Active SRS learning.
Probably the most common Open Source SRS learning application is Anki. Anki works well. Stenome is also an application for doing SRS learning, but it has a focus on learning things that involve specialized input devices. It was originally written for learning to use a Steno keyboard (based on information from the Plover Dojo). It has since been aquiring MIDI input support to help learn scales and chord voicings.
The MIDI support is not well documented yet, as it is still under heavy development.
The Plover Dojo is a great way to learn Plover/Steno. However, the Dojo seems to be lacking in support for SRS (spaced repetition), and as more and more words are learned, it is easy to begin to forget perviously learned words.
Stenome attempts to combine the learning aspect of the Dojo with some knowledge of SRS so that what has been learned will not be forgotten.
It incorporates the word lists from the Plover Dojo, and it is probably best to just use the Dojo to learn the keyboard itself.
Stenome is a fairly straightforward Rust application, and should be
buildable with cargo build, or cargo install to install the
binary. It has been tested on MacOS and Linux, and its requirements
are fairly simple, mainly on termion for the raw terminal
functionality.
Unlike the Plover Dojo, Stenome depends on Plover for steno keyboard support. This allows us to support any keyboard supported by Plover, and also avoids us having to duplicate any code.
You will need to disable the translation dictionaries in Plover to be able to run Stenome. Within Plover, select "Configure...", and then the "Dictionary" tag. You should have a user.json dictionary listed, and make sure this is blank. If it is not, create a new dictionary, as removing all dictionaries is not possible in Plover. Once you have this empty user dictionary, remove all other dictionaries. It is easy to restore the dictionaries. Simply remove all dictionaries, and Plover will restore the default set of dictionaries.
The other option that needs to be changed is under "Output", setting the "Space Placement" to "After Output". This is needed for Stenome to be able to know right away when a stroke has finished.
The first time you run Stenome, it will create a learning.json that describes the learning state, with no words see. It will then prompt with the English and wait for you to write this word. You can press Escape at any time to save the current state to learning.json and exit the program.
Otherwise, try to write the word shown. If you don't know how, press something incorrect, and use '*' on the writer to erase it. As soon as you make a mistake, Stenome will show the correct strokes and give you a chance to write the word correctly.
The more you get a word correct, the longer the interval will be before you are asked again. The interval will be shortened if you make mistakes. New words will be introduced when there are no words due to be asked. Over time you should build up a list of words at various intervals. Ideally, regular practice should move a large number of words to long intervals (such as > 1 month), and these words can be considered to be known. Continuing to periodically run stenom will refresh your knowledge of words.