Stuck on the Keyboard-We have to get out of it!

Stuck on the Keyboard

We have to get out of it!

 
I often wondered why they have made the English Keyboard so difficult to remember and type.
Except for the numbers all the  letters are arranged in a haphazard order.
In a computer keyboard F1 to F12 function keys are programed in a such a way to do many functions in Linux.
Shift Control, Alternate and Del and combination of these keys do have a special utility value.
Rest of the keys are reserved for letters which has no meaning if one wants to type in Chinese or Sinhala.
 
To type a Sinhala document one has to make many adjustments to fit into over (56) fifty six phonome/s.
So I never bothered to remember the shortcuts or learn typing in Sinhala.
Doing things in the mother tongue should be a natural thing but the English keyboard has made it such a hassle.
Because of the computers Sinhala keyboard has long been retired to the attic.
I am not saying that the Sinhala keyboard was a good type front or typeface.
It is even worse than the English keyboard.
It was designed to suit printing industry of the time with nothing in relationship to computers, their functions or memory.
It is as an old design as English keyboard.
I did a little research on the design of the original of the typewriter and found that it was designed to be difficult and very slow from the very beginning.
The reason being that in the original design if one typed fast the keys used to get jammed.

The design was anti-human (as far as the speed of the fingers and hands are concerned) and anti-computers by default.
 
I think we need to revisit this issue and redesign the keyboard with user friendly typeface.
This can be done now with the touch sensitive screens and tablets are on the market.
One does not have to redesign a hardware (Keyboard) typeface.
If we take the screen it is a blank sheet or blank slate.
The slate was the one we used when learning to write with fingers when computers were not heard of.
That skill was useful when I started surgical skills and suturing techniques.
Hand is much versatile than a computer.
At a time when educators in USA are lurking to abandon the hand writing skills of young ones, a serious thought should be given to the redesigning of the virtual keyboard of the tablet.
We have to abandon the present keyboard to begin with.
We have to reinvent the wheel of success taking into consideration, the skills of both hands, speed of the computer and its adaptability to new way of doing things.
I do not think this will evolve in USA but most likely in Japan and China.
The tablet would add insult to injury unless we design a virtual keyboard on the tablet face to use all the fingers in both hands.

My suggestions for the future.
Give up the old keyboard in a staggered basis.
I have a few design suggestions until the new features get established.
Have two typefaces, one old typeface, the other taking into consideration of the alphabet of a given language with may keys as the screen can accommodate.

I am pretty sure young ones will opt for the latter and will abandon the old keyboard in no time.

For the hardware, I have many innovative suggestions, taking tablet as the future digital slate of education.
 
1. Both sides of the tablet should have screens and the battery and computer circuit sandwiched between the two.
One face should be the typeface.
Right and left hand sides be used for well designed functions and a guide help what is in store of a very simple tablet.
Just like in Ubuntu Unity but I like the overall design of the Pinguy face.
The virtual keyboard should be accessed from the corners and it should stay in the middle in a lengthwise orientation.
 
The other side should be made into an eReader.

If one types a paragraph and turn around the tablet, the content should be visible like a newsreader or a book face on the other side.

One side is the work face, the other side is the output or the proofreader side.
The reverse side could be used as a photo-editor, camera and many more functions.
There is no limit given the capability of the processor.
For more robust design it should be made like a clam shell (like a laptop) with four input and output faces.
The two functions mentioned above as the bare bone architecture and additional faces for more advanced work like video editing which needs lot of memory and graphic functions.
If we get out of the box and the current keyboard restriction altogether the versatility of the tablet is limitless and enormous.
We must get out of the tabletop design of the PC and all waterproof new design should work even underwater.
Even if you drop it on the pool by accident it should work provided the batteries and circuits are well insulated deep inside, in its core.

Yes, we have to redesign the wheel and come out of the Box mentality.

The design capabilities and options are limited by only the imagination of the mind.
 
Instead of thinking of star wars we must make the most versatile tablet on this planet.

There is also one more important ingredient for success.
It should be cheap enough and affordable.
It should not look like an ipad, a nice gadget but out of the reach of many.

I am pretty sure this will not happen in Sri-Lanka with a politically frozen nation.
 
Not in USA too.

But it will come from China and the new design will rule the world in another 10 to 15 years of our/ my time.
Hope it would come before, I kick the bucket.

From Vi Editor to Vi Improved (VIM)

I cannot believe myself NOW writing a piece like this!

From Vi Editor to Vi Improved (VIM)

Posted on October 22, 2011 / Asokaplus

 

Vi Editor to Vi Improved (VIM)

True that Dennis Richie invented the C language but there need to be an editor to do the language editing.

That was called ex in dumb terminals of Unix in black and white.

Then it had to evolve into Vi the visual editor and later to Vi Improved.

As I know it by my gut feeling Vi (Cholesterol free)is very light as compared to VIM which is loaded with cholesterol.

ViM is in MiBs but Vi has to be in KBs but I could not find the exact amount after 3 days of searching.

 

In fact, I posted a question on Linux Question Organization and waiting for a reply from some old gentleman (I am not young by any imagination) out there browsing the web at leisure.

