I posted this last Friday when it was fresh but it got rejected due to size and I just got the bounce message today. Here it is again for those who care:
I spend a lot of time tapping out text on my cell phone using T9 or "multitap" input methods (the latter being where you press 2 once to get A, twice for B, three times for C, etc. for each key on the phone). And I write software for cellphones and PDAs for a living. The mention of Morse as a phone/PDA user interface (UI) got me thinking about using the * # keys as dit and dah (or dah and dit if you prefer). The question is, which input method requires fewer keystrokes? A quick look at the key assignments shows that it takes no more than 3 keystrokes for most letters using multitap, except S and Z. Numbers take 4 strokes except 7 and 9 which take 5. Morse requires 4 strokes for many letters and 5 for numbers. Only two letters can be represented with one stroke (E and T) whereas multitap can do 8 letters with one stroke (A, D, G, J, M, P, T, and W). If we wire the Morse UI like a keyer so that the keys repeat if held down, then seven letters and two numbers can be sent with one keystroke (E, I, S, H, 5, T, M, O, and 0), most of the rest can be done with two or three, and only the letter C requires 4. The PDA software I work on is for Bible study. For fun I ran the text of the Bible through a program that counted keystrokes using each of these methods. The Bible text I used was the New International Version. The file was in HTML so I ignored characters in tags. Here are the results: Total characters processed: 3,215,866 Multitap keystrokes: 6,939,643 Morse keystrokes: 8,349,063 Morse with autorepeat: 5,454,858 Then for even more fun I ran a 50MB collection of Bible reference books through the process (less than 30 seconds... ain't computers grand?): Total characters processed: 52,414,671 Multitap keystrokes: 114,462,190 Morse keystrokes: 136,308,478 Morse with autorepeat: 89,415,736 There are some other interesting advantages to a CW interface: 1. CW combines the use of two buttons and *time* as a third parameter (the length of time you hold down the key changes the meaning of the keystroke). So you're getting three pieces of info from two keys. Multitap reduces keystrokes by increasing the number of keys. CW reduces keystrokes by using the duration of the keystroke to supply additional information. 2. One of the frustrations of multitap comes when you need two characters in a row from the same key. You either need to tap the right-arrow key to move to the next character or wait for it to time out. With CW there's a natural break between characters that is dependant on your sending speed. There's some obvious disadvantages of coures. For one thing, nobody knows Morse Code so it's not very practical for the general public. (Compare the popularity of Esperanto as an international UI for example.) Anyway it's an interesting thought. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard for the right person (i.e. total nutcase with more time than brains) to rig this up on a couple of popular phones so we can all play with it. Come on, I know there are at least a couple of you on the list. :-) Craig NZ0R K1 #1966 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
