Paulo Paniago is a long time Plover user, and what he accomplished is amazing: he wrote a Portoguese dictionary from scratch and modified Plover to accomodate the different layout, and he did all this while learning to stenotype.
We are happy to share his experience with you, check out his article below!
As I am proud to say, and I always repeat it to exhaustion: I believe I
am the first human ever to learn to stenotype in Portuguese, from an open
source project.
My story inevitably mixes with Plover, the program from which I’ve
learned to stenotype. Founded by Mirabai Knight and Josh Lifton, Plover is the
first open source steno program and now an umbrella project for other free
public license steno related software and hardware – such as a clone project for
android (Steno Keyboard by Brent Nesbitt), interactive lessons with games for
speed up learning, (QwertySteno by
Mike Neale), didactic material (Learn Plover by Zack Brown) and printable 3D keyboard
(Stenoboard by Emanuele Caruso).
As what lead to my interest in steno, I can say that because of an
isolated lifestyle, I developed an unusual urge for writing. As the activity
progressed into passion, I became interested in learning faster methods of
writing, idealistically, to write as if I was just “telling something to
someone”.
That’s why, more than twelve years ago, I wanted to learn to stenotype.
While, fortunately, I could get my hands on a textbook, I gave up on it because
of prices in classes and equipment. Since I am hard of hearing, I couldn’t
possibly justify those expenses at the time – to become a captionist? If it
weren’t for that limitation, even thou I never ambitioned a career in the area,
I could have a convincing excuse of learning it “just in case” I needed a
different job.
When I discovered Plover, a free program that enabled me to learn steno
with available devices, although even interested for so long in steno, it
wasn’t without resistance that I decided to start. That is because I had just
invested great amount of time and energy learning to type in another
unconventional keyboard – a brasilian “dvorak” styled layout called br nativo,
which was developed by Brazilian programmer Ari Caldeira.
A dvorak keyboard functions the same way as conventional keyboards –
known as “qwerty” – with the only difference being the order of the letters:
This is Ari Caldeira’s br nativo, the dvorak layout I learned before
steno
As an over simplification, the main advantage of dvorak keyboards, when
compared to qwerty, is that the most frequently used letters are in accessible
positions, for instance, having all the vowels in the middle column. Whereas
there main difference between qwerty and stenotyping, is that in the
stenomachine you press multiple buttons at once.
It may sound difficult, but there are abbreviation principles that
enable you to press fewer keys than what would correspond to in conventional
typing. This way, the program uses an internal “dictionary” to convert the
abbreviated “strokes” into common words. Generally speaking, you learn the
logics behind your steno theory and than condition yourself to type by “sound”
and/or memorization.
Well, and here is where my struggles began: Since the steno system is so
dependent on the arrangement of keys – the keyboard layout – that also meant
that this organization should be optimized to work better for their native
language or theory.
Unfortunately for me, phonetic dissimilarities between English and
Portuguese lead to different steno keyboard layouts.
(Brazilian steno keyboard)
As you can see, many letters are arranged in different order.
So, if I wanted to begin my training, I would have to change the
keyboard layout inside plover program. It would have been so much easier if, in
another scenario, the keyboards in both languages where the same. If that was
the case, and since my English is reasonable, I could have learned Plover for
English, absorbed that basic keyboard layout into muscle memory, and than only
later worry about adapting it to Portuguese.
After a lot of resistance, I only decided to learn steno simply because
I knew that twenty years from now, I would regret if I didn’t. When I began to
try it in my computer by “arpeggiating” I got so excited that I brought a gaming
keyboard even before dealing with the problem of keyboard layouts.
Since Plover has the capacity to turn an inexpensive n-key rollover
keyboard into a steno machine, I brought the cheapest compatible device at the
time: the Microsoft’s SideWinder, which was the first gaming keyboard to have
anti-ghosting technology, even though being actuated by membrane circuits.
Generally speaking, all other keyboards with n-key rollover were more expensive
because they had mechanical switches designed to give “tactic” feedback similar
to that of ancient typewriters.
By n-key rollover or anti-ghosting technology, I mean that the keyboard
has capacity to recognize many keys pressed at once – that basic feature of any
stenomachine. Whereas professional machines cost a few thousand dollars, that
keyboard was conveniently affordable.
Although gaming keyboards with their native “qwerty” alignment are not
accurate, fast or ergonomic as traditional stenomachines to be classified as
professional equipment, they can be efficiently used as a “student” tool to
enter the steno world.
