Theory in Practice

Very in-progress, but I'm tired of leaving this uncommitted.

Outline

A rough idea of what I'd like to talk about

• What is steno
• (Somewhere) What translations are, and what steno is actually for (translations are effects?)
• A brief history of shorthand and steno
• What is a dictionary (and entries, and mathematical functions)
• (Somewhere) How steno works, what is a steno engine (stateful transducers)
• What is a layout
• What is a theory, and how do they relate to dictionaries
• What are theory rules, and how do they relate to entries
• Briefs, fake words, shape based outlines, etc.
  • Brief families, rule-based briefs vs. arbitrary briefs, shape-based
  • How briefs relate (families and beyond)
• Conflicts in realtime theories and the types of conflicts in realtime theories. Begin to talk about theory complexity in general
• Outline splitting, and how it relates to word boundary conflicts
• Stroke splitting, how it really works, what's wrong with it, and how it could work
• Orthography, and that whole spectrum

Some theory ideas near and dear to my heart:

• Regular outlines grammars
• Orthospelling
• Programmatic dictionaries

Theory development:

• The process of theory development
• Rules
• Specifications
• Understanding of your own theory
• Dictionary building
• Layout development!

Some other ideas:

• Alternative theories
• split "tall" keys
• Key positions

I've designed a few theories over the past year or so, and I'd like to share what I've learned over all that time.

These are just some potentially organized ramblings.

For now, see:

• Generated Programmatic Dictionaries
• Regular Outline Grammars
• Pinchord