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GNOME
dasher
C2018–2025
GNOME / dasher

dasher

Read-only mirror of https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/dasher

2Distinct people
4Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
64GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Read-only mirror of https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/dasher

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

Dasher is such a novel concept of a keyboard it's almost alien. I love everything about it. You can install it on Ubuntu with: apt-get install dasher…

RubenSandwich used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year4 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2018-05-18 23:26:23 UTC to 2025-06-03 19:44:32 UTC.

012018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments20212022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

4 sources
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38400368 DonHopkins on Nov 24, 2023 | parent | context | favorite | on: AI is currently just glorified compression I love David MacKay's brilliant work on the Dasher text input system, which draws deeply from his work on information theory -- imagine Dasher integrated with an IDE and code search and Copilot and language model! "Writing is navigating in the library of all possible books." -David MacKay We just allocate more shelf space to the more probable letters. Why isn't Dasher built into every operating system and mobile phone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasher_(software) https://dasher.acecentre.net/about/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17105728 DonHopkins on May 18, 2018 | parent | context | favorite | on: Pie Menus: A 30-Year Retrospective: Take a Look an... Dasher is fantastic, because
Read the rest
it's based on rock solid information theory, designed by the late David MacKay. Here is the seminal Google Tech Talk about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpOxbesRNBc Here is a demo of using Dasher by an engineer at Google, Ada Majorek, who has ALS and uses Dasher and a Headmouse to program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHQ83pMLQQ Another one of her demonstrating Dasher: Ada Majorek Introduction - CSUN Dasher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvsSrClBwPM Here’s a more recent presentation about it, that tells all about the latest open source release of Dasher 5: Dasher - CSUN 2016 - Ada Majorek and Raquel Romano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFlkM_e-sDg Here's the github repo: Dasher Version 4.11 https://github.com/GNOME/dasher >Dasher is a zooming predictive text entry system, designed for situations where keyboard input is impractical (for instance, accessibility or PDAs). It is usable with highly limited amounts of physical input while still allowing high rates of text entry. Ada referred me to this mind bending prototype: D@sher Prototype - An adaptive, hierarchical radial menu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oSfEM8XpH4 >( http://www.inference.org.uk/dasher ) - a really neat way to "dive" through a menu hierarchy/, or through recursively nested options (to build words, letter by letter, swiftly). D@sher takes Dasher, and gives it a twist, making slightly better use of screen revenue. >It also "learns" your typical useage, making more frequently selected options larger than sibling options. This makes it faster to use, each time you use it. >More information here: http://beznesstime.blogspot.com and here: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=960 Dasher is even a viable way to input text in VR, just by pointing your head, without a special input device! Text Input with Oculus Rift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQgluUwV2U >As part of VR development environment I'm currently writing ( https://github.com/xanxys/construct ), I've implemented dasher ( http://www.inference.org.uk/dasher ) to input text. One important property of Dasher is that you can pre-train it on a corpus of typical text, and dynamically train it while you use it. It learns the patterns of letters and words you use often, and those become bigger and bigger targets that string together so you can select them even more quickly! Ada Majorek has it configured to toggle between English and her native language so she can switch between writing email to her family abroad and co-workers at google. Now think of what you could do with a version of dasher integrated with a programmer's IDE, that knew the syntax of the programming language you're using, as well as the names of all the variables and functions in scope, plus how often they're used! I have a long term pie in the sky “grand plan” about developing a JavaScript based programmable accessibility system I call “aQuery”, like “jQuery” for accessibility. It would be a great way to deeply integrate Dasher with different input devices and applications across platforms, and make them accessible to people with limited motion, as well as users of VR and AR and mobile devices. https://web.archive.org/web/20180826132551/http://donhopkins... Here’s some discussion on hacker news, to which I contributed some comments about Dasher: A History of Palm, Part 1: Before the PalmPilot (lowendmac.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12306377
In Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing
I love David MacKay's brilliant work on the Dasher text input system, which draws deeply from his work on information theory -- imagine Dasher integrated with an IDE and code search and Copilot and language model! "Writing is navigating in the library of all possible books." -David MacKay We just allocate more shelf space to the more probable letters. Why isn't Dasher built into every operating system and mobile phone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasher_(software) https://dasher.acecentre.net/about/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17105728 DonHopkins on May 18, 2018 | parent | context | favorite | on: Pie Menus: A 30-Year Retrospective: Take a Look an... Dasher is fantastic, because it's based on rock solid information theory, designed by the late David MacKay. Here is the seminal Google Tech Talk about it: https://www.youtube.com/
Read the rest
