muVietChu

Dan Mailman

2026-04-14

muLex/muVietChu Demo

muVietChu

Overview

muVietChu extends the duration-based ideas of muTeclas and muLetras to Vietnamese input. Because Vietnamese combines tone distinctions with phonemic vowel-shape distinctions, however, the interaction is no longer a simple one-to-one replacement. A short press yields the ordinary QWERTY character, while a long press on a Vietnamese-sensitive home key opens the next relevant choice grid.

The home display below uses a strict 4-by-8 count. The upper-left cell shows muVietChu, a begins immediately to its right, the alphabet proceeds left-to-right and then top-to-bottom, and the lower-right corner remains reserved for a future options function. Secondary and tertiary grids act as transient choice layers: terminal selections emit the resolved Vietnamese character and return to the home grid on release.

Home key	a	e	i	o	u	y	d
Long-press display	{aăâ}	{eê}	{ìỉĩíị}	{oôơ}	{uư}	{ỳỷỹýỵ}	{đ}

On the family pages, the current demo uses Telex-style selectors: tone choices follow f r x s j, and phonemic branches use the conventional Telex letters such as a, e, o, and w where needed.

This browser demo now prototypes all live vowel families together with d/đ. For now, family ordering follows Vũ Xuân Lương’s Vietnamese Sorting Rules for Dictionary Entries, and the selector layer follows a provisional Telex-oriented design while the dissertation is still in progress.

Interactive Demo

Long-press QWERTY to open muVietChu families, then resolve them with Telex-style selector keys.

Demo inactive. Click the typing area or the grid to begin.

To Demonstrate muVietChu Functionality

• Tap a versus longpress a to compare direct input with the opening of the {aăâ} family.
• Longpress a, then tap f, r, x, s, or j to compare the tone-marked plain-a outputs.
• Longpress a, then longpress w, then tap s to get ắ; longpress a, then longpress a, then tap j to get ậ.
• Compare shortpress and longpress on d to see the direct d/đ contrast.

Display

4 x 8 home grid

The blank trailing cells are placeholders only. They do nothing in this draft.

Typing Area

Resolved output

Characters are inserted at the caret. Shortpress yields the direct output; longpress opens the next family when one exists, or resolves the Vietnamese character directly when the cell is terminal.

Behind the Scenes

Current layout

4 x 8 home

Pending item

none

Duration

0 ms

Display state

idle

Selected

(empty)

Last action

none

Last emitted

none

Interaction Model

Older methods for entering Vietnamese characters often rely on invisible IME state, memorized selector sequences, or software that assumes the user already knows how tone and vowel-shape distinctions will combine. These approaches can work well for expert users, but they make the structure of the composition process difficult to see while a character is still being formed.

muVietChu proposes a different teaching strategy. The first grid keeps the alphabet stable and visible. A short press on a home-grid cell yields the ordinary character shown in black. A long press on a Vietnamese-sensitive cell opens the next relevant family, so the interface reveals only the next necessary distinctions rather than the full inventory all at once.

The interaction therefore remains duration-based, as in muTeclas and muLetras, but the mapping is branching rather than one-to-one. On a family page, a short press may choose a tone-marked plain vowel, while a short press on a non-plain vowel cell yields the unmarked phonemic variant and a long press opens the next transient tone page when one is needed.

Each cell also acts as a live state display. While a key or mouse press remains below threshold, the cell previews the short-press outcome. Once the threshold is crossed, the same cell changes to preview the long-press outcome. Terminal cells repeat the resolved Vietnamese character while held and return to the home grid on release, so the overall rhythm remains oriented toward ordinary running text.

The same logic applies across keyboard and mouse input. Press duration on a cell parallels key-down duration, and uppercase intent can be carried by Shift, Caps Lock, or the mouse-button conventions now being tested in the demo. In this way, the display serves as both control surface and explanatory diagram.

Dissertation Context

In dissertation terms, muVietChu extends the argument from muTeclas and muLetras into a case where the target language cannot be handled by a single one-to-one replacement layer. Vietnamese requires both tone distinctions and phonemic vowel-shape distinctions, so it is a stronger test of whether a gesture-efficient IME can remain visually legible while the user is still learning it.

The present browser demo is therefore useful not only as a functional prototype but also as an explanatory figure. It shows how a compact home grid, transient family layers, Telex-style follow-up selectors, and automatic return to home can make a branching Vietnamese composition process visible rather than hidden inside the IME engine.

Because this is still a browser demo rather than a finished system IME, its main value for the dissertation is conceptual clarity. It allows the dissertation to show that the same duration-based design logic can scale from simple one-step mappings to more complex multi-stage mappings without collapsing back into opaque mode switching or memorized dead-key behavior.

Current Design Notes

• The home grid remains 4 rows of 8 cells, with a immediately to the right of the name cell and options reserved in the lower-right corner.
• All vowel families are live in this round: a, e, i, o, u, and y, with secondary and tertiary pages where needed.
• The current selector layer is Telex-oriented: tones follow f r x s j, and the phonemic branches use the customary Telex letters where available.
• Any terminal selection returns to the home grid on release, so the family pages behave as transient choice layers for running text.
• The live family ordering follows the lexicographic sequence from Vũ Xuân Lương rather than the older acute-priority teaching notes.
• The unused cells before options are intentionally left blank in this draft.