I feel some urge to document them in a book since once cloud computing comes into being things might be different and history may be submerged in clouds and not in sea water of tsunami.

 

Below is some of my current findings.

As far as computer language and it writing is concerned, I prefer a graphic output.

If I compare a computer language and its final output product to needle, threads and a cloth we finally wear for our adornment.

Analogy goes like this.

Computer language is like the thread. 

Threads can be woven into a cloth and stitches that hold them together.

Programming editor is like the needle.

We do not need to know the how the threads are made of except  for the fact from cotton, nylon or mixture of them or water-resistant mackintosh.

But we need to know their colours so that the pattern can be distinguished.

Similarly we need know that needle is made of steel and won’t corrode.

 

Visual editor was a need and without the needle we won’t be able to stitch in time.

 

Vi Editor

The original code for vi was written by Bill Joy in 1976, as the visual mode for a line editor called ex that Joy had written with Chuck Haley. 

Bill Joy’s ex 1.1 was released as part of the first BSD Unix release in March, 1978. 

It was not until version 2.0 of ex, released as part of Second Berkeley Software Distribution in May, 1979 that the editor was installed under the name vi (which took users straight into ex’s visual mode), and the name by which it is known today.

 

Vi is a modal editor:

It operates in either insert mode (where typed text becomes part of the document) or normal mode (where keystrokes are interpreted as commands that control the edit session).

For example, typing i while in normal mode switches the editor to insert mode, but typing i again at this point places an “i” character in the document.

From insert mode, pressing the escape key switches the editor back to normal mode.

A perceived advantage of vi’s separation of text entry and command modes is that both text editing and command operations can be performed without requiring the removal of the user’s hands from the home row.

As non-modal editors usually have to reserve all keys with letters and symbols for the printing of characters, any special commands for actions other than adding text to the buffer must be assigned to keys which do not produce characters, such as function keys, or combinations of modifier keys such as Ctrl, and Alt with regular keys.

 

Vi has the advantage that most ordinary keys are connected to some kind of command for positioning, altering text, searching and so forth, either singly or in key combinations.

The name vi is derived from the shortest unambiguous abbreviation for the command visual in ex.

 

STEVIE

Probably this is a “Tim Thompson’s statement” fished out from the web.

STEVIE is perhaps my most noteworthy contribution to the Open Source movement, even though the phrase Open Source didn’t exist way back in June of 1987 when I posted my little clone of the ‘vi’ editor to Usenet.

STEVIE stood for,

ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts

Although it was only a subset of real ‘vi’, it had a good implementation of the ‘u’ (undo) and ‘.’ (repeat) commands. 

Here are the two parts of the original posting of STEVIE:

stevie.orig.1of2

stevie.orig.2of2

My implementation was usable and good enough for Tony Andrews to take and continue hacking on. 

A year later in June of 1988, Tony posted this 4-part version of STEVIE to Usenet:

stevie.tony.1of4

stevie.tony.2of4

stevie.tony.3of4

stevie.tony.4of4

Since that time, the software has continuously evolved in the fine tradition of what we now call Open Source, to produce the widely available and widely ported editor now known as VIM.

I was not involved after my initial development and posting to Usenet, and I didn’t really keep track of it after a few years. (I was actually a bit disappointed when the ‘u’ndo capability was broken by subsequent development, and was not fixed.)

When I recently discovered that VIM is the great-great-great-great-…-grandson of STEVIE, I was quite surprised and of course very pleased to know that my initial seed was so fruitful.

And I was most pleased to see that they fixed the ‘u’ndo command and even made it capable of ‘infinite undo’.

 

Vim Editor

Vim is a text editor written in 1988 by Bram Moolenaar for the Amiga computer, but first released publicly in 1991. 

It was based on an earlier editor, Stevie, for the Atari ST, created by Tim Thompson, Tony Andrews and G.R. (Fred) Walter.

The name “Vim” is an acronym for “Vi IMproved” because Vim is an extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code.

Originally, the acronym stood for “Vi IMitation”, but that was changed with the release of Vim 2.0 in December 1993.

Vim is an almost compatible version of the UNIX editor Vi. 

Many new features have been added: multi level undo, syntax highlighting, command line history, on-line help, file name completion, block operations, folding, Unicode support, etc.

This package contains a version of vim compiled with a rather standard set of features. This package does not provide a GUI version of Vim. See the other vim packages if you need more (or less).

Repository: Debian Main

Download size: 894,29 KB

Installed size: 1,74 MB

Package filename: vim_7.3.333-1_i386.deb

Source package: vim

Vulgar talk of Monks

Vulgar talk of Monks

So I delve into Dhamma in that sense to Samutta Nikaya (56:10) to repeat a verse told to monks would suffice to convince myself why I should not be a journalist. 

This can be rephrased why a Buddhist monk should be a conveyor of Dhamma message sans journalistic endeavor.

Buddha states 28 of his qualifications of vulgar talk to monks.
Numerically in order as was said by the Lord Buddha are as follows.  
 

