Suggestion for a virtual keyboard hack (K5, KPW)

[Aeris]

I was thinking: there are some apps for K5 and KPW in which keyboard covers the text form where you are typing (usually when the form is in the bottom half of the screen). Skipstone browser is an example.

I thought two possible solution for this, but don't know if they are doable and how much effort require.

FIRST IDEA
Add two little buttons to the keyboard (maybe nearby the keys A and L in the QWERTY one): one, to put the keyboard at the top of the screen, the other to hide the keyboard.

SECOND IDEA
I don't like the bar over the keyboard that suggest words completions (it's a bit slow to be useful, to me). Could it be hacked to display the text typed, instead of them? For example, sending every character pressed on the keyboard directly on that row? In this case, the backspace would also erase the letters in the stack to keep it synced with the form.
Obviously, there would be a problem when the user changes focus and the stack becomes unsynced with the text, but could be partially solved by cleaning the bar at every click away from the keyboard (= pointer repositioning).

THIRD IDEA ("better then nothing")
Make at least an hack to get rid of the aforementioned bar xD It would free some useful pixels...

[twobob]

In terms of actually amending the onboard kindle keyboard AFAIK there is little that can be done. So with reference to editing the built-in keyboard - given the (now seemingly pointless) Amazon obfuscation war I think we can list this as "deeply unlikely".

When invoking it ourselves "as an overlay" to our homebrew apps there is some degree of control.

Not to retype Eureka's work the full details of invocation are here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...8&postcount=28

I looked around for a few replacements actually recently... nothing "incredible" has reared it's head... should you find something AWESOME to port in the swanky OSK line.... I am all ears.

[twobob]

or maybe something insane might do the job...
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/d...Languages.html



I like insane

[brianinmaine]

Originally Posted by twobob

or maybe something insane might do the job...
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/d...Languages.html



I like insane

That IS insane! Go for it! I bet the interface is slow on a kindle, but it IS pretty nifty!

[twobob]

Already built it...

Needs love though.




Nooooo Idea what to do with it though...


apt-get build-dep dasher
grab source.

hack titles.
build.

That's what I did so far.
running full screen ATM but yeah.. could be beaten into service I guess?

know more when I can actually use the thing :P


EDIT: Needs dithering in the interface to be helpful. sigh.
on the one day pile then

[twobob]

http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/#screenshot

Im doing that tomorrow.
I WILL get an interface I like for osmo...

I will...

[Aeris]

I don't like too much that kind of predictive interfaces... i want to know exactly where my keyboard letters are all the time xD

The last keyboard you have posted seems pretty cool instead It would be great to have a general purpose keyboard to integrate in every KUAL app that need it!

[Aeris]

Ah if you need there is also kterm keyboard that is not bad... need only to shift a bit to the left the third row, and maybe some buttons removed to make the others bigger (- + [ ] ; \ /)

I'm already working to modify this keyboard layout under kterm, in the case it could be used also in other programs

[Aeris]

If anybody wants to try the modified version of kterm virtual keyboard, here it is the config file (replace the original one in /extensions/kterm/layout folder after backup it). I found that with this layout it is really faster, maybe also if compared to the kindle system keyboard. Is still an Alpha, I have to fix all symbols and secondary working mode etc.

TESTED ONLY ON KINDLE PW, not Touch

[twobob]

nice

[Aeris]

Could it work with osmo, Twobob? Maybe with the esc button to close it and another to put the keyboard at the top of the screen?

[Aeris]

I've finished the editing of kterm keyboard. I only removed the F1 F2 etc. buttons; the other are still there, just moved around. Everything is bigger now, and the keyboard should be ready and usable for any kind of app (agendas, notepads, etc.). Let me know if there is something to fix in the new layout

NOTE: as pointed out by knc1, the keyboard its not so comfortable on virtual terminals. In fact, the layout is not thought for this kind of sofware, but still you can use kterm to test the layout and "imagine" to be using other kinds of apps :P
Btw, everything works now on terminals except F-buttons

[knc1]

You might want to mention that this layout does not support virtual terminals -
due to the missing F* keys.

I am not sure if switching between terminals was ever tested (or even implemented) in the Kindle version of kTerm.
So that feature might not be such a great loss.

[Aeris]

Yes... in fact the main purpose of this work is to use match-keyboard on other apps, not terminals (text-editors, agendas, etc.) It leaks also alt ctrl etc.

Added a note to the post, thank you!

Ps i think I'll switch "shift" and "caps lock xD" buttons

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Aeris

Yes... in fact the main purpose of this work is to use match-keyboard on other apps, not terminals (text-editors, agendas, etc.) It leaks also alt ctrl etc.

Added a note to the post, thank you!

Ps i think I'll switch "shift" and "caps lock xD" buttons

Ah...
OK, I see that now.

You might want to re-consider the ctrl key -
Applications may still need the basic control functions, like ctrl-d, ctrl-c (and maybe ctrl-q, ctrl-s)