# HackHaste mnemonics (left) *Expedited Typing Across* **OS***es* *Integrated Natively Salvaging Home Rows* ![HackHaste](../source/visuals/hackhaste-hh-logo.png) Version **0.2**. MIT License. Dr. Marcus Roe, [drm.cc](https://drm.cc/). This is the memory-palace of the **left-handed** map: a geometric hand-swap, not an auto-mirror. The consonant engine sits under the left home row `N T S R H`; the vowel choir sits under the right `O E A I U Y`. The extra home pinky is **Y**. The right-handed pamphlet is [MNEMONICS.md](MNEMONICS.md). The porch that explains *why* these hands exist is [README.md](../README.md). The tutors that will drill the phrases live in [LEARNING.md](LEARNING.md). The phrases are the same sentences as the main pamphlet, because the *roles* swapped with the hands. What was the right pinky’s `No Problem` is now the left pinky’s. What was the left index’s Egg and goose is now the right index’s. You do not learn a second religion. You learn the same religion in the other church. A mnemonic here is a sentence that already contains the keys, in the order the finger meets them, so that when the sentence is true in the mouth it is true on the board. You do not first learn a letter and then a story. You learn a **role**, and the letters are what that role does. > What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee. > > - Marcus Aurelius, *Meditations* 6.54 Home, left pinky to right pinky: ``` `~ x v z q w ; 1! 2@ 3# 4$ 5% 6^ Backspace Tab P G C L k - 7& 8* 9( 0) [{ ]} \ L-Ctrl N T S R h o E A I U y Enter pnky ring midl indx indx midl ring pnky Shift F B D M j =+ ' , . / Shift Caps Meta Alt SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE Alt R-Ctrl (etc) ``` Ctrl+X V Z C keep their physical keys: the pack that cuts, pastes, undoes, and copies does not move. Q is the attic extra above L. Grave stays home in the corner. Brackets live on the physical bracket keys, after 0. Semicolon sits on physical 6. Physical Caps is **Control**. Physical Left Ctrl is **Caps**. On Macintosh and NeXT, that pinky modifier is **Command** (Control stays in the corner). Shortcuts follow the letter. AltGr follows the letter. --- ## How to practise This is a vocal memorisation drill, not a ritual. Say the phrase *aloud* once, looking. Repeat it, not looking. Then type only the letters the phrase names, still saying it. Then type English that uses those letters, and stop saying it. The phrase is scaffolding. The syllables constructed are the buildings and cities. Each finger has **one phrase**. The phrase names every letter and digit that finger owns, in a sentence you can actually remember. The work is repetition. The left map is not a mirror. If you try to invert the main board in your head you will invent keys that are not there. Trust the phrases. They already contain the swap. --- ## Left pinky - N, P, F, X **Phrase:** `No Problem, Friend.` The weakest finger of the engine hand is given work that is real and not tyrannical. The nasal, its modest partner, and F downstairs - the old right-pinky home of the main pamphlet - now live here, because this is a geometric swap of *roles*, not a cute reflection of letters. Home **N**. Up **P**. Down **F**. The number-row attic of this same finger is **X**, first of the rare pack that still sits with Ctrl+X. Physical/QWERTY Caps, under this same pinky, is **Control**. We need no key that shouts so close. We need a key that *commands*. | When you want | You strike | | ------------- | ---------- | | n, N | home | | p, P | up | | f, F | down | | x, X | number row | | `, ~ | corner | | Control | old Caps | **Lesson words** (this finger plus space): `n`, later `no`, `on`, `in`, `pan`, `pen`, `fun`, `fin`. The point of the first day is not vocabulary. It is that **N lives at home under the left pinky**, and **P** is the same finger standing up, as a man stands up from a chair without leaving his place. Say it: *No Problem, Friend!