gdwaynewarner
commented
6 years ago This is a good idea. For new users that have never had Plover on their system, perhaps a window that appears when they start Plover for the first time, checks to see if there's a USB-serial adapter connected, and from there, instructs the user on what to do next.
As far as dictionaries go, if the user is completely new to steno, the question for that would be is this new user attending a school that requires a specific theory, and if so, does the student have that dictionary handy.
If the dictionary is available, open a window for the user to locate their dictionary of choice.
When the digitalCAT dictionary plugin is working (there's a bug preventing me from testing it right now), Stenovations has several dictionaries available on their download page (https://www.stenovations.com/support/downloads), but unfortunately, some of those are named for the person that uploaded them ("Thyra Ellis") or the school ("Cuyahoga Community College," which is actually The Moody Method theory, I discovered the other day).
... and, of course, the Way Back Machine has more (https://web.archive.org/web/20140119140741/https://www.stenovations.com/support/downloads).
My fellow Mac users might need to install Wine (http://winebottler.kronenberg.org) to use those dictionaries, because the files are Windows .exe files ... and the procedure for that would be to start Wine (the first time), and then double-click the file, and (hopefully) click the File Navigation tool, and place the file in the appropriate folder.
Sorry about the book, Ted!
marnen
user202729
Summary
Configuring the steno machine right now can be difficult, especially since the connection state to the serial port doesn't actually guarantee that a steno machine is connected. Having a wizard to guide the user through the process by focusing on information that they know (their machine model, connection type, having them plug/unplug to determine the serial port) would save a lot of headaches.