• oneeyedpigeon 21 hours ago

    > It runs on your keyboard, so it is always active no matter what software.

    I like the idea, but wouldn't that get annoying in contexts where you don't want it? My text editor already annoys me with auto-correct, I'm not sure I want even more of it! Ideally, I think this would be an OS-level feature, but one that only targets specific contexts (e.g. 'rich text' fields, not 'plain text' ones; configurable at an app level).

    • bravetraveler 20 hours ago

      Try to run around in a game, ends up typing an incomprehensible dissertation

      • TeMPOraL 18 hours ago

        > but wouldn't that get annoying in contexts where you don't want it?

        It would get dangerous if such a keyboard was used by your doctor or pharmacist. Auto-incorrecting names or dosage of drugs? No thank you.

        • lxgr 16 hours ago

          On the other hand, I'm really not sure if that's a step up or down from pharmacists doing load-bearing handwriting recognition of doctors' prescriptions.

          • dmd 16 hours ago

            When was the last time a doctor hand-wrote a prescription? 15 years ago?

            • deciduously 15 hours ago

              Last week, near Boston MA.

              • seafoamteal 16 hours ago

                Still very common in smaller hospitals and independent practices around India.

                • brokenmachine 8 hours ago

                  Tell me you haven't worked in health without telling me you haven't worked in health.

                  • dmd 8 hours ago

                    You might want to check my profile ;)

                    • brokenmachine 8 hours ago

                      Haha, touché!

                      Well I can confidently say that your health is different to places I've experienced.

                      I bet you don't even still use faxes...

            • lxgr 16 hours ago

              Yeah, it's undeniably neat, and sometimes you might not have another option (e.g. if you can't install/modify software on a given device), but whenever there is a choice I'd want to have autocorrect done on the highest possible layer.

              I'd hate to have vim commands, game inputs etc. "autocorrected".

              • jodleif 16 hours ago

                Or even better- your password

                • taikahessu 16 hours ago

                  Another layer of security. Keyvault compromised? No problem, my passwodrs are safe with me!

            • zadwang 14 hours ago

              Such ideas generally interfere with usability. I loath any such automations. Some more examples: the menu changes when the mouse hovers over the item; the window size or position changes when the window movement nears the border; Word automatically indent bullet items etc etc. The people designing such systems think they are designing a smart system and the usability is horrible, for me at least.

              • olig15 12 hours ago

                Can I raise you with Word and outlook adding ‘smart’ quotes, and Excel destroying CSV data?

              • _nalply a day ago

                Cute and clever idea. There's even overriding autocorrect (hit and release Ctrl before the last letter triggering the autocorrect).

                But while principially possible even in the restricted environment of keyboard hardware it is questionable whether it's a good idea after all. It's not a lot more than a toy, especially because the dictionary is limited and hardcoded.

                I respect and acknowledge the ingenuity. It must have been a lot of fun to get this working for Pascal Getreuer. Kudos!

                • axiologist 5 hours ago

                  One of the first things to be turned off are such autocorrection annoyances, whereever. Instead of constantly having the writing flow interrupted by such overzealous tools, it is much more preferable to spellcheck a document once the text composition is complete.

                  • wodenokoto 18 hours ago

                    I absolutely love everything about this. The hacking, the code optimization, the ingenuity and attention to detail.

                    And I absolutely hate it. How would you type fitler?

                       f i t l e [SPACE] [BACKSPACE] r
                    
                    Maybe?

                    Either way, have my upvote!

                    • m2f2 a day ago

                      I guess it can be used also in other ways, especially when you hit a wall.

                      E.g. my Italian windows key map does not have tilde nor backtick available, and it's just a pain to type the usual alt 126 thing on a modern laptop keyboard, where even the HOME key requires some Fn shenigan. Dell and MS, wow!

                      • DuncanCoffee 21 hours ago

                        I keep a second layout, the "US, alt. intl." (US international alternative?)even on computers without US keyboards, then use a hotkey such as win + space to swap between them and "\" becomes the backtick. Not only it's easy to write "~" but it's also easier to write upper case accented letters since it's just backtick + shift + vowel

                        • makeitdouble 18 hours ago

                          If you haven't tried yet, PowerToys' keyboard manager allows shortcuts for single character outputs.

                          That's what I do for accented characters (e.g. Alt+Shift+C -> ç) and currency characters, it works pretty decently (found it more reliable than AutoHotKey for instance)

                          • rubenbe a day ago

                            This would be extremely useful, since phones typically add the correct accents automatically. But on my laptop I need to do this myself (using a deadkeys layout).

                            • LtWorf a day ago

                              Using linux solves the issue though alt+ì = ~

                              there's also ÈÉÒÀÌÙ and a bunch of foreign letters like ßøþñħŋđðŧ

                            • felipesabino 18 hours ago

                              I wonder if ideas from the embedded steno community [1] [2] could not be used, as this type of chording/key stroke replacement is the basis of how it works.

                              [1] https://github.com/jthlim/javelin-steno

                              [2] https://lim.au/#/software/javelin-steno

                              • cynicalsecurity 20 hours ago

                                One of the most idiotic ideas I've seen recently. How to greatly annoy a user without even providing an option to turn this thing off.

                                • dmonitor 7 hours ago

                                  Sounds like a devious prank to pull on a coworker. Flash their keyboard with firmware that has builtin cloud -> butt, or their -> there and vice-versa

                                  • friend_Fernando 7 hours ago

                                    Dwight -> Diapers

                                  • Klaster_1 19 hours ago

                                    There are options to turn this off - build and flash QMK with the feature turned off. A hotkey to toggle the feature doesn't seem impossible either.

                                    • zer0x4d 19 hours ago

                                      Agreed. There is just too many limitations for it to be ever useful, unless you build out a large dictionary with a huge CPU cost... A true waste of effort, albeit a fun one if you wanna learn QMK programming

                                      • devmor 15 hours ago

                                        It doesn't seem useful to everyday computing but I imagine there are niche scenarios where it could be valuable. Stenography comes to mind, or perhaps some machine control or clerical application where there are a limited set of input words that are valid and free typing is rare or disallowed.

                                        A "sticky" modifier key (like caps lock, num lock, etc) that enables or disables it would vastly increase the value in a general situation though.