Dealing with the Frustration

[cjhacker23]

Tempers have gotten hot around here these past few days with all the waiting (and waiting and waiting), so I thought I'd share something that helps me feel less frustrated: I'm teaching myself to use the Textblade, using Karabiner remapping software and @wmertens profile that remaps the textblade symbols and layers (the green and edit layers, at least).

If I close my eyes, I can almost convince myself that I too am TREG member!

Here's the link to the thread that has everything you need to feel like you too are typing on a Texblade:

Emulating TextBlade on OS X

Typed on the Textblade in my Mind

[black_jaquar]

Typed on the Textblade in my Mind

👍

[orand]

Having used that Karabiner map for many months before receiving a TREG unit, I can vouch for the effectiveness of it.

It also helps you to appreciate that the awesomeness of the TextBlade is due to lots of smart design decisions, and much of the benefit can be experienced from the layer system alone.

[orand]

The Karabiner map is also a great way to "try before you buy" and enables that classic retail sales technique of getting the customer to physically put their hands on the product they're thinking about purchasing.

While it's possible WayTools could shut it down due to patent concerns, I doubt it's in there best interests since it serves as such a great on-ramp into their product ecosystem (and I do believe it will become an ecosystem).

[cjhacker23]

I agree. Now that the Edit/Select layer has become second nature, I don't know how I lived without it all these years. It's genius.

[CanoeBC]

"Tempers have gotten hot..." What planet are you on? Tempers have been hot for 12 months of inuendo and broken promises. And all we are talking about is emulating on iOS. You may have missed that Apples smartphone market dropped by 17% in the past 12 months.

The real question is: Is there a real production model textblade in existance?

[cjhacker23]

LOL! So, that's a no for you on the emulation software?

[Hiser]

Thanks @cjhacker23. I just downloaded and starting to really learn this new imaginary TextBlade. I think this will not only reduce the learning curve on the TextBlade when it arrives, but also improve my productivity in the time being. Thanks for the encouragement to give it a try.

[evillemez]

For what it's worth, I also used Karabiner in the months leading up to when I got my TREG unit. The only real adjustment I went through was getting used to the key feel. After a day it was hard for me to go back to a traditional keyboard, so I would say using the TB mappings w/ Karabiner is certainly worth it.

I would say that it's worth using regardless of whether or not you even want a TextBlade. Having the home row cursor and remapped symbols significantly reduced hand pain I was having.

[cjhacker23]

I find that even after a week of using it, although the green and edit layer are second nature, I'm still having a hard time with the reduced reach on the right hand (mapping the Enter key to the Quote key, and the Backspace to the Bracket key). Not sure why I'm having so much trouble getting used to it.

[wmertens]

Note that the MultiMap will allow you to remap the normal-layer enter key, so you could move enter to the green layer and restore the semicolon key where it is, pushing the quote key to the enter key. It also helps with not typing enter by accident.

Getting used to not having the semicolon key was one of the reasons that made me switch to Colemak, it has the quote on the top row, and there is no muscle memory getting me to type enter when I meant quote.

[waytools]