[SeanLuke]

> This rather unimpressive “hello world” was achieved after around fifteen minutes of practice. What would it have been like if I had been put in front of an Endfield keyboard as a small child, instead of a typewriter monstrosity?

As someone who has played piano since he was eight, I can answer that question: you'd still be unusably slow.

This is the terrible secret of the chorded keyboard: it requires that you press multiple keys at once. Any good pianist can tell you that you can make your hand do high-speed delicate work, all over the keyboard, one note at a time, but dense chords cannot be moved through remotely as quickly, unless you're looking to develop carpal tunnnel. It's a misfeature of the mechanics of the human hand.

[asciilifeform]

Piano keys have centimeters of travel distance. Chorded computer keyboards - not necessarily. One can "cheat" by requiring only the faintest movements from the fingers. The Microwriter arguably does this.

Also: have you ever seen a court stenographer at work? You are simply wrong. (At least, with regards to the limits of what human hands are ultimately capable of.)

[__alexs]

Stenotypes are also called shorthand machines for a reason. They might be able to type 300 WPM, but that's partially because they aren't writing english.

[gouranga]

We rarely write in English.

If you've ever used TouchDevelop on a Windows phone, you will see why domain specific keyboards are a good idea:

http://i1-handheld.softpedia-static.com/images/software/scre...

I can actually code faster on my phone than a PC with a keyboard.

[Arcanum-XIII]

Guitar are pattern instrument : once you know one, you can move it to change tonality, without any problem — and they require finger movement of less than 5mm (even less on a very good prepared electric guitar) Playing one note at a time will still be incredibly faster than moving chord, even chord that you have practiced for a (very, very, very) long time.