So what do you all think abou Decuma?

[Jeremyf]

Heh, I've had my NX80 for 48 hours now and only 5 minutes ago did I notice Decuma!!! It looks interesting - I've always been a Fitalyvirtual user (which I love!!) - what do you all think - could one really train Decuma so well such that text entry is faster with Decuma than with Grafitti, FitalyVirtual, etc.?

Jeremy

[askjay]

I can really say that my default text input will be Decuma and then the keyboard.
Almost no learning curve, still need some work, but works great. Only hope I can get Decuma to input chinese soon.

[ayasin]

I write mixed cursive and print so decuma is a bit of the same problem as Grafitti but is much better than graffiti2

[Jeremyf]

If you're bored and you want to try something new.... Give Fitalyvirtual a shot - the learning curve is a bit longer than some of the others, but the payoff is well worth it... I can consistently type at 43-46 words per minute using Fitalyvirtual (timed with the WPM program)

Jeremy

[rob_squared]

I am SO much faster on graffiti than decuma. I hate having to tap space or hit the green arrow for the text to be moved to document.

[rob_squared]

Whoops, just realized that writing to the left of the text you wrote automatically puts the previous text up.

[gnlew]

I like the Decuma since it shows the entire word and there is a chance to change the letters if you mispell or recognition errs. This being done without going back up to tap the screen where the errant letter is.

problem is that it is slower for me than the Graffiti since I have become so used to the graffiti.

[hecklerz]

So far, I think it's pretty fun to have. Change is always nice. Seems to work pretty well. I've had some problems with "C"s being turned into "U"s and a couple other easily correctable problems. I think accuracy is better than Graffiti, but it's not much faster for me. Funny thing is, I feel like I'm having to un-learn Graffiti when I use it. These days I'm trying to make myself use the keyboard more (one of the reasons I wanted an NX70), but all in all, Decuma is pretty cool. Thanks again to those that made it possible for us to try it :)

[avega]

I like it, but graffiti is faster.

It´s a 'nice to have and show'

[rob_squared]

After I found the left hand trick, its almost as fast as Graffiti for me now. Still have to get used to i's and d's.

[DISenchanted]

I love it, so much so that I am re-skinning it to match mytho's panthere skin...

DISenchanted

[*YellowRose*]

Originally posted by hecklerz
Change is always nice. Yeah, that's why we all have Sony's . . . lol!

I agree with you though, Decuma is cool, although I'm still faster with Graffiti.

[kp*]

Originally posted by DISenchanted
I love it, so much so that I am re-skinning it to match mytho's panthere skin...

DISenchanted
Please share your skin with us when you're done! I was asking Mytho a while back when he had the only NX73 on the forums, if he would be skinning Decuma, and he said he had to look into it. I'm so attached to his panthere skin, and Decuma is totally clashing with the rest of my skins right now. Thanks for getting to work on skinning!

As for using Decuma, I think it's an interesting idea, and I'm forcing myself to use it as my primary input method to see if I get faster at it. I like being able to correct myself, but the whole process of checking that everything's right and then having to tap the arrow seems to take longer than just writing with Graffiti and fixing the occasional mistake (yes I know about the continuing text when you're still writing, but at the end of it you still have to hit the arrow). The one thing I liked about Graffiti was that you didn't have to look at what you were writing because you didn't have to move the stylus from the same spot. It's like touch-typing. You just keep writing in that box, and you can focus on the words as they appear to make sure you haven't made a mistake. Decuma seems to require more keeping an eye on the writing space.

For now, it seems Decuma would be best for long text, and graffiti is better for short inputs. I hate graffiti2, so if I can get more proficient with Decuma I'll be very happy. If anyone has gotten the hang of it and wants to share any tips of how to get faster with it, please do!

[Eddy]

so far I'm still too used to Graffiti that decuma just isn't efficient when I want to do fast text input, exceptions are when I enter complex Japanese characters, then decuma comes in handy. :)

[cykalan]

Yeah...not too much of use for latin characters i agree...

