
In Praise of Chorded Input - polm23
http://v21.io/blog/chorded-input/
======
falcolas
The older I get, the less I like key chording. This is particularly
exacerbated by the lack of a common key chording scheme between Windows,
Linux, and OSX. It becomes a mental stutter as I have to constantly override
my muscle memory. It's probably why I like VIM editor schemes so much -
there's significantly less chording required.

I've also noticed the preference come up when playing games. Ideally, I would
simply assign additional abilities to modified keys, but for the life of me,
it's just simpler to assign them, one to one, to keys on the keyboard. My hand
needs to move around the keyboard a bit more, but it has to contort a lot
less.

Also, it's somewhat telling that some the fastest typists in the world don't
use shift - they use caps lock.

ref.
[http://www.seanwrona.com/typing.php](http://www.seanwrona.com/typing.php) the
final paragraph

~~~
Timpy
I don't doubt the report that Wrona is using caps lock instead of shift, but
it baffles me. How did he manage to make that faster? I only use left shift,
which is pretty similar except he has to hit twice as many keys to accomplish
the same thing.

~~~
falcolas
I've mucked around with it, so speaking only from that mucking it offers two
things:

Your hand is not anchored to the shift button. You can use one finger for the
first press of capslock, and another for the second, based on where the
previous and next letters are (this is a reference to the typist using any
finger to hit any letter).

Using shift is still three actions: for the shift button it's a press and hold
followed by a timed release, plus a press of the target letter. Given this,
the "press press press" rhythm matches the rest of the typing flow better than
"hold press release".

~~~
Timpy
I don't buy this answer. If the shift button is three actions then the
capslock is four.

Shift: Press -> hold -> release

Lock: Press -> release -> press -> release

Both cases require timing. I'm not convinced he's faster because of capslock,
he seems to be faster in spite of it.

I also use a hybrid typing style. For example, the word "server". The first
time I strike the "e" with my middle finger and the second "e" is with my ring
finger, freeing my middle finger to type the final "r" because my index finger
is still at the lower row after typing "v". Surely he uses this style of non-
traditional touch typing for words like "Azure, Qatar, Zaire," but I think the
flexibility of finger choice is the secret to success, not the capslock key.

~~~
falcolas
So, I think the bigger difference is that there is no timing required on the
release (short of "don't trigger auto-repeat"). Just as we (assumption alert)
don't care about the timing of releasing the letter or number keys while
typing, they don't worry about the release timing of the "shift/capslock" key
when they're typing. To them, it's just like typing 'wow' or anything else
with a repeating letter.

I also imagine it makes typing out acroynyms a lot simpler as well. For
example, I hold down left shift when I type NASA (left shift since I hit the
'n' with my right hand), and contort my left hand while being sure not to
release shift to finish the word.

In any case, it's mostly my own conjecture - day-to-day I can't type very
accurately without relying on coming back to home; without using the same
fingers for the same letters all the time.

------
derefr
> Chorded input is rare these days - the movement of software to touchscreen
> devices argues against it.

Multitouch gestures _are_ a form of chorded input, no? And one we’ve greatly
under-explored, IMHO.

Probably mostly because people tend to be using either touchscreens that are
mobile, or touch pads that are rather small, and so you can only fit one
hand’s worth of fingers on the digitizer, and one hand’s fingers can’t
(without training) do too many different things at the same time. So mostly we
come up with gestures that move some or all the fingers of the hand in
concert.

But if you had a digitizer surface that had room for _two_ hands, you could do
_a lot_ with that. Moving a finger of one hand in a circle while the other
swipes toward/away from it; “unfolding” something by interlacing eight fingers
in a line and sliding them to opposite ends of the digitizer; etc.

(I think Apple could easily introduce these for people who own both an iPad
and a Mac. It seems their Sidecar support is already moving toward this, as it
sends native touchpad input to apps—acting, in est, as a large Bluetooth
multitouch digitizer—rather than just doing HLE emulation + transmission of
the particular gestures possible in macOS currently.)

And sure, that all sounds a bit mystery-meat at first—no clear affordances.
But it’s not any more mystery-meat than voice navigation is. Voice navigation
is a “grammar” on top of regular spoken-language words; you expect the user to
learn language at some point. Similarly, a “vocabulary” of multitouch gestures
could all be taught to the user at some point—even practiced in an OS-shipped
program resembling a typing tutor. (Back when mice first became prominent,
OSes shipped with mouse-requiring games specifically to serve as mousing
tutors!) Then you just have to teach the users visual/symbolic mnemonics for
these gestures; and then you can use those symbols as accelerator indicators
in your regular menus and label text.

