Reporting from SBL - CARG

The CARG (Computer Assisted Research Group) session was disappointingly poorly attended today. John Schwandt from BiblicalGreek.org talked about his frustrations with inputting polytonic Unicode Greek. Some issues we face:

• What basic keyboard layout to use: Some of us have the NotaBene or Bible Windows or other system we've long used and don't want to change. Main issues are where to map chi, psi, xi, and upsilon. Schwandt would like to encourage use of the Greek national keyboard. (Personally, I've become pretty accustomed to the layout I learned when using NotaBene and Bible Windows.)
• A bigger problem is with the application of diacritical marks. The Tyndale kit is nice because it rather easily installs the Cardo font and a Greek polytonic keyboard, but I share Schwant's frustration with that and similar keyboards that require one to type the diacritical marks before typing the character.
• I find the Logos keyboard to be intuitive, but it does not do a good job of rendering all the correct precombined forms. 
• Schwandt encouraged the use of his own EZAccent solution. I have not checked it, but another good solution is to use Tavultesoft Keyman. If you just need to type a short section, TypeGreek is the way to go.