Alex,
Already printed your cheat sheet and been studying it some. Plus tried using a spare cordless phone with the battery removed because it seemed like it could be about the right fit and gives me a 3x4 grid of buttons. But decided without feedback, I might teach myself some muscle memory I'd have to undo so decided to wait for device. I ordered last week but don't even have the shipping notice yet, so not sure when it will come. Just trying to get my ducks in a row for when it does.
Wish I had found this earlier. I had first heard of the Tap strap during its crowdfunding stage -- long ago -- and it kept getting delayed. Finally got that a week or so ago and found that while it may work OK for generic text entry on a phone, it was far too limited to use as a laptop replacement. Especially in IDEs or anywhere you needed a keyboard modifier other than Shift.
I was looking online for what to do about that when I found Twiddler 3, and your story in particular gives me much hope for this. The Tap is sadly limited to 31 combinations it can detect, though one of those is "switch" to swap to another set (like numbers and punctuation) and it is surprising good at treating a few specific quickly repeated combinations as an alternate character.
But it can't (yet?) be customized, and can't begin to touch the possibilities of a 3x4 grid plus some dedicated modifier keys. So I'd have to use things like Typinator or Better Touch Tool for even things like keying { } in source code. I expect to be way ahead of the game with Twiddler 3, at least for my usage. If all I did was type text and never need things like Cmd or other modifiers, the Tap strap might be fine,
I do plan on ignoring MCCs until I have the basic alphabet learned. And I've read the posts about how visual feedback can actually make you slower. (Interesting!) But while trying to air practice using a phone handset, decided I probably should not do that yet until I've started muscle memory training when I can ensure I am doing it correctly.
Although I also did that for months while waiting for the Tap strap, and correctly knew the whole alphabet before I ever put it on the first time. But they also had training videos online that introduced a few characters at a time, with simple memory aids. The Backspice2 cheatsheet on my desk helps, but I am probably going to make myself a copy with only the letters and the most common punctuation. It is hard to glance at now and find a specific character.
Doug