One handed Emacs

One handed Emacs

[rgb]

A co-worker of mine is disabled and only has use of
his right hand.  He's never used any advanced editor
so isn't already biased towards any keyboard layout
beyond basic qwerty.  Has anyone developed an Emacs
layout more convenient to learn.
The standard layout has most of the most heavily
used chords on the left hand which would make
learning Emacs quite difficult.
If it makes a difference, this is on a Windows system
and I believe he does not use the stickey keys feature.

Re: One handed Emacs

[Pascal Bourguignon]

"rgb" <rbielaws@i1.net> writes:

> A co-worker of mine is disabled and only has use of
> his right hand.  He's never used any advanced editor
> so isn't already biased towards any keyboard layout
> beyond basic qwerty.  Has anyone developed an Emacs
> layout more convenient to learn.
> The standard layout has most of the most heavily
> used chords on the left hand which would make
> learning Emacs quite difficult.
> If it makes a difference, this is on a Windows system
> and I believe he does not use the stickey keys feature.

Perhaps the easiest solution would be to use a non standard keyboard.

http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com/onehandtypingalternatives.html

http://www.tifaq.org/keyboards/chording-keyboards.html
http://www.infogrip.com/

http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/myway/keyboard/keyboard/intro-one-handed.htm
http://edgarmatias.com/papers/hci96/


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

Nobody can fix the economy.  Nobody can be trusted with their finger
on the button.  Nobody's perfect.  VOTE FOR NOBODY.

Re: One handed Emacs

[Miles Bader]

"rgb" <rbielaws@i1.net> writes:
> A co-worker of mine is disabled and only has use of
> his right hand. ...
> The standard layout has most of the most heavily
> used chords on the left hand which would make
> learning Emacs quite difficult.

Hmmm; a vi-type key layout might be a lot easier for such a case.

If he wants to use emacs, how about turning on `viper-mode'?

-Miles
-- 
"Most attacks seem to take place at night, during a rainstorm, uphill,
 where four map sheets join."   -- Anon. British Officer in WW I

Re: One handed Emacs

[Jeffrey L. Greer]

I am on the assistive technology committee for my school district. I
have tested a number of one handed keyboards. The best one I have seen
is called the Frog Pad manufactured by a small company in Houston, TX.
They sell right and left handed models. It takes some getting used to
but seemed to be a good solution. NASA is experimenting with it. It is
useful for aviators. They can velcro it to their thigh and use it for
one handed data entry. The computer sees it as just another PC
compatible keyboard so it should work with emacs. Check it out at:
www.frogpad.com

Jeff

rgb wrote:
> A co-worker of mine is disabled and only has use of
> his right hand.  He's never used any advanced editor
> so isn't already biased towards any keyboard layout
> beyond basic qwerty.  Has anyone developed an Emacs
> layout more convenient to learn.
> The standard layout has most of the most heavily
> used chords on the left hand which would make
> learning Emacs quite difficult.
> If it makes a difference, this is on a Windows system
> and I believe he does not use the stickey keys feature.
> 

Re: One handed Emacs

[rgb]

> called the Frog Pad
> They sell right and left handed models.
> The computer sees it as just another PC compatible keyboard
> so it should work with emacs.
        ----------------------
For normal typing I have no doubt it's fine but I take it you
don't have any firm idea how hard it is to emit the modified
keys we use so regularly like C-M-@ or C-x C-f?

Re: One handed Emacs

[Richard Kaszeta]

"Jeffrey L. Greer" <jlgreer1@excite.com> writes:
> I am on the assistive technology committee for my school district. I
> have tested a number of one handed keyboards. 

While I have full use of my hands, out of curiousity, I've used a
number of one-hand keyboards of a variety of types as well.  The best
two I've seen are:

1. The half-qwerty keyboard (http://half-qwerty.com). Funky chording
concept: the keyboard is a standard keyboard layout, but if the space
bar is chorded with a letter or number key, it gives the equivalent
key from the same finger position for the other hand (check the web
site if this doesn't make any sense).  At least for me I was typing
reasonably (with ctrl- and alt- keys, even) almost immediately, you
just have to learn to hit the space bar and not think about things too
much.  Downside is that these things are unreasonably expensive, given
that you should be able to do the same approach in software alone.
2. The oft-mentioned frogpad
(http://www.frogpad.com/Images/frogpads/frogusb-fullview.jpg to see
the idea).  Fairly nice layout, but you spend a lot of time chording,
since every key has at least 5 meanings attached to it.  You can't do
straight-up ctrl- and alt- keys, it basically treats these as sticky
bits.  I was typing decently after a week, and might outdo the
half-qwerty with it if I practiced.