* The mouth already contains `N`, `P`, `F`. Grave and Tilde live in the attic of the same house: you know where the attic is because you know the house. Type `x` as a cut you have not yet made. The rest of the main pinky sentence (`You're Welcome… Xeno Zenith Questions`) is split on this map: *Welcome* and the later rares belong to other fingers now. This finger kept the job that was *no*, *problem*, *friend*. --- ## Left ring - T, G, B, V **Phrase:** `VeGeTaBle.` T is still a specialist, still on a ring finger, now the left one. Home **T**. Up **G**. Down **B**. The number-row of this finger is **V**, so the vegetable is at last allowed to mean V *on this map*. (On the main board V was a pinky stretch and the phrase was a memory. Here V is honestly this finger’s attic.) T is the commonest consonant; it deserves a dedicated finger that does not also carry a vowel. That was true on the right ring. It is still true on the left. | When you want | You strike | | ------------- | ---------- | | t, T | home | | g, G | up | | b, B | down | | v, V | number row | **Lesson words:** `t`, `tt`, later `to` waits for O, `the` waits for H and E. Type `gt`, `bt`, `veg`, `bag`, `bet`. Type `V`. Ctrl+V lives here, on physical C’s neighbour, still paste. Type `gt` as a start, `tb` as a stumble you will not need often. --- ## Left middle - S, C, D, Z **Phrase:** `Stay Calm, Dude.` C sits directly above S: a same-finger pair. S is a consonant that bumps against nearly everything, and so it was placed next to the fewest others on the home row. SC happens; CS almost never. D one row down is still a neighbour of S at the turn of a plural. The hiss, the affricate, and the past tense. Now they live on the left middle. The number-row of this finger is **Z**. Ctrl+Z undoes from here. The pair did not change its manners by changing hands. Home **S**. Up **C**. Down **D**. | When you want | You strike | | ------------- | ---------- | | s, S | home | | c, C | up | | d, D | down | | z, Z | number row | **Lesson words:** `s`, `ss`, later `sad`, `cad`, `scad`, `dude`, `stay`, `calm`. Type `sc`, never practising `cs` as if it were a citizen. It is a tourist. Type `z` as an undo you are not ashamed of. Ctrl+C lives on physical E, because shortcuts follow the letter C, and C did not move. The phrase does not mention E. The letter does. --- ## Left index - R H, L K, M J, minus, Q, W, semicolon **Phrase:** `Realise oLd "HoMe" was Just a Kite.` H still does not move off a Hill that was already in the right place; it merely changes *which* index owns the hill. Mountain, too, stays as righteously homed. H and R are the rough and the wash. English *th*, *her*, *the*, *there*, *which*; the index finger of the engine hand is in those words like a modern hammer that holds the next nail for you before you set it. Home **R** and **H**. Up **L** and **K**. Down **M** and **J**. Outward on the letter row, **minus** / **underscore** - the coding actuator that the main map put on the vowel index now sits on this consonant index, because the swap gave this hand the clusters *and* a strip of the suit. Above L, **Q**. Beside Q on the number row, **W** and **semicolon** / **colon**. The kite is intact: R, L, H, M, J, K. Q is the attic extra the swap had to put *somewhere* that was not X V Z C. W took the old bracket’s extra-home. Semicolon took physical 6. Brackets themselves went home to the physical bracket keys, after 0, on the vowel hand. | When you want | You strike | | ------------- | ------------------- | | r, R | home, inward | | h, H | home, outward | | l, L | up, inward | | k, K | up, outward | | m, M | down, inward | | j, J | down, outward | | -, _ | letter row, outer | | q, Q | number row, above L | | w, W | number row, next | | ; : | number row, next | **Lesson words:** `her`, `hr` as a breath and a liquid, `old`, `home`, `just`, `kite`, `realise`, `q`, `w`. The phrase is already a sentence in English. Type it. That is the lesson. Type `r-h` as a pair. Type `;` as the C-suite stop on the number row, which is odd until it is not: this hand already owned the clusters; it can own a stop that code uses between them. H stays where English put it; R is the liquid in Latinate verbs and Germanic gravity. J is rare enough to live downstairs. K and L are the commoner upstairs neighbours, not common enough to evict H and R. --- ## Right index - O E, 7, 4 5, equals, quote **Phrase:** `So divide the Egg to subtract the gO0se and equate it with dirt.