[maemo-developers] making tab-auto-complete action work on large on-screen keyboard

[From: Jakub.Pavelek at nokia.com]

Hi,

This is rather unlikely to go ahead if the use-case is Xchat ;)

Is it really too much effort to type the name once by hand (which makes
the keyboard remember it) and then it offers it for autocompletion next
time?

Though having an API where every application could give the input method
(virtual keyboard) additional application specific "dictionary" is not
that bad idea. This way e.g. user nicks from Xchat would not get saved
to your global dictionary and would not pop-up in other applications.

Br,

--jakub


>Hi, 
>
>This is just to mark a basic discussion we had on #maemo last 
>night. We discussed how badly tab-auto-complete is needed for 
>apps like xchat while using large on-screen keyboard. 
>
>It was suggested that adding another <Tab> key, might displace 
>other keys and a sacrifice on keysize will be required. 
>
>I proposed a quick neat way to do it, which I believe should 
>work, if the enhancement idea is found any good and is worked 
>upon that can be a default behaviour/cpapability of on-screen 
>keyboard to work seamlessly with any Maemo(n800) app. 
>
>What I suggested
>----------------
>
>Problem:
>* Example app Xchat
>* Tab-auto-complete is needed for usernames from userlist in a 
>channel window focused
>
>Solution: 
>* On-screen keyboard loads the stack of userlist
>* User/operator starts to type a username initial characters
>* On-screen keyboard compares from the stack, and offers 
>auto-completion just like known words from dictionary or history
>* Upon D-pad right-side press, username auto-completes.
>
>Possible glitches:
>* This looks to be simple, but can be a bit complex to manage 
>application to application. 
>* This can make on-screen keyboard consume more resources I 
>believe also might put an impact on lookup, feedback time. 
>
>Other example apps where this can be useful: 
>* Xterm - command and file name/location autocomplete
>* Future groupchat enhancements of Jabber/Telepathy 
>
>Disclaimer: I am not a developer but I'll be glad to see this 
>in code if et-all possible. 
>
>Regards,
>Kevin