Smart Keyboard

[aamzalag]

@cyril,
Sorry for the million responses. But i think there is another slight glitch. on the droid, while typing on the right side of the keyboard, near the delete button, ill occasionaly get my keyboard switched to symbols, even though im not pushing anything remotely near the 123.. buton. I think the keyboard isnt measureing touches right?

 

[cyril]

Hey cyril, Im just curious, but will you be implementing a system with some sort of auto punctuation as well? like a double tap spacebar for . or replace didnt with didn't. Your work so far is great. ill be one of the many lining up to purchase the pro version at this rate.

As the android stock keyboard is open source, I can integrate all its features, but it will take time...

I cannot really answer for the problem of missed letters... it could be another bug in the driver, but I haven't investigated this yet...

 

[thechaps]

Ok first i have to say thx again for this great mt keyboard. been using it for a few days straight... i have been noticing he same glitch i read on here the other day where it swithes to numbers when im nowhere near the number key. it seems to a glitch somewhere near the space bar. it always seems to happen when im trying to space. I also have noticed some definate lag when typing in the stock browser but that has been an issue with all keyboards if i remeber een stock. so nk worries there. i also would like to some punctuation fixing when you emplament the auto correct. especially the perios when you double space (came from bb). just my 2 cents. still loving it and cant wait for the final release.

 

[Agrajag]

I've used virtually all the available virtual keyboards and none of them provide all the features I'm looking for in one package. It seems everyone has taken a specific approach and forgotten the fringes.

What I'd like to see:

1. I agree that keys should not be blocky.

2. Auto-correction is a must. Having to fumble for the apostrophe in "don't" is a total waste of time on a phone. Just typing "dont" and knowing it'll get fixed is essential.

3. Thinking ahead. I like TouchPal's ability to expand a word at a touch. I type "run" and it provides the word "run" in the selection list with an arrow allowing me to select running, runner, runner-up, etc. Very nice.

4. Auto-completion is huge for me. Having a list of four or five words that fit what I'm typing is a big help.

5. Alternative keys. This one is essential for me. Having to go to a sub-menu to select a number or the ? character is silly when I could just get to them by simply holding down a key for a moment that has this key as a sub-selection.

6. A decent sized space bar is critical. I can't tell you how often you miss it and end up with a bunch of odd characters between words.

7. FAST back-space. Why do so many apps have abysmally slow backspacing? Sometimes I need to blow out what I've put in especially when it's wrong and having to sit there for 10 seconds waiting is insane.

 

[Yodes]

Great app so far! Now just include the suggestion/auto-correction and I'd be a happy camper

 

[DigiK]

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5. Alternative keys. This one is essential for me. Having to go to a sub-menu to select a number or the ? character is silly when I could just get to them by simply holding down a key for a moment that has this key as a sub-selection.

I had offered up evolving that a step further into an upward swipe on the alpha key with the sub-selection you want. This would be VERY FAST. If Cyril eventually implements swipe gestures, I'm looking forward to the possibility of this kind of feature.

Also, just tried the latest version. All features working nicely; XP bug does not exist on Moto Droid. Couldn't really ascertain what the 'Multi-touch repeat' functinoality does though. Any one figure that out?

 

[cyril]

Couldn't really ascertain what the 'Multi-touch repeat' functinoality does though. Any one figure that out?

It is a workaround for the "XP bug", which I do have on my phone I had to disable the repeating behavior of the Delete key, if another key is still pressed. If you enable this option, you will go back to the normal behavior (in case someone would need it...)

 

[DigiK]

Durr... Muchas Gracias, good to know!

 

[cyril]

More features coming from the stock keyboard, in 0.4.1:

- swipe gestures: up to show symbols, as you asked, and down to close the keyboard
- sound
- punctuation popup
- better timing for the preview popups

By the way, I can confirm that the Android 2.1 stock keyboard is indeed multitouch, but Google did it differently, so there is still room for different keyboards

 

[DigiK]

Hey Cyril,
Got a chance to use the update for a few minutes.

• Preview popups work great now--really starts to polish it up.
• Swipe method seems to be functioning well--sensitivity seems to be spot on.

By the way, I can confirm that the Android 2.1 stock keyboard is indeed multitouch, but Google did it differently, so there is still room for different keyboards

Interesting indeed! I really think you've got some great functionality going on here and it's only a matter of differentiating yourself by striving for highest typing efficiency & accuracy without becoming laggy, buggy, or bloated. That's what killed Better Keyboard for me.

So with the latest release, you've included swipe functionality and symbol popups. It gets close and is perfectly functional, but the one feature that I've mentioned a few times that I probably haven't done a very good job of accurately describing is the idea of swiping up on singular alpha keys for symbols. To my knowledge, no one has implemented this yet and really uses swipe gestures to maximize typing efficiency on a more 'conventional' soft keyboard:

Commonly-used symbols would always appear as secondaries on the home keyboard. Flick upward to the row above to very quickly invoke the secondary symbol for that key (swipe path shown for exemplary purposes only--would not be required in actual implementation). This completely eliminates need for tap and hold or to change menus. You'd probably want to integrate an angular range of freedom of about 60 degrees for the up-swipe gesture.

I'd be interested to see how others would feel about testing out this functionality. Maybe include it as a test option and get feedback from users about which method they prefer. ...At that point you might be able to even eliminate one symbol menu.

**Edited for clarity

 

[Agrajag]

DigiK,

The secondary function of each key the way you talk about it is supported in TouchPal except that they do a downward swipe. My choice is to support two options here. Support the choice of either holding the key (Better Keyboard and others) or swiping the key (my preference and yours).

As far as speed goes I suspect things will fly right along until correction starts to come into play. That has to take some pretty good overhead but, for me at least, it's essential.

 

[DigiK]

Ah ok, thanks for the clarification on that Agrajag. Haven't tried TouchPal.

I was thinking a little more about how we would clarify the system's interpretation of swipe up for secondary, and it can be even more elegant and precise than what I initially proposed:

Preview Bubble actually becomes a defined hit-box for the swipe action, i.e.: Letter 'A' initially displays in preview bubble on hit, user swipes up to preview bubble, preview bubble confirms change to '@' symbol. Pseudo code would be:
While keyPress, displayPrimarySymbol
(If swipeToPreviewBubble, then SecondarySymbol)
Else primarySymbol.

**Agreed on the auto-correction overhead. We'll see what Cyril has up his sleeve.

 

[Agrajag]

I could argue that swiping towards the bubble suggests you want it. Swiping AWAY from it suggests you want the other function. Either way I'm fine. Just arguing semantics as an old QA guy.

 

[DigiK]

Scratch what I just posted...on second thought, the initial idea of a simple swipe up to next row seems better because it doesn't involve the user waiting for feedback or to see a 'target' that they have to worry about hitting/not hitting. This would end up being inefficient.

So we're optimally, we're back to:

While keyPress, displayPrimarySymbol
(If swipeToRowAbove, then SecondarySymbol)
Else primarySymbol.

 

[ASN-121]

I just installed the latest version, and I must say, it's working much better than the last version I've had. I like the swipe gesture and quick settings access. Very nice touches. Still can't get it to keep up with my fingers though, I think that's why I thought I was having issues with multitouch to begin with. That, and the older version I had seemed to be very slow to input, so it made it even harder to keep up with.

*One thing to add, will the swipe function be added for landscape mode as well? I think if I do end up using this, I may get used to the whole swiping thing, and if it only works the one way, I think that may throw me off if I am in landscape mode.