By the way, i have no f'king idea about what Sony Hong Kong and Singapore is doing, they don't even bother to include Decuma Chinese instead of Decuma Latin in the new NX's. :mad:

[Wolfsmoke]

Originally posted by *YellowRose*
I agree with you though, Decuma is cool, although I'm still faster with Graffiti.

 

Ditto that here!

[jbarr]

One very powerful yet probably overlooked features is Decuma's "Shortcut" feature. It lets you define a "character" and associate it with a phrase. But it's more than that. The "character" doesn't have to be a character at all--it could be a "smile face" or a "heart" or anything that you can quickly enter into the provided graphical "training box". You can define up to 10 "shortcuts."

An application of this that works very well for me is creating an "Initial" shortcut. When I initial something on paper, my initials are three, cursive, run-together letters created all in one stroke. I entered THAT into the Shortcut definition box and associated it with my name as the phrase, and now, all I have to do is "initial" the Decuma screen, and it automatically puts in my full name! Very cool!

[srodsimpson]

I've tried Decuma (English version) and it seems a little slower at recognizing characters and is less forgiving (my handwriting in general is pretty bad) than Jot 2.0. It is pretty entertaining though as it reminds me of the handwriting recognition software I used to use on my old Sony Magic Link (anybody remember those??)

...Rod

[Jeremyf]

Jim that is cool, but honestly, how often do you need to enter your name into your Clie!?

Jeremy

[gnlew]

Hey Rob_Squared,
what is the left hand trick? I may need that since I am lefty as well..

[Alistar]

Well I have combined the best of both worlds. I just trained the decuma alphabet to be the same as grafitti for letters and some slight changes for numbers. So i is still a line and and l is a cursive l. I made some changes for capital letters, but it still practically feels the same. Also some letters had to changed slightly because Decuma doesn't take starting point into account. Then I just used some easy to remember symbols for the special characters.

[srodsimpson]

Alistar,

I guess that's really the point with Decuma, you can make it fit your style for input. And with the keyboard as the other option, I guess it makes sense to take a little time to plot out the best customized use for Decuma. (I haven't given a lot of thought to it yet so thanks for pointing that out!)

...Rod

[(oyo)]

I like it but can't use my TextPlus with it... :(

[NJFP42]

I'm not too thrilled, but...... I just have to relearn the inputs. My writing is atrotious, I combine print and cursive. Decuma isnt' "smart" enough to understand what I really mean!! :) I seem to use my NX in tablet mode the most, and I constantly suprise myself when I open it up and see the keyboard!! DUH!! I'm starting to get pretty quick with my two thumbs!

[avega]

Originally posted by jbarr
One very powerful yet probably overlooked features is Decuma's "Shortcut" feature. It lets you define a "character" and associate it with a phrase. But it's more than that. The "character" doesn't have to be a character at all--it could be a "smile face" or a "heart" or anything that you can quickly enter into the provided graphical "training box". You can define up to 10 "shortcuts."

Yeap, this is really cool, you can define any kind of sign, character or whatever with a maximum of 6 strokes :cool:

[avega]

Originally posted by (oyo)
I like it but can't use my TextPlus with it... :(

Oh yes, I miss that too.  In fact I'm used to graffiti, is faster and more accurate for me.  I'm trying to use decuma and see if I improve my writing skills and speed :D

[rob_squared]

Originally posted by gnlew
Hey Rob_Squared,
what is the left hand trick? I may need that since I am lefty as well..

I think you misunderstood. I'm not a lefty. The "left hand trick" is writing to the left of the little bump on the screen before the words you just wrote. When you do that the text is automatically moved to the screen so that you can write more.

[Joel]

It's pretty cool at first but I always end up using my NX's keyboard... the keyboard for me is still the fastest way to input text.

Right now, the coolest combination I can see would be Clie hires+ T-series form factor with Decuma.

[EdFrmBrighthand]

I'm definitely faster on the keyboard than I am with Decuma or either form of Graffiti. However, I prefer Decuma to Graffiti 2. Decuma is easier to use and, honestly, it's kind of fun. There is a learning curve, though not a big one.

