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Beyond Dvorak via Genetic Algorithm
ColonelPanic writes: "I switched my computer keyboard to the
Dvorak layout
about a year ago. But now I've gone and done
something really outlandish. I tried to discover the most efficient layout possible with a genetic
algorithm. It's weird-looking, but I am typing
with it now. I put the
gory details up on the Web."
ADT GAC CCG AGA TAA CGA
What happens when you need a different letter?
Results:
left
right
left
right...
All very well, but not much use to most of Slashdot's readership...
What enquiring onanists need to know is which keyboard layout is fastest using just one hand....
Find Japanese addresses in English on Google Maps Japan: http://diddlefinger.com/
A friend does PC support (including telecommuter support) for a large retail company. A woman called in, to say that her home PC was acting stangely, and not typing the keys she pressed.
My friend went to her house with a new keyboard. When he looked at the old one, he saw that the keys were arranged alphabetically. with 'a' where the q is supposed to be, 'b' where the w is, etc.
She explained that she was having trouble finding the keys, so she rearranged them so she could find them easier.
That's interesting. I was just a big bacterial soup for seventeen years. Then sex was invented and then things started to get more interesting very quickly.
Now I am back to being soup.
We recently found a study that reports that skipping burns more calories than running!
That's because, when you run, you can do it at your own pace, but when you skip, you must skip very fast to keep ahead of the crowd of homophobes chasing you with intent to harm you when they catch you:
"Hey, Zeke! Lookit that there guy skippin' along! He must be a fag! Lit's go git the boys an' string his fairy ass up!"
IN the same line of thinking:
-could, for instance, parsing the kernel through his routine create a 'kernel-hacking' keyboard?
i.e. specialist keyboards to do a specific job?
(and I would have CTRL-ALT-DEL right in the middle of my MS-Win-biased keyboard: now that would speed up things =)
...it was a Ask slashdot submission, and read: "I swtchrd my computre keybord to teh Dvorka layoot bout a yaer ago. But nbw I've gonn nad donn somethng raelly ouhlnadsh. I trid to discovr teh most efffcinet layoot posibel wth a getetic algorthm. It's wetird-lokng, but I m typnig wth ti noow. I ptu teh gorry detials up on the Web. Wht I sak is hw teh ehll do I chnage ti bak?!
when there's a finite number of layouts? Yup, just 265,252,859,812,191,058,636,308,480,000,000 possibilities. I'm sure the guys at distributed.net would love to set up a project to figure this out.
- danboo
It sounds like the interesting possibility almost grasped here is the possibility of producing a self-customized layout on the fly.
hook the keyboard driver and tokenize input into words (corrections included where possible), feed through a spell-checker (to find what word was likely the target), and re-insert as input through the algorithm. Admittedly, this makes it more of a neural-net than a GA, but it is continuously evolving, and eventually, you should even out on the best keyboard layout for what you type on a daily basis
I expect my '_' key to end up somewhere on the home row in a couple of weeks (programming = bad typing habits)
Yes, but what if the father Saturn (QWERTY) starts to eat the children because he knows that one of them will one day overtake him and become the most powerful keyboard layout in the universe? All of the new keyboard layouts would be consumed, and the mother Rhea (DVORAK) would become very unhappy that all her children were being eaten. So, she would remedy the situation by feeding QWERTY a fake child/keyboard layout, perhaps just a random one that perhaps resembles a rock that in turn resembles a baby. Once QWERTY consumes this rock/keyboard layout, the new baby keyboard layout, let's call him "Jupiter," would be left to be raised somewhere out in the wilderness by nymphs of some sort. After many years, once Jupiter has honed his skills, he could come back and vanquish his father QWERTY, thus fulfilling the millenia-old prophecy for a second time.
How's that?
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
Maybe he uses thou in his C++ code. :)
I tried creating a keyboard using a set of Perl programs I wrote and ended up with all the punctuation in the home ruw. :(
Someone you trust is one of us.
I had the same idea for a perl-optimized keyboard layout. But I don't know if having the home keys as punctuation would be well-received.
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
Ahh yes - the so-called 'feminist' genetic algorithms, or 'catholic' genetic algorithms
How about the best keyboard layout for brainf*ck?
<curse> <run>
> < + - . , [ ]
<space> <enter>
Space and enter are probably optional. One finger for each key that you need while programming, cool.
Special Relativity: The person in the other queue thinks yours is moving faster.