Even thou later hardware solutions derived from the niche Plover created
could be placed somewhere in between gaming keyboards and professional
stenotyping machines – such as the Stenoboard, with parallel column keys and
split keyboard design – I could consider myself equipped to start my training
So, thanks to Plover, I began to learn steno two year ago. I only had
the sidewinder, a textbook, Plover configured for English, and some guidance
from Mirabai, the stenographer behind Plover project, in her Aviary forum. The Aviary forum was the place, in that
project, for beginners to post their thoughts, frustrations, expectations, and
mainly to ask for help. But there was no one else with any request vaguely
similar to mine: I knew close to nothing about stenotyping and wanted to learn
a steno theory from a project that was not even adapted for my language.
About my textbook, I would like to add that, although vital for me to
learn steno, it was only a textbook of exercises – we call them “apostila”. It
had brief explanations in each lesson followed by many exercises to apprehend
them. Unfortunately for me, the exercises came with no answers. Those would be
in the machine itself configured as the student’s dictionary.
I remember those were though times. One day I had an idea that couldn’t
believe I haven’t thought of it before: I could use the program with the
“wrong” keyboard layout, but with the right typing and right transcriptions – all
coherent with my Portuguese steno theory. This way, the steno codes would all
be wrong, because the machine was configured to use the US keyboard layout, but
it would still be useful as a stenomachine. Although I knew the idea worked, it
would be awful, since I would not be able to read my own dictionary.
The “dictionary”, in steno
dialect, is basically a simple but extremely long “binomial” list of code
versus meaning. It is the file that the program uses to transcribe the steno notes
into common words.
If I always typed correctly and never changed any basic line in my
theory, that idea could work indefinitely. But an indecipherable dictionary
would be a limiting factor if I eventually decided to change rules or make big
corrections.
Anyway, I was so obsessed with at least starting my training that I
decided to put my plan in practice, even neglecting some of Mirabai’s advices
in contrary: “Not
sure that's the way you want to go, because it'll make it very difficult to
understand the Portuguese steno outlines on an intuitive level; everything will
be "sounded out" in a non-phonetic, illogical way, because it'll be
using English layout rather than Portuguese”
In those days, Plover didn’t had an “add translation” window so I had to
turn the program off, open the dictionary file and manually type the words
missing. Looking back, even thou I didn’t recognized at the time, I can’t
believe I had the courage to start my dictionary from a blank page.
To illustrate how the dictionary file worked and how I could write it
with “the wrong steno codes but the right typing and right transcription”, let
me give you an example:
Let’s say I wanted to define the word “bar” in my dictionary file:
In my Brazilian Portuguese theory “bar” would be written with the
stroke: “TPAR”
So it would appear “binomially” this way in the text editor of that file:
"TPAR": "bar",
Although with the American
layout, the same word pressing the same physical keys, would have to be written
this way:
"KWAF": "bar",
So, to accomplish my plan, I would have to define the whole dictionary
file in a language that I could not understand.
I remember some tricks I used to make the process of writing that
strange dictionary easier, but to which I don’t have the proper ability to
explain. Basically, after some installations and configurations I set two
layouts using a program called Ukelele – Ukelele is a program designed to make
“qwertys” or “dvoraks” keyboard layouts in Mac OS X system, and has nothing to do
with steno – it was actually the
way I found to configure Ari Caldeira’s “br nativo” in my notebook, long ago.
So than, after the two keyboard layouts was configured, I closed my eyes
and pressed each key, one at a time, in the order they should appear in the
steno paper. While with the eyes closed, I would be “thinking” that I was
typing “TPAR”, but because of the configuration I did, it would appear as
“KWAF” in the file. Than I opened my eyes, changed back the layout, and wrote
the corresponding word: “bar”.
It was laborious to say the least. Naturally I made many mistakes and
countless corrections in the process.
At that time, after months of tedious and insecure blind typing to the
dictionary, I was hoping for some steno enthusiast to contribute with a feature
to change layouts in Plover. And also, since I couldn’t find a programmer to do
the job for me, I finally decided to change the layout myself, even thou I knew nothing
about programming and was even afraid to look at files.
While guided by some of Mirabai’s tips, I searched the Internet for
people who made similar changes in Plover. That ended up giving me two names:
Aziz Yemloul and Krzysztof Smirnow.
Both made profound modifications
to Plover’s keyboard layout because of linguistic issues, and fortunately for
me, both posted their procedures in internet forums.