-- 
Richard W Kaszeta
rich@kaszeta.org
http://www.kaszeta.org/rich

Re: One handed Emacs

[Pascal Bourguignon]

"rgb" <rbielaws@i1.net> writes:

>> called the Frog Pad
>> They sell right and left handed models.
>> The computer sees it as just another PC compatible keyboard
>> so it should work with emacs.
>         ----------------------
> For normal typing I have no doubt it's fine but I take it you
> don't have any firm idea how hard it is to emit the modified
> keys we use so regularly like C-M-@ or C-x C-f?

The easiest way would be to have a lot of "function" keys to bind them
to usual commands.

On a normal keyboard there's usually a total of:

  12 normal function keys,
+  3 SysRq, Scroll Lock, Break
+ 16 keypad keys.
----
  31 unused keys.

Slighly more function keys would be able on a Sun keyboard.

There are special keyboard for POS with 225 keys, that would be
perfect to bind usual emacs commands.
http://www.electronickeyboards.com/POS-retail-keyboards.html


Otherwise, the cheapest solution could be to add a second keyboard,
but I don't know if X allows emacs to distinguish keys of one keyboard
from the other easily.


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

This is a signature virus.  Add me to your signature and help me to live

Re: One handed Emacs

[rgb]

> Hmmm; a vi-type key layout might be a lot easier for such a case.
>
> If he wants to use emacs, how about turning on `viper-mode'?

I was forced to use VI for a brief period about 15 years ago.
I hated the experience so much it never occured to me it
could have any possible usefulness.  I'll mention it but
there won't be any glowing endorsements attached :)

Re: One handed Emacs

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com> writes:

> but I don't know if X allows emacs to distinguish keys of one
> keyboard from the other easily.

there seems to be support:

grep -nH -e MULTI_KBOARD ~/build/emacs/src/*.[hc] | wc
     45     102    1616

(i have not tried using it, personally, however.)

thi

Re: One handed Emacs

[rgb]

Richard Kaszeta wrote:
> "Jeffrey L. Greer" <jlgreer1@excite.com> writes:
> > I am on the assistive technology committee for my school district.
I
> > have tested a number of one handed keyboards.
>
> While I have full use of my hands, out of curiousity, I've used a
> number of one-hand keyboards of a variety of types as well.  The best
> two I've seen are:
>
> 1. The half-qwerty keyboard (http://half-qwerty.com). ...
> 2. The oft-mentioned frogpad ...

While I appreciate the mentioning of these I'm fairly certain that
he doesn't plan to start using any kind of specialty keyboard.

I can remap keys in Emacs anywhere I want of course but didn't
know if there might be some Emacs config, perhaps developed by
someone with a similar problem that would
1) save me the trouble of doing it.
2) do it in a way that is actually easier rather than my guess
   of what might be easier.

I guess I'll just introduce it to him with it's native keys and
help with remapping as needed.  

thanks to all

Re: One handed Emacs

[Joe Corneli]

   > Hmmm; a vi-type key layout might be a lot easier for such a case.
   >
   > If he wants to use emacs, how about turning on `viper-mode'?

What the author means by "VI-type", I think, has something to do with
"pseudo-graphical" layout.  

For an example of a "VI-type" layout within Emacs (that has nothing to
do with VI) consider:

  <X|  up   |X>
 left down right

That is what you see on the "Mode_switch" layer, centered on my
homerow.  For one-hand typing, this might offer some advantages or it
might not.  Assuming that one would have to "switch" the keyboard to
access some of b, f, n, or p, then the advantage is clear; otherwise,
I'm not sure it has any significant advantage (although I strongly
prefer to use it).

Re: One handed Emacs

[Miles Bader]

Joe Corneli <jcorneli@math.utexas.edu> writes:
>    > Hmmm; a vi-type key layout might be a lot easier for such a case.
>    >
>    > If he wants to use emacs, how about turning on `viper-mode'?
>
> What the author means by "VI-type", I think, has something to do with
> "pseudo-graphical" layout.  

Actually I just mean the fact that most vi bindings are single
keystrokes with no modifier-key required (and the basic movement keys
are on the right-hand home-row).

I don't like vi the editor, but the keybinding scheme is an interesting
alternative to that of emacs, (though not as good as vi fanatics seem to
think it is... :-), and with viper-mode you can easily try it out in emacs.

[I almost never use vi, but am quite used to the vi movement keys
because of rogue/nethack :-]

-miles
-- 
"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that
 you do it."  Mahatma Ghandi