Hi all,
I'm a recent transitioner from QWERTY (week 3, starting to feel it come good) and have just shelled out for a new phone, which is based on the google architecture (it's the HTC Hero/magic). I wondered if anyone had any experience of adapting the virtual keyboard on this system, or knew of any plans to deliver an app to allow this as per the iPhone? It seems like an obvious step to take, and I'm hoping some motivated spirit has already taken it!
Best
Alex
You have to jailbreak the iPhone to do it. Stupidest think ever that a virtual keyboard layout is so locked up.
I wish you luck.
I'm probably going to be picking up a Verizon Droid.
WANT COLEMAK. Since Android is open, I expect it to eclipse the iPhone in terms of market share very soon.
Well actually, my layout is a colemak derivative...
arstdhneio ctrl
zxcvbkm,.?
ZXCVBKM;:!
The Droid already uses my ; and :, but the other stuff is kind of bizarre... really colemak should only rearrange alphanumeric characters and not anything else that's phone-specific.
really colemak should only rearrange alphanumeric characters and not anything else that's phone-specific.
Why? Colemak wasn't designed for phones, but for computer keyboards. But you're free to create your own variants to meet your own requirements...
FYI, thumb / E.161 keyboards have very different optimization parameters (as they are not used with 10 fingers, but usually with just one), and other layouts have been specifically optimized for that.
Ease of recognition? People who use their thumb board a lot might need an optimised one, while others just want a keyboard that's easy to remember. For a Colemak typist, that's a Colemak-type layout, just as it is a QWERTY-based layout for the Sholes crowd.
Any Colemak typist can in reality easily recognize a QWERTY layout of course, so part of the argument will be aesthetics I suppose. :)
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You have a point, but still it seems unreasonable (to me) to put extra requirements on Colemak for this purpose only. Not being able to move punctuation keys is a limitation of the device in question.
For ease of recognition, simply an alphabetic layout may be the best solution?
I've got a Droid.
http://www.kandroid.org/android_pdk/key … html#andro
This shouldn't be too hard if we just tackle it..
https://code.google.com/p/softkeyboard/ … ail?id=178
Go there, leave a comment, and we'll have colemak within the month.
For a Colemak typist, that's a Colemak-type layout, just as it is a QWERTY-based layout for the Sholes crowd.
Whhhhaaat? I thought the whole point of being a touch typist is that you never look at the keys, so their position is not relevant to your brain. Heh. For myself, I have no freaking clue what keys correspond to what I actually type. I just think "I need to type 'fourteen'" and my fingers do the rest. When I think 'u' my right middle finger twitches toward the appropriate key, but if you asked me without a keyboard around, I'd have to think about it. :p
I mean, I guess someone out there is so skilled with his thumbs that he can touch-type with them, but that person surely isn't me. Hell, I can't even type QWERTY anymore after going Colemak full-time, but I have no problems with my phone's sliding keyboard.
Qwerty slows me down significantly because every keypress confuses my brain.
Posted from Droid.
