Smart Keyboard

[cyril]

So with the latest release, you've included swipe functionality and symbol popups. It gets close and is perfectly functional, but the one feature that I've mentioned a few times that I probably haven't done a very good job of accurately describing is the idea of swiping up on singular alpha keys for symbols.

Hi,
I will think about it, though it may not be the priority (the dictionary is... and as far as speed is concerned, I fear there will be an impact when it is added)
I just wonder how to detect efficiently a swipe up on the top row, but if TouchPal can do it, it is probably possible

 

[Agrajag]

Cyril, a couple of the apps deal with it. What you have now is a flavor of it. Can you just limit it to a very set area per key?

Also, having spent a lifetime in QA I tried swipe up last night against swipe down. Try it personally--everyone. Swipe down is MUCH more fluid in my view and doesn't involve your fingernail so less chance for a goof up.

Do install TouchPal to see their work in action. It's out there for Android if you want to try their beta. I can type like a crazed banshee swiping down but up is much more awkward.

Remember also that what you have means that for every alternate key you're talking two touches or more. With swipe it's just one and that's huge.

As far as the impact of the dictionary my view on that is simple. First, make it optional. If it impacts the speed even when off then consider having one version with it and one without but I don't think it'd be a big difference if disabled. Second, it's really