` The strong finger of the vowel hand. Home **O** and **E** (E is the heaviest letter in the language; O is not far behind). Letter-row **7** / **&** sits on physical U, this same index standing up. Number row **4** / **$** and **5** / **%**. Down: **equals** / **plus**, and **apostrophe** / **quote**. Quote travels with this index on the left map (physical M). For Pythagoras four was composed of ten elements, as per his tetractys. The two heaviest vowels and a strip of the girding of code, on the strongest vowel finger. Dirt still waits for D (left middle). Divide `/` lives on the right pinky downstairs. Subtract `-` already went to the left index. The phrase is still the *role*: two heavy vowels, a seven, an equal. The downstairs neighbours moved a little, as geometric swaps do. Do not invent a mirror. Type E and O at home on the right index until the phrase is true in the hand. | When you want | You strike | | ------------- | ------------------- | | o, O | home, inward | | e, E | home, outward | | 7, & | up (letter row) | | 4, $ | number row, inward | | 5, % | number row, outward | | =, + | down, outer | | ', " | down, next column | **Lesson words:** `o`, `e`, `ee`, `oo`, later `the`, `to`, `of`, `one`, `her`. Type `7`. Type `4+5=`. Type `e's` and `o's` once S is willing. Type `e-o` as a subtraction of vowels and you will have to reach to the other index for the minus, which is the joke of the swap, and also the lesson. *So divide the Egg to subtract the gO0se and equate it with dirt.* The mouth still contains `/`, `E`, `-`, `O`, `0`, `=`, even though `/`, `-`, and `0` have taken other chairs at the same table. The index does not need D to know what it is *for*. --- ## Right middle - A, 8, comma, 2, @ **Phrase:** `ANTHONY EIGHT @ TWO COMMAS.` Imagine a fine restaurant. The diner is A, not I. I sits at the next table (the ring). A close-enough open vowel, a digit that looks like a vowel if you squint, the messenger *at*, the number two, and the comma that keeps a list from becoming a pile. Home **A**. Up **8** / . Down **comma** / **less-than**. Number row **2** / **@**. The middle finger now does what a middle finger of the vowel hand does in speech: it opens. English lists (`red, white, and blue`) and English vocatives (`yes, sir`) live here. So does `@`, which is not a letter and not quite a digit, and therefore belongs with the vowel hand’s mechanical suit, not with the consonant clusters. | When you want | You strike | | ------------- | ---------- | | a, A | home | | 8, * | up | | , < | down | | 2, @ | number row | **Lesson words:** `a`, `aa`, later `as`, `at`, `an`, `aha`. Type `8`, `@`, `2`, `,` as themselves. Type `Anthony ate at 2, 8.` once you have E, T. Until then, type the phrase’s skeleton: `a 8 @ 2 , ,` The two commas are not a joke at the language’s expense. A middle finger that owns **A** and **comma** owns the *article* of a clause and the *pause* of a clause. That is one job. --- ## Right ring - I, 9, period, 3, hash **Phrase:** `I am the THIRD period of the NINTH degree.` I is the close vowel, now on the right ring. The period is the open air after a sentence. Putting the full stop on the vowel hand is still logical. **Most English words end in a consonant**: T, N, S, D, R especially, all of them *left*-hand letters here. If the period lived among those consonants, every sentence would end with two left-hand strokes and a little stumble. The vowel hand that gave the syllable breath also ends the sentence. Home **I**. Up **9** / **(**. Down **period** / **greater-than**. Number row **3** / **#**. Nine and three are the same family: a triangle, a trinity, a period of a degree. Hash is the programmer’s third-person: `#include`, `# comment`, `#`. Parenthesis-open lives on 9, so the ring finger that identifies a vowel also opens a group. | When you want | You strike | | ------------- | ---------- | | i, I | home | | 9, ( | up | | . > | down | | 3, # | number row | **Lesson words:** `i`, later `is`, `it`, `in`, `if`. Type `3.9` and `9.3`. Type `I.