Aziz Yemloul changed Plover in comprehensive aspects to adapt it to the
French steno system. He ought to do much more than what I intended because,
since the French machine was invented independently from their North American
counterpart, it uses a physically different keyboard, called “Grandjean” or
“Continental”:
Although both systems converged to many similarities in practice, as you
can see, the continental steno keyboard is angled and symmetrical. By
symmetrical, I mean that it uses the same number of keys for both hands.
Whereas Yemloul made a
complete project – which included not only a physically different keyboard, but
also full orthographic rules to manage the French dictionary – what Krzysztof
Smirnow wanted was even lengthier.
Smirnow was willing to adapt Plover for Polish language. The
complication to his goal was that there has never been any steno theory for
that language. So, he would not only have to create a the theory himself, but
also decide through all it’s technical specifications, from keyboard layout to
physical arrangement to frequencies relating terminations and prefixes.
To solve orthographic
issues, he envisioned a physically different keyboard. The reason, according to
him, was that because of complexities in Polish language, he would need a
keyboard with more keys. This way, he was looking forward for another
symmetrical organization. But his keyboard, instead of looking like the French
“continental”, would be similar to the American steno machines, although with
four keys, instead of one, for the little left finger.
Unfortunately for him, and
following his explanation, Plover was made in such a way that increasing the
number of keys and defining particular characters from Polish language would
not be feasible without major modifications to the program’s base – which would
then require rebuilding Plover almost from ground. Consequently, as of the last
time I read, Smirnow was still dealing with those obstacles.
So, reading their posts about how they managed to change the keyboard
layouts, that all looked like fragmented answers for me, since I understand
basically nothing about programming. Even combining their topics with
suggestions from a Brazilian professional pen shorthand writer who emailed me
telling how he made those changes it in his linux system, I still didn’t knew
what to do.
About this Brazilian, back in those days, he asked me not to mention his
name. That was because, here in Brazil, court reporting is taken by pen
shorthand writers called “taquígrafos”. Since there is resistance and natural
hostility from established professionals intimidated by the “rise of the
machines”, he feared for prejudice from his colleges, if they ever discovered
he was after steno. Unfortunately – or fortunately for me, since it reinforces
my claim as the “first human ever to learn to stenotype in Portuguese from an
open source project” – I believe he quit steno in that very beginning, since he
vanished from any of our correspondence.
I had even visited a Brazilian university searching for students
acknowledged in python programming to help me change the layouts, but to make
an already long story short; after a weekend only searching files in Plover, I
finally found what I guessed was the configuration to the keyboard layout.
They were written in a strange language and I couldn’t believe a
programmer was able to deal with them. Without having any idea of what I was
doing, I changed one letter and tested. Then corrected it back, changed another
letter and tested. Repeated that process again and again until it finally gave
a result by replacing an output letter from the keyboard layout.
I couldn’t believe that was actually happening.
Only latter, I discovered that those were the “compiled files”. Compiled
files, with the extension “.pyc”, are generated by the program itself, in a
language used the computer to process and are not meant to be readable by
human.
Again, I couldn’t believe
it, when I had correctly changed the whole layout myself – It looked like magic
when I saw my keyboard working as a Brazilian steno machine. I guess Mirabai
even got embarrassed when I posted in the Aviary: “I finally changed the Plover
keyboard myself… I had just to change the letters in two files” just a few
messages after she wrote: “I wish I had the expertise to do it for you”.
Since then, with a sidewinder as my steno machine, I had consistently
trained one hour a day and it took me nine months just to cover the lessons in
my textbook. I don’t know if I was slow because I had to write the dictionary
from blank, because of insecurity, since I never had a clear idea if what I was
learning was in the same line as my steno theory, or if I am simply a slow
learner.
I don’t bother much being the last option, of a slow learner; at least
that puts me in the category of “persistent”.
I’ve started my steno training in May 2013 and after one year, even
though slow, I was already using steno for everything.
My strategy for grounding up my dictionary was to be
conservative. Even to create my own briefs I generally only defined a word
in my dictionary when I was confident of the theory behind it. In the
other moments I relied on spelling. I had set my spelling, in plover, to
resemble as much as possible my “qwerty” typing (br nativo) – even at the
cost of sacrificing some common words and briefs. I use it for about ten
percent of my typing in Portuguese. – I spell, as I am doing here, most of the
times when typing in English.
Now, after almost two years since that fatigued beginning, I believe I
have about one third of the speeches speed, which is already a bit faster and a
lot more comfortable then my conventional typing was – with the additional
motivation that, while doing so, I’ll get faster and faster, and, what is more
important for me, I’ll get a fluency closer to the speed of my thoughts.
Paulo Paniago