(Oh, and don’t get me started on what’s possible with a depth-of-field sensing
camera, ala Windows Hello. I’m constantly surprised that competition isn’t
already heating up to be the first OS to natively support American Sign
Language watched-gesture input.)

~~~
crabl
Yup, exactly this. The fact that most iPad "creativity" apps (looking at
Procreate, Notability, Photoshop, etc) are using essentially the same set of
interactions as we have on the Mac at the moment (limited to a single input
method at a time) means that despite having "10x" the available "interaction
bandwidth", we are using only 1/10th of it. Gestures are problematic because
of their lack of discoverability, but there are definitely other (even
simpler) ways to achieve this (can't really say too much since I'm working on
a product in this space).

------
clarry
> But it's not just music software: pretty much all the joys I've listed can
> be used to explain people getting so into learning Vim or Emacs.

Eh, the reason why I'm into modal editing is precisely that it doesn't require
much chording. That's also why I've configured my keyboard to write all the
ascii printable symbols without chording, and shift is sticky so I don't need
to chord it to write a capital I.

I could imagine having a handful of simple chords, but not much more. The
problem I see with chording is that it imposes timing restrictions that allow
room for misinterpretation when you're typing things too quickly. And
generally I find it more difficult & tense to press more than one key
simultaneously.

------
Timpy
I've been searching relentlessly for a qwerty chording solution that works for
me. I was hoping to find something useful here, but there's only a couple of
Wikipedia links that I've already scoured through. QMK firmware seems like a
good solution, but it's only available on DIY mechanical keyboards or
expensive ergonomic keyboards. There are a few hacks out there for other
keyboards, but I don't want to brick my daily driver.

If anybody has a solution for custom chords on a qwerty that doesn't cost
hundreds of dollars I'd love to hear it!

~~~
kqr
For English, Plover is the obvious choice. For other European languages, I
have a frozen work-in-progress called Qweyboard on GitHub.

------
tezzer
I picked up this half keyboard for $30 at an embedded conference in Boston
probably 15 years ago. It's amazing how quickly your brain 'gets' it and your
typing speed ramps up:
[https://matias.ca/halfkeyboard/](https://matias.ca/halfkeyboard/)

I'm guessing at some point they got approved as an assistance device, because
now they sell for $500. Presumably it's insurance companies that are paying at
this rate.

------
Ajedi32
I wonder if the advent of VR/AR will eventually result in some form of chorded
keyboard input gaining widespread popularity. AR/VR devices are often used in
situations where you don't have access to a physical keyboard, and some
standalone VR headsets already feature early forms of hand tracking which
could trivially allow for simple chorded input once they are a bit more
refined.

Its possible people will just get used to typing on simulated virtual
keyboards, like they did for on-screen keyboards on mobile. However, simulated
QWERTY input in VR is significantly worse than it is on mobile, since unlike
on mobile there's no tactile feedback at all; not even the rudimentary
feedback of your fingers touching a flat surface. Whether that added
inconvenience is enough to overcome the friction of users needing to learn a
whole new input method to type with though is uncertain. In the short term I
don't think it is, but long term? Hard to say.

------
blunte
I used a BAT
([http://xahlee.info/kbd/bat_keyboard.html](http://xahlee.info/kbd/bat_keyboard.html))
long ago for enough time that I was able to type _prose_ at about 50wpm. For
that use, it was quite decent - especially if you were using some system that
required a lot of mousing and didn't have good keyboard control options.
There, having one hand always on the mouse while the other could provide input
was faster and less frustrating than current keyboard+mouse. What was not at
all good was programming. Symbols often require modifier keys; but on a
chorded keyboard like the BAT, that meant two chords for each symbol: the
chord to set the modifier, and the chord to choose the actual key that goes
with the modifier.

Still, I think there's a lot of room for improvement of human interfaces (at
least until we hopefully someday get neural interfaces which bypass hands and
even eyes).