watch?v=wpOxbesRNBc Here is a demo of using Dasher by an engineer at Google, Ada Majorek, who has ALS and uses Dasher and a Headmouse to program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHQ83pMLQQ Another one of her demonstrating Dasher: Ada Majorek Introduction - CSUN Dasher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvsSrClBwPM Here’s a more recent presentation about it, that tells all about the latest open source release of Dasher 5: Dasher - CSUN 2016 - Ada Majorek and Raquel Romano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFlkM_e-sDg Here's the github repo: Dasher Version 4.11 https://github.com/GNOME/dasher >Dasher is a zooming predictive text entry system, designed for situations where keyboard input is impractical (for instance, accessibility or PDAs). It is usable with highly limited amounts of physical input while still allowing high rates of text entry. Ada referred me to this mind bending prototype: D@sher Prototype - An adaptive, hierarchical radial menu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oSfEM8XpH4 >( http://www.inference.org.uk/dasher ) - a really neat way to "dive" through a menu hierarchy/, or through recursively nested options (to build words, letter by letter, swiftly). D@sher takes Dasher, and gives it a twist, making slightly better use of screen revenue. >It also "learns" your typical useage, making more frequently selected options larger than sibling options. This makes it faster to use, each time you use it. >More information here: http://beznesstime.blogspot.com and here: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=960 Dasher is even a viable way to input text in VR, just by pointing your head, without a special input device! Text Input with Oculus Rift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQgluUwV2U >As part of VR development environment I'm currently writing ( https://github.com/xanxys/construct ), I've implemented dasher ( http://www.inference.org.uk/dasher ) to input text. One important property of Dasher is that you can pre-train it on a corpus of typical text, and dynamically train it while you use it. It learns the patterns of letters and words you use often, and those become bigger and bigger targets that string together so you can select them even more quickly! Ada Majorek has it configured to toggle between English and her native language so she can switch between writing email to her family abroad and co-workers at google. Now think of what you could do with a version of dasher integrated with a programmer's IDE, that knew the syntax of the programming language you're using, as well as the names of all the variables and functions in scope, plus how often they're used! I have a long term pie in the sky “grand plan” about developing a JavaScript based programmable accessibility system I call “aQuery”, like “jQuery” for accessibility. It would be a great way to deeply integrate Dasher with different input devices and applications across platforms, and make them accessible to people with limited motion, as well as users of VR and AR and mobile devices. https://web.archive.org/web/20180826132551/http://donhopkins... Here’s some discussion on hacker news, to which I contributed some comments about Dasher: A History of Palm, Part 1: Before the PalmPilot (lowendmac.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12306377
In AI is currently just glorified compression
Dasher is fantastic, because it's based on rock solid information theory, designed by the late David MacKay. Here is the seminal Google Tech Talk about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpOxbesRNBc Here is a demo of using Dasher by an engineer at Google, Ada Majorek, who has ALS and uses Dasher and a Headmouse to program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHQ83pMLQQ Another one of her demonstrating Dasher: Ada Majorek Introduction - CSUN Dasher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvsSrClBwPM Here’s a more recent presentation about it, that tells all about the latest open source release of Dasher 5: Dasher - CSUN 2016 - Ada Majorek and Raquel Romano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFlkM_e-sDg Here's the github repo: Dasher Version 4.11 https://github.com/GNOME/dasher >Dasher is a zooming predictive text entry system, designed for situations w
Read the rest
here keyboard input is impractical (for instance, accessibility or PDAs). It is usable with highly limited amounts of physical input while still allowing high rates of text entry. Ada referred me to this mind bending prototype: D@sher Prototype - An adaptive, hierarchical radial menu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oSfEM8XpH4 >( http://www.inference.org.uk/dasher ) - a really neat way to "dive" through a menu hierarchy/, or through recursively nested options (to build words, letter by letter, swiftly). D@sher takes Dasher, and gives it a twist, making slightly better use of screen revenue. >It also "learns" your typical useage, making more frequently selected options larger than sibling options. This makes it faster to use, each time you use it. >More information here: http://beznesstime.blogspot.com and here: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=960 Dasher is even a viable way to input text in VR, just by pointing your head, without a special input device! Text Input with Oculus Rift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQgluUwV2U >As part of VR development environment I'm currently writing ( https://github.com/xanxys/construct ), I've implemented dasher ( http://www.inference.org.uk/dasher ) to input text. One important property of Dasher is that you can pre-train it on a corpus of typical text, and dynamically train it while you use it. It learns the patterns of letters and words you use often, and those become bigger and bigger targets that string together so you can select them even more quickly! Ada Majorek has it configured to toggle between English and her native language so she can switch between writing email to her family abroad and co-workers at google. Now think of what you could do with a version of dasher integrated with a programmer's IDE, that knew the syntax of the programming language you're using, as well as the names of all the variables and functions in scope, plus how often they're used! I have a long term pie in the sky “grand plan” about developing a JavaScript based programmable accessibility system I call “aQuery”, like “jQuery” for accessibility. It would be a great way to deeply integrate Dasher with different input devices and applications across platforms, and make them accessible to people with limited motion, as well as users of VR and AR and mobile devices. http://donhopkins.com/mediawiki/index.php/AQuery Here’s some discussion on hacker news, to which I contributed some comments about Dasher: A History of Palm, Part 1: Before the PalmPilot (lowendmac.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12306377
In Pie Menus: A 30-Year Retrospective: Take a Look and Feel Free

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