larger sized targets
offset that. This comment was typed using the keyboard.

I'm going to keep this installed and see if I can get faster.

I also notice that there's no autocorrect, which I miss especially when it
comes to typing the pronoun "I."

~~~
curtis
It will auto-uppercase stand alone "i", but, yeah, as far as I know it doesn't
do general auto-correct. I've never been a fan of auto-correct, so I regard
that as a feature. I recognize that that's a minority position, though.

Actually, the uppercase support is one thing that I dislike about MessagEase.
For swipes you just swipe one way and then back to where you started, which is
easy and natural. For taps (your most frequent characters) you have to draw a
circle. I've found this to be error prone, and the fact that it's different
for the two sets of characters tends to trip me up. If you text as much as a
teenager, you could probably get this into muscle memory, but I can never
quite get there.

~~~
333c
Huh, maybe i am missing some configuration or setting, but it isn't doing that
for me. I'm on iOS by the way.

~~~
curtis
I'm on Android, so maybe the implementation is a little different. It's a
default setting for me, I didn't turn it on.

------
ColanR
Edgewrite looks like the same kind of thing the old Palm Pilots used.

~~~
extra88
Graffiti, yes.

Edgewrite should perhaps be called "Cornerwrite;" in its optimized alphabet,
the every stroke begins and ends in a corner and every change in direction is
at a corner.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_(Palm_OS)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_\(Palm_OS\))

~~~
TBF-RnD
Yes that would indeed by an accurate description!

------
andrewshadura
A friend has developed an input method called Aronetis, best suited for
12-button mobile phones. Unfortunately, with the move to smartphones it's
become much less relevant.

~~~
TBF-RnD
Interesting I'll add it to my back log. Maybe there are some interesting
conclusions that can be drawn from it. Do you think It'd be possible for me to
get in touch with him?

~~~
andrewshadura
I believe there are some demos still online, but in any case I think he still
uses his Google account aronetis ;)

------
k__
I looked at some videos that showed Edgewrite.

It seems like a rather quick method, but wouldn't it be quicker if all letters
started and ended in the same corner?

~~~
TBF-RnD
I think that might remove to many letter perhaps. I'll get back to you if I
find something in his PhD Thesis!

~~~
k__
Cool, thanks! :)