` as a sentence of one letter, because that is what a period is *for*. Together with the middle finger you already own `i, a.` - identification, article, stop. --- ## Right pinky - U Y, 0, 6, slash, brackets, 1 **Phrase:** `YOU, 10 brackets, slash?` The weakest finger of the vowel hand owns **U** and extra-home **Y**. Letter-row **0** / **)**. Number-row **6** / **^** and **1** / **!** on the far walk of the digits. Down **slash** / **question**. Brackets `[` `{` `]` `}` sit on physical `[` `]`, this same pinky’s letter-row end. Seven itself (`7`) already sat on the index. Quote (`'`) sat on the index downstairs. The original `SEVEN-Up to quote the ONE!` is therefore split, as geometric swaps split a suitcase. Do not force the old suitcase shut. Use the finger’s actual keys. Y and U are the phrase’s first word. `10` is 1 and 0. Brackets are the block. Slash-question is downstairs. Grave stays the left-pinky corner, as a house stays a house. | When you want | You strike | | ------------- | -------------- | | u, U | home, inward | | y, Y | home, outward | | 0, ) | up, letter row | | [, { | up, physical [ | | ], } | up, physical ] | | , | | | /, ? | down | | 6, ^ | number row | | 1, ! | number row far | **Lesson words:** `u`, `y`, `you`, `us` waits for S. Type `10`, `[]`, `/`. Type `YOU?` Type `uuu`, then with later fingers `us`, `out`, `but`. Parentheses belong to **90**. Square brackets belong to the physical bracket keys. Angle brackets `<` `>` are comma and period shifted: they belong to middle and ring, the same fingers that pause and stop. That is the whole punctuation doctrine of the vowel hand on this map: **pause, stop, group, index, assign** - merely seated in other chairs. Vim’s arrows are reversed but present. Emacs’s `C-b` `C-f` `C-n` `C-p` follow the *letters*, so they have moved with B, F, N, P. Both editors remain oriented. That is not an accident of the pinky. It is a consequence of following the letter. --- ## The engine, then the choir The main pamphlet taught choir first, because the left hand was the nucleus. Here the left hand is the clusters. Start with what is under your stronger old habits if you are left-handed: the engine. Before you own every attic key, you own the pulse. **Day of the engine.** Left home only: `n t s r h`. Type `th`, `st`, `nt`, `ns`, `rt`, `rs`, `tr`, `sh`. Type `nth`. Type `hrs`. These drills were not invented by some maniac calling himself a tutor. They are just English as is. **Day of the choir.** Right home: `o e a i u y`. Type `aeiouy` backward. Type `'I. a,'` then type `O, you?` . Play with the vowels. Add consonants like telephone poles flying past on the road. **Day of the syllable.** Both homes. Type `the`, `to`, `a`, `in`, `is`, `it`, `and`, `on`, `as`, `at`, `or`, `an`, `he`, `her`, `she`, `not`, `one`, `our`, `out`, `so`, `no`, `yes`. Y is already home. Three quarters of the letters will not have left home. **Day of the pack.** X V Z C never moved. Type `c`, `x`, `v`, `z` as the four horsemen of the editor: copy, cut, paste, undo. Q above L: type `q` as a quiz you pay once. W on physical 5: type `w` as *welcome* without stealing the pack’s neighbours. **Day of the stops.** Add comma, period, apostrophe, slash. Type `it is not, is it?` Type `I can't.` Type `the son's.` The vowel hand ends the sentence and owns the possession. That is poetry of form. `i,i,i,i,i.a.a.a.a.a.u'u'u'u'u'u'u'` repeat x10. That is poetry of rote and physical memory. **Day of the digits.** `7 8 9 0` on the vowel letter row, `1 2 3 4 5 6` walking the right of the number row. Type `2026`, `8080`, `443`, `127.0.0.1` once period is willing. The engine hand rests, so let it. Rest is important to speed. **Day of the suit.