[HN Gopher] Autocorrect in Your Keyboard Firmware (2021)
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Autocorrect in Your Keyboard Firmware (2021)
Author : samwho
Score : 35 points
Date : 2025-01-06 16:30 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (getreuer.info)
(TXT) w3m dump (getreuer.info)
| _nalply wrote:
| 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!
| m2f2 wrote:
| 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!
| rubenbe wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Using linux solves the issue though alt+i = ~
|
| there's also EEOAIU and a bunch of foreign letters like
| ssothnhNGddt
| DuncanCoffee wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 ->
| c) and currency characters, it works pretty decently (found it
| more reliable than AutoHotKey for instance)
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| > 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 wrote:
| Try to run around in a game, ends up typing an incomprehensible
| dissertation
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| > _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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| When was the last time a doctor hand-wrote a prescription?
| 15 years ago?
| seafoamteal wrote:
| Still very common in smaller hospitals and independent
| practices around India.
| deciduously wrote:
| Last week, near Boston MA.
| brokenmachine wrote:
| Tell me you haven't worked in health without telling me
| you haven't worked in health.
| dmd wrote:
| You might want to check my profile ;)
| brokenmachine wrote:
| Haha, touche!
|
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Or even better- your password
| taikahessu wrote:
| Another layer of security. Keyvault compromised? No
| problem, my passwodrs are safe with me!
| cynicalsecurity wrote:
| 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.
| Klaster_1 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| felipesabino wrote:
| 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
| wodenokoto wrote:
| 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!
| zadwang wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Can I raise you with Word and outlook adding 'smart' quotes,
| and Excel destroying CSV data?
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