Manifold vulgar talks are

1. Talk about Kings (Presidents, Prime Ministers and Tyrants)

2. Talk about Robbers (Robber barons, the multinational businessmen)

3. Talk about Ministers

4. Talk about armies

5. Talk about dangers

6. Talk about wars

7. Talk about food

8. Talk about drink

9. Talk about cloths

10. Talk about dwellings 

 

11. Talk about garlands  

 

12. Talk about perfumes

13. Talk about relations

14. Talk about conveyances (transfer of property)

15. Talk about villages

16. Talk about hamlets

17. Talk about towns

18. Talk about countries

19. Talk about women

20. Talk about heroes

21. Talk about street talk

22. Talk about ghosts

23. Talk about ancestors

24. Talk about gossip

25. Talk about land

26. Talk about sea

27. Talk about gain (credit market)

28. Talk about loss (stock exchange)

To this another four are added in another verse

1. Eternity (unending)

2. Annihilation (reduced to nothing)

3. Sensual gratification

4. Self mortification
 

What a Buddhist monk as a journalist should talk about are about greedlessness,  (opposite of Lobha) hatelessness (opposite of Dhosha) and  
undeludedness (opposite of Moha)(wisdom) and any other talk is senseless and does not lead to liberation or salvation.

Vulgar Deeds of Monks

Reproduction

Posted on January 5, 2016 by asokaplus

Vulgar Deeds of Monks

One should read this in tandem with “Vulgar Talks for Monks”.
I never thought that I might have to use this phrase to describe some of the deeds of Monks with political power.
This has nothing to do with Vinaya (Set of rules passed down by oral tradition) which outlines 300 odd major and 1000 odd minor strictures.
I will list a few below.
1. Possession of more than two robes.
2. Possession of money more than what is required of travel (this was a concession when public transport came into existence).
They are meant to be walking spreading Dhamma and no two monks should take the same path having come to a four way intersection.
3. Possession of vehicle for transport.
4. Possession of land
5. Possession of books other than Thripitaka, which is colossal.
6. Possession of Televisions
7. Possession of Elephants
 
The sole purpose of this is to highlight the number 7.
 
I think very soon our monks will ascend to Nibbana on the back of a poor elephant.
I am sure once they ascend there the poor animal is dispensed for good to rot probably in hell.
I am not sure how the modern articles like mobiles, laptops, digital texts and multimedia applications would apply in the context of Vinaya.
 
A modern Sangayana is necessary to validate them in posterity as essential items ‘On the road to Nibbana’.
 
I am also not sure of Television Displays in the trend of TV stars.
 
I sometime incline to think when the Thripitaka is fully digitalized and translated to many languages as possible (this is not happening) the existence of Monks may become redundant except for the SOLE practice of meditation for ultimate goal SEEKING of TRUE salvation or Nibbana.
 
The way the things are developing there may be monasteries dishing out Nibbana certificates at four levels, 
 
Sovan, 
Sukrudhagami, 
Anagami, and
Arhath.
 
I hope, I should kick the bucket before that eventuality of having to register for salvation and is open for all, in the World Wide Web.

I am ambivalent about the right of the monks to become politicians and a member of the parliament.

As a true democrat, I say YES for an individual’s right to exercise political right, if not the Wisdom or the better judgment.

Having said that I am uneasy if they continue to done the robe after being duly elected.

 The point is conflict of interest, priesthood or the legislative functions (law of the land).

Suppose the legislature agrees for capital punishment would they vote YES or NO.

I feel very uneasy to see any person (whatever the religion that does not matter) in official capacity especially in the parliament (sometimes in civil capacity, too) display their identity in dress code, hair style, facial hair decoration or by any other mean.

It is a hindrance in the name of fair judgment and a Universal dress code for the assembly is mandatory.

I hope this fact is taken into consideration when drafting the new constitution.

I have no problem with any form of national dress (in the form of kilt in Scotland) however ugly and cumbersome for it to be worn.

I prefer the loin cloth for those without any educational qualifications and the dress should indicate their educational level but not their professional status (Army, Navy, Air Force, Doctor, Lawyer, Accountant, Professor or University cloak).

The NEW dress, with neutral colour (not the party colour) should be very simple and no civilian should be permitted to wear this dress for any civilian function.

It should be smart and should not look like a school UNIFORM or Police, Army or Navy.

The idea is, the moment they wear this dress they are in a different mold and feel proud (whether in power or in opposition).

This stricture like VINAYA for monks is only inside the assembly to discipline the present unruly Guys / Girls trained by the politicians and the CLAN in our legislature.

In other words if a monk wears a particular robe they are expected to behave as such upholding the VINAYA and not like The BBS THUGS.

Under political wisdom their status should be steamrolled like chained pets and the new TREND would harbinger good behavior in parliament and uplift the status in the legislature as TRUE DEMOCRATS (listen to the alternative views). 

Equally, the politician should not wear this dress for civilian functions other than the official duties in the assembly.

They are free to wear any other dress including PARTY dress and colour in public so that they can freely mix with their electorate or supporters.

If the speaker wears a particular dress why not MPs?

I never EXPECT this proposal could see the day light.

It is only a wishful thinking.