** `-` `_` `=` `+` `/` `()` `[]`. Type `f(x)=0`, when X and F have become your friends. Type `a[i]=0`. Type `--help`. Minus is the left index; equal is the right index; slash is the right pinky. The tools still attach. They merely changed hands. **Day of the clusters’ upstairs.** They are already the left hand. `Stay Calm, Dude.` `VeGeTaBle.` `Realise oLd "HoMe" was Just a Kite.` Type those three sentences. **Day of the rare.** `No Problem, Friend.` then `YOU, 10 brackets, slash?` Type them once. Then go back to *the*. The attic is for *quiz*, not for *the*. --- ## A table of every printing key (left) | Physical QWERTY | HackHaste Left | Finger | Phrase it belongs to | | --------------- | -------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------------- | | | ~ | L pinky | No Problem, Friend. (attic of the same house) | | 1 | x X | L pinky | No Problem, Friend. | | 2 | v V | L ring | VeGeTaBle. | | 3 | z Z | L middle | Stay Calm, Dude. | | 4 | q Q | L index | Realise oLd "HoMe" was Just a Kite. | | 5 | w W | L index | Realise oLd "HoMe" was Just a Kite. | | 6 | ; : | L index | Realise oLd "HoMe" was Just a Kite. | | 7 | 1 ! | R pinky | YOU, 10 brackets, slash? | | 8 | 2 @ | R middle | A EIGHT @ TWO COMMAS. | | 9 | 3 # | R ring | I, a THIRD period of the NINTH degree. | | 0 | 4 $ | R index | So divide the Egg… | | - | 5 % | R index | So divide the Egg… | | = | 6 ^ | R pinky | YOU, 10 brackets, slash? | | Q | p P | L pinky | No Problem | | W | g G | L ring | VeGeTaBle. | | E | c C | L middle | Stay Calm, Dude. | | R | l L | L index | Realise oLd "HoMe" was Just a Kite. | | T | k K | L index | Realise oLd "HoMe" was Just a Kite. | | Y | - _ | L index | subtract | | U | 7 & | R index | So divide the Egg… (gO0se) | | I | 8 * | R middle | A EIGHT @ TWO COMMAS. | | O | 9 ( | R ring | I, a THIRD period of the NINTH degree. | | P | 0 ) | R pinky | YOU, 10 brackets, slash? | | [ | [ { | R pinky | YOU, 10 brackets, slash? | | ] | ] } | R pinky | YOU, 10 brackets, slash? | | | | | R pinky | | A | n N | L pinky | No Problem | | S | t T | L ring | VeGe**T**aBle | | D | s S | L middle | Stay | | F | r R | L index | Realise | | G | h H | L index | HoMe | | H | o O | R index | gO0se | | J | e E | R index | Egg | | K | a A | R middle | A EIGHT @ TWO COMMAS. | | L | i I | R ring | I, a THIRD period of the NINTH degree. | | ; | u U | R pinky | YOU | | ' | y Y | R pinky | YOU | | Z | f F | L pinky | Friend | | X | b B | L ring | VeGeTa**B**le | | C | d D | L middle | Dude | | V | m M | L index | Ho**M**e | | B | j J | L index | Just | | N | = + | R index | equate | | M | ' " | R index | quote | | , | , < | R middle | COMMAS | | . | . > | R ring | period | | / | / ? | R pinky | slash? | Space is both thumbs. Enter is the right pinky’s long key. Tab is the left pinky’s long key. Backspace is the right pinky’s long key on the number row. None of these need a phrase. They already had jobs. --- ## Three sentences that contain the left map Type these until they are not clever: 1. `No Problem, Friend.` 2. `Stay Calm, Dude.` 3. `VeGeTaBle.` 4. `Realise oLd "HoMe" was Just a Kite.` 5. `A EIGHT @ TWO COMMAS.` 6. `I, a THIRD period of the NINTH degree.` 7. `So divide the Egg to subtract the gO0se and equate it with dirt.` 8. `YOU, 10 brackets, slash?` When those eight can be typed in the dark on the left board, you do not need this file. You need English, and a compiler. The swap was never the doctrine. The syllable was. --- ## Against looking > It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows. > > - Epictetus, *Discourses* 2.17 HackHaste puts the nucleus in one hand and the clusters in the other. If you look, you will learn a map. If you repeat the phrases aloud, you will learn a **role**. Roles survive looking away, the map only assists in this. The tutor files for applications in this folder will not say the phrases for you. They will only ask for the letters. Say the phrase yourself until the finger is insulted to be reminded, rinse and repeat.