Re: [A12n-Collab] Utilities for analyzing keyboards?

["Walter Bender" <walter.bender@xxxxxxxxx>]

#2 is really nothing more than running the text through a look-up
table, since keyboards don't typically maintain state. Should be
pretty trivial. If we could agree on a format, I could write a script
to process X Windows symbol files.

-walter

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 1:58 PM, Don Osborn <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> In discussing layouts for African languages whose orthographies include 
> characters or diacritic combinations not supported by American and European 
> keyboards,* and being aware not only of the multiplicity of possible layouts, 
> but that various layouts have already been created and some number of them 
> are used to varying extents, I'm wondering about the potential value of 2 
> kinds of utilities to analyze layouts statistically:
>
> 1) A way of "censusing" character placements on keys on existing layouts - in 
> other words a way to enter keyboard layouts into the utility and have it 
> count what is assigned to what key, and show what keys have been used for a 
> given character. It seems to me that this information might be useful in 
> getting an idea of whether there are some emerging consensuses (or people for 
> whatever reason thinking in the same lines) regarding placement and 
> arrangements. Such data might possibly point to things we hadn't realized or 
> imagined.
>
> 2) Even more useful might be a utility to analyze the work of typing with 
> different existing and proposed layouts. Say you had alternative layouts for 
> Yoruba (or any language). The idea would be a way to have a utility in which 
> you could enter the layout information and then put in a text and figure out 
> how many keystrokes it takes to enter that text with the alternative layouts. 
> In principle, once such a thing existed you could also analyze what fingers 
> are doing the work, but the main idea I have of being able to say how 
> "efficient" a given layout is in terms of keystroke count for sample (and 
> hopefully representative) texts, and so anticipate how it might be received 
> by users.
>
> IMO, one really helpful outcome of any keyboard project at this point in time 
> would be the ability to systematically analyze what we are proposing and thus 
> take the learning and quality of production up a notch. Perhaps the concept 
> of such utilities to do this would interest multiple projects, such as 
> PanAfrican Localisation Network, AfLaT, OLPC, .... And perhaps commercial 
> ventures would be interested.
>
> I'll cc the ILAT list since some indigenous languages with extended Latin 
> character sets presumably have similar issues.
>
> Don Osborn
> Bisharat.net
>
>
> * Mainly "category 3 & 4" orthographies in the system I proposed last 
> December on A12n-collab:
> http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/public/a12n-collaboration/msg01059.html
>
>
>
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