------
zzo38computer
I think chorded input is good, and I dislike touch screens. I also thought of
using Hollerith chording for entering text using a numeric keypad (although a
separate key will be needed for a space), rather than what most things use for
entering text using a numeric keypad, which is worse, I think.

~~~
zzo38computer
A keyboard with only a few keys for entering text is not a substitute for a
full keyboard, but may be useful for small devices that only have a few keys.

------
melling
People are still building chorded input devices. This was shown at CES:

[https://www.charachorder.com/](https://www.charachorder.com/)

Mobile devices lack good input methods. There’s a possibility they might prove
useful for those on the go.

~~~
falcolas
This looks less like a chording keyboard (which tend to have fewer inputs),
and more an evolution on the "Data Hand" keyboard (which allows access to
every character by moving fingers in different directions).

ref.
[http://octopup.org/computer/datahand](http://octopup.org/computer/datahand)

~~~
melling
It looks like both. You can move keys in multiple directions, but you also get
chorded input:

“ Over 17 Billion (17.1529*10^12) possible chord combinations per profile."

~~~
falcolas
You can do the same with a standard keyboard and drivers - such as plover,
autohotkey, etc.

36! is a pretty large number as well. ;)

This isn't an attempt to denigrate the product, it does look nice. One of my
favorite chorded input methods was the old steam controller text input that
combined 8 positions on the left stick with the right 4 face buttons of a
standard controller. But it's design is closer to a standard keyboard than
chorded keyboard.

~~~
melling
Yes, but I don’t want to carry a standard keyboard with me.

That’s why I mentioned usage with mobile devices.

I’d like to sit on a park bench on a nice spring day and write my blog with my
phone.

Starbucks, library, picnic table, deli, ....

~~~
falcolas
I would personally think that the use of joysticks would not work
exceptionally well with a "park bench" scenario, but that's me. I'd probably
look into the Twiddler, or one of the single-key-per-finger options myself.

Personal preference and all that. :)

------
floren
Plan 9's acme editor uses mouse chords: select text with the left mouse
button, then while holding LMB click the middle mouse button to cut. Click and
hold LMB to select an input point, then right-click to paste the text from the
clipboard. To copy text, you simply select with LMB, click MMB to cut, then
immediately click RMB to paste back into the same spot while also maintaining
the clipboard copy.

I use it daily and it is pretty convenient. There are other chords too, but
those are the big ones.

~~~
mhd
Inspired wholesale by the same feature in Oberon.

And one of the things that makes me miss proper three button mice.

~~~
zzo38computer
I also want a proper three button mouse; I don't use the wheel and would
rather have three full buttons.

~~~
clarry
I'd prefer wheel _and_ third button.

I don't understand why mouse buttons need to be so large. Indeed, keys are
much smaller, and the thumb buttons in mice are still much smaller. That's not
a problem. Every mouse I've had has a comfortable spot between the two main
buttons and the wheel where you could fit the third button..

~~~
SuperPaintMan
I use a Ploopy that's been modified to run QMK (just needs a ISP flash,
nothing crazy) and has my onboard chording engine. It's a mess, but having 2^n
inputs and a trackball is very fun and hacky :)

[https://www.ploopy.co/](https://www.ploopy.co/)

------
prestonbriggs
Of course lots of musical instruments require chorded inputs. Pianos, guitars,
trumpets, most woodwinds, even trombones.

------
jsw97
I can add to this praise. I have been using key-chord-mode in emacs for the
last 7 years. Love it.

------
bigbadgoose
We need foot pedals for Dvorak/QWERTY switching _in charwise situ_ … virtuosos
of the finger arts, please stand up. And modes, obvi prose v code.

asking important question, can wha-wha be incorporated? Markdown, are you
there?

------
fortran77
Many keyboards support NKRO today, so it should be possible to have chords
defined. for little used keys (some people don't use numpad much for example)
it could be very interesting.

------
trey-jones
Emacs users will agree. Indeed I am 100% convinced that being an Emacs user
enabled me to pick up the piano and be better at it than I was the last time I
played 20 years ago.

~~~
roosterdawn
This is fascinating and something I've wondered about. It'd make for an
interesting study, and actually, I wonder if you know about any research that
has been done on this subject. I'd be curious to know if the data backs up the
intuition!

~~~
trey-jones
I don't know of any research; I base this statement purely on the intuition
that piano shouldn't feel this natural to me. Typing itself could account for
it, but I think Emacs has more piano-like dexterity requirements than typing
in general. Another variable is that while I had't played the piano in a long
time, I have done other musical things, and so just being a better, more
experienced musician could also have an influence.