BTW, I'm writing this on an NX80V... with the keyboard. :)

[imadrin]

I agree, it's fun but not as quick or efficient as the keyboard (or graffiti for some).

i had a little trouble with bs at first, plus i would edit an o into a d by adding a line to it... took me a while to realize you need to rewrite the entire character.

certainly a very nice option for new users. sadly, it's still not as adnaced as text recognition on a newton.

[networker]

OK. Those that have tried Decuma: Can you tell me how to produce menu commands using it? I mean if delete is /D in grafiiti for this application how do you write it in Decuma?

If it is not available in any form this is a great loss while using Decuma. I think it is good for a lot of typing but Graffiti is better for application management. Loss of soft buttons in Decuma silk is another problem.

[yoopermjm]

Well I got so disgusted with Decuma after two days that I deleted it off my nx70.  Now after reading these posts, I might have to put it back on!  I didn't like the fact that you have to get a whole  new screen to do numbers.  That is a major drawback when you're writing a note with an address or phone number in the middle of a sentence. 

[Kaitou]

Actualy you don't, you can do numbers,most symbols (@, $, %, etc) on the regular text screen.

[avega]

right, it's tricky, but you can do regular numbers in the text screen, the most difficult for me was '5'

[kp*]

Originally posted by avega
right, it's tricky, but you can do regular numbers in the text screen, the most difficult for me was '5'
The "5" and "S" is tricky, but I taught it the graffiti 5 (without the top horizontal stroke), and if I'm halfway careful with my writing, it knows the difference. The biggest number/letter problem for me is 1. I give it the little top angled thing to separate it from an I or L, but then it sometimes comes out as a 7. And I now make my 7's with that middle horizontal stroke, but sometimes Decuma still thinks an angled 1 is a 7. I think it has its built-in shapes, and even if you retrain it, it will still think it knows what those shapes are. Like you could teach it that a picture of an elephant is the letter A, but if you wrote a regular A, it would still know what you mean. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, but I think it's mostly a bad thing. I've been trying to teach it the difference between a and u, but no matter how different the shapes that I teach it, it still remembers that its built-in u looks a bit like my a if I'm lazy and don't fully close the top. Anybody else bothered by this?

[FrankG]

Well it took a bit to unlearn Graffiti and train Decuma for some problem letters and characters. (small "a" in particular!) After that I think it's been one of the more exciting apps I've loaded in awhile. I like that I can move from left to right as I write; staying in the same spot character by character with Graffiti never seemed natural. I think I've become more speedy and accurate than I ever got with Graffiti. I never could write serious e-mail or notes before Decuma without a [real] keyboard. With Decuma, I am able to opine on.

Bummer that it seems to have a major conflict with memhack though.

Frank

[euroclie]

Originally posted by networker
OK. Those that have tried Decuma: Can you tell me how to produce menu commands using it? I mean if delete is /D in grafiiti for this application how do you write it in Decuma?

This can be tricky but it works: you have to do the normal "command" stroke (diagonal stroke starting bottom-left and ending top-right), but you have to make a longer stroke so that the end of the stroke is above the virtual graffiti area (i.e. in the "normal" 320x320 screen). This popup the command bar, and then you have to write the required command ("D" in your example) followed by a tap on the green arrow pointing to the right, to send the entered letter to the command bar.

The most annoying thing for me with Decuma is that I had to give up using swipes to activate McPhling, as it somehow interfered with Decuma: whenever i wrote anything in Decuma in the part of the VG area where the Home button normally is, it would take me to the launcher. By chance McPhling can be activated via a hardware button! ;)

Now if only I could find a way to activate my calculator program (RPN Popup Calculator) when Decuma is active... :(

[Kaitou]

I'm greatly enjoying Decuma, except for one thing. the uppercase "I"
What are the easiest ways you found to get Decuma to recognize it?

[jebrito]

I love Decuma, but i have experienced a problem when typing some letters it shuts off and take me to the launcher, have you experienced that?

[euroclie]

Originally posted by jebrito
I love Decuma, but i have experienced a problem when typing some letters it shuts off and take me to the launcher, have you experienced that?

