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by asciilifeform 5138 days ago
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.)

2 comments

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.
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.

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.