4 ms·

I've always wondered why the latin alphabet doesn't have a keyboard like that. It would totally work. With 26 letters (plus additional letters in some languages

I've always wondered why the latin alphabet doesn't have a keyboard like that. It would totally work. With 26 letters (plus additional letters in some languages), you could assign the 10 most common letters to each key, then assign the lesser-used letters to swipes. Capital letters would work as shown in the video: tap the letter, then tap the "capitalize" button to transform it to a capital letter. A T I del O E S space cap N ,.?! enter Obviously you would have to learn the layout, but I don't think it would take very long to get proficient. I've experimented with using traditional T9 with predictive text on my smartphone (Samsung phones have it pre-installed, you just need to enable it), and for typing sentences it can be incredibly quick, but it completely falls down as soon as you can't rely on the prediction system, such as for passwords and URLs. So I always end up switching back to the cramped QWERTY keyboard.

samus 4y ago
The smartphone era is simply very young still. The QUERTY keyboard is fast enough for most use cases, but without autocomplete it's pretty much broken on smartphones. Optimized systems exist though, for example the MessageEase keyboard. It's almost exactly how you describe, but capitalization is done by circling or by swiping back and forth. Court writers have more advanced systems, but they also take a lot more equipment and more time to become fluent with.
lozenge 4y ago
There used to be a lot of experimental keyboards but the invention of swipe typing seems to have killed most of them. https://gizmodo.com/12-smartphone-keyboards-that-are-trying-to-reinvent-mob-1695151919 https://gizmodo.com/12-smartphone-keyboards-that-are-trying-...
IIsi50MHz 4y ago
This has been implemented, since PalmOS days, as MessageEase Keyboard. I still use it on Android. It can even be configured to allow one-stroke access to loads of special characters, two-step composition of accents/diacriticals (and some ligatures), and easy access to Ctrl and Alt combinations. The last bit doesn't get understood by some Android programs. The settings are a bit extensive, and several languages are supported. Unfortunately, I haven't found an open source equivalent.

samus 4y ago

The smartphone era is simply very young still. The QUERTY keyboard is fast enough for most use cases, but without autocomplete it's pretty much broken on smartphones. Optimized systems exist though, for example the MessageEase keyboard. It's almost exactly how you describe, but capitalization is done by circling or by swiping back and forth. Court writers have more advanced systems, but they also take a lot more equipment and more time to become fluent with.

lozenge 4y ago

There used to be a lot of experimental keyboards but the invention of swipe typing seems to have killed most of them. https://gizmodo.com/12-smartphone-keyboards-that-are-trying-to-reinvent-mob-1695151919 https://gizmodo.com/12-smartphone-keyboards-that-are-trying-...

IIsi50MHz 4y ago

This has been implemented, since PalmOS days, as MessageEase Keyboard. I still use it on Android. It can even be configured to allow one-stroke access to loads of special characters, two-step composition of accents/diacriticals (and some ligatures), and easy access to Ctrl and Alt combinations. The last bit doesn't get understood by some Android programs. The settings are a bit extensive, and several languages are supported. Unfortunately, I haven't found an open source equivalent.