[maemo-developers] Wishlist

[From: Florent de Dinechin]

Tuukka Tolvanen a écrit :
> On 3/7/07, Florent de Dinechin <Florent.de.Dinechin at ens-lyon.fr> wrote:
> 
>> Wish #1:
>>
>> Extend the current "drag-to-shift" paradigm on the virtual keyboard to 8
>> directions. Use these to implement accents for accented languages (e+NE
>> for é, e+NW for è, c+SW for ç, etc), and to remove the need for shifting
>> in general. Show the shifted letters in very small colored font in the
>> corners of the keys.
> 
> That could get a bit crowded on the small vkb -- how about showing the
> available tap&drag variants for a key on tap&drag (tap&hold repeats so
> it would make a weird trigger), using a larger area? What about

I'm not sure it would get that crowded, because we have colors which are 
currently unused (considering the fantastic Mahjong graphics, the 
keyboard is really boring). More importantly, there is usually only one 
alternative for a letter, not 4. The only one with more than one 
alternative is e (éèëê). For this one we could only show the accent in 
the corner, not the full accented letter.

That's for French. Polish has two accents on s and z. I don't think 
there is much worse than French, is there? (he said proudly)

Then, for example, an à, even a full-size letter, in light red, in the 
NW corner, but in the background, so that the normal a hides it partly, 
would be perfectly clear.

On the other hand, having the clicked key pop out with 2x magnification 
(instead of being boringly highlighted) would be interesting, but 
probably confusing when you try to type fast.


As a conclusion: there are many possibilities, anyway I really wish the 
input improvement would be implemented for the next release. I'm sure it 
can be done in a matter of hours.
Better have the improved input method now, and fancy graphics later. It 
will really be natural to use, even without visual help.


> capital accented letters such as É?

For these, with a real keyboard, you have to caps-lock, then hit the 
letter. It would be no better, but no worse.