Steno Dictionaries

This repository contains my personal stenography dictionaries, and some non-dictionary steno-related source code for Plover.

Details regarding the dictionaries and source code can be found under their respective directories (dictionaries and src).

The dictionaries are mostly in Markdown format, with a bit of JSON (see Plover Plugins section for how to use Markdown dictionaries). They either use, or are intended to supplement, Plover theory, and generally not be in conflict with Plover's default main.json dictionary.

Blog Posts

More information about these dictionaries and what led to their creation can be found in the following blog posts I wrote:

• Going Platinum
• Plover For the Record

Persistent steno practice using Typey Type was a massive factor in gaining the confidence to be able to feel like I could supplement Plover entries with my own content. I wrote about working with Typey Type here:

• I Completed Typey Type

You can read all about the formulation of the Doom Typist dictionary, and how steno gaming is possible, here:

• Steno Gaming: Doom Typist

Sibling Repositories

In order to make coding a more joyous experience with steno, I take advantage of snippets to help me write code boilerplate more quickly and flexibly. My snippets are made with Ultisnips, and the repo containing them can be found here:

• Vim Snippets

I am currently working on a Japanese language theory that can be used with Plover, which I call Chidori. Some outlines in these dictionaries reference it, and so the repo containing the dictionary can be found here:

• Chidori

Setup

Clone repository

In your terminal program, use Git to clone the repository from its home on Github:

git clone git@github.com:paulfioravanti/steno-dictionaries.git

Import Dictionaries

Use Plover's Open Dictionaries functionality to choose one or more dictionaries to import into your dictionaries list.

Add Plover Plugins

In order for some dictionaries to work, particular Plover Plugins will need to be installed. Click the Plover Plugins Manager button on the Plover user interface to show the list of installable plugins.

Install a plugin by selecting the plugin name from the list and clicking the "Install/Update" button.

• Plover Dict Commands: Needed in order to use outlines that enable typing raw steno (see my Plover Control Commands dictionary)
• Plover Layout Display: Needed in order to use my Georgi-inspired layout config
• Plover Local Env Var: Needed in order to use personal outlines that contain semi-private information
• Plover Markdown Dictionary: Needed in order to use any of the dictionary entries that are embedded in Markdown files (.md)
• Plover Q&A: Needed in order to use my Q&A-related outlines
• Plover Run AppleScript: Needed in order to use commands that use AppleScript files
• Plover Run Shell: Needed to use the outlines that can control applications on your computer (see commands.md for examples)
• Plover Stitching: Needed to use my custom stitching-related dictionary outlines (ie stitching.md)
• Plover Emoji: Aside from the occasional few I have made custom briefs for in my emoji.md dictionary, I leverage this plugin for every other emoji, and can recommend installing it

Create Environment Variable

In order to use many of the outlines in commands.md, you will need to define a STENO_DICTIONARIES environment variable in your ~/.bashrc file (or ~/.zshrc, or whatever configuration file your shell uses) containing the value of the path that this directory is in.

For example, I have my steno-dictionaries/ directory located inside a steno/ directory under my user account's home directory. So, in my ~/.bashrc file, I have an entry that looks like:

~/.bashrc

# Enable call outs to scripts in steno command dictionaries.
export STENO_DICTIONARIES="$HOME/steno/steno-dictionaries"

Change the path value to wherever you have cloned this directory, and the commands should work as expected.

Compile Applescript Files

Outlines in dictionaries containing commands that run an AppleScript file reference compiled .scpt versions of the .applescript files contained in this repository.

Those compiled .scpt files are not contained in this repository by default. If you are using these scripts for the first time, in order to generate the .scpt files, run the following script in the root directory of this repository which will do it for you:

./bin/bootstrap

If you decide to make changes to the logic in the Applescript files, remember to re-generate the .scpt files by running the command below to recompile them.

./bin/compile-applescript-files

If you want to just remove all the .scpt files for whatever reason, run the following script:

./bin/remove-scpt-files

For more details about the whats and whys regarding the AppleScript files in this repo than you would probably ever care to know about (and the pain suffered during their creation), see the following blog posts:

• Sharing AppleScript Handlers
• AppleScript Records: Strings as Keys

Hat Tips 🎩

Inspiration for additions have been:

• Di's steno dictionaries
• Platinum Steno video course

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0.

See LICENSE.txt for details.