Do you have McPhling enabled on your Clié? I did, with a Home->Screen stroke to activate it, and a Home->Graffiti stroke to switch back to the previous application, and whenever I entered a letter starting on the left part of Decuma's area, where the home button normally lies, I would go back to the launcher even if the stroke was not one of the two mentionned just above...
Deactivating McPhling swipes (using hardware buttons instead) fixed this.

[jebrito]

it works!!
Thank you very much!

[ddsmith]

Decuma is growing on me. I'm getting faster than grafitti.

[Unregistered]

I love Decuma! Its great to make the program learn your writing style and now very easy and fast to write anything. As for that 'I' well for me, draw a Vertical line, then 2 horizantal lines, top and bottom, don't see how that is a hard one, i think the one that got me a bit was 'e' and sometimes get recognize as an 'o'. I used to write with the NZ90 keyboard but now writing more and more with Decuma.

[ElginCon]

I have the NX60 and Decuma likes to call a fatal exception error when I try to personalize the input. Any ideas? Everything else works like a charm and it's 100% better than normal graffiti. Make this the default input on Palm devices and they'd fly off the shelves.

[evaoni]

I'm gonna try to use Decuma more...hopefully it'll help me with writing on regular paper as well...

[srodsimpson]

ElginCon,

I haven't verified it, but I think you may have to make sure the decuma VG is enabled before you run the customization program. The last couple of times I had to reset when I used the Decuma app I had the normal VG invoked.

...Rod

[n2ifp]

So far I haven't spotted that issue yet, then again, our Clies are always subject to little gremlins, here and there ;)

Is this on an NX80 or the NX70?

I am using the NX70.

[katlenski]

I have the same problem, even with Decuma selected as input. I'm running a NX70v. I tried a hard reset (everything backed onto MS). I'll let you know if that works.

[katlenski]

Nope, still get a fatal reset when I try to personalize characters. Aargh! It was working a couple of days ago. I wonder if there's some sort of software incompatibility.

Any ideas, people?

[katlenski]

Must be a software problem because I just did another hard reset, and this time I didn't restore my backup from the card.

When I tried Decuma with just the Clie factory settings, it worked fine. Hmm, I'll experiment a bit with the different programs I had installed and let you all know if I can figure anything out.

[katlenski]

I reenabled Flash, and got a fatal error when I tried to personalize Decuma. Anyone got any of these programs installed that you think may be causing the problem?

AcidSolitaire
Agendus
BackupMan
Bonsai
BThriller
Bubbles
BugMe
Checkbook
Cleanup
CodeDiver
DateMate
FloChart
Kinu-maru
McFile
McPhling
Okey
PhotoSkin
Ricon
Sat. Forms
Slap
TnSilkChanger
Uninstall
Wassup
WonderSilk
WordSmith
WPDiver
WonderSilk skins
ZLManager
ZLauncher (please no!)
Zreader Lite

[n2ifp]

I would suspect the following first: CodeDiver, Cleanup, McPhling, and any of the skin changers. I have no idea what WPDiver is??

I use ZL and have no problem. You want to look at apps that hooks into the OS, even when they are not running.

Of course you could always add back one app at a time. You could just ignor it too and make sure the Decuma input is active before using the parent application.

[katlenski]

Well, I give up. n2ifp, I deleted all the programs mentioned above, did another hard reset (so that this time there was nothing at all in Flash), and I got a fatal reset after just installing JackFlash, before I ever restored any of the apps I mentioned previously.

I then installed Decuma to a factory-set Clie NX70v (did yet another hard reset, nothing in Flash), then personalized my whole Decuma alphabet. I then restored my handheld using Backup Man. Everything was fine until I just *looked* at the personalization menu on Decuma to see if my settings were still there. It caused a fatal reset, and (I've *never* seen this before), when it came back on, it was back to factory condition. No third-party apps, no Decuma. An unintended hard reset? I'm not taking that chance again!

[ElginCon]

Well, I can create custom characters/shorcuts but I can't customize the alphabet. Maybe it's just a quirk of running it on a platform it wasn't intended for =P Not that the regular decuma recognition isn't great, I (like just about everyone else) mix the cursive and print, espically in lowercase letters (f,j,y,g,r, etc).

Maybe someone will figure it out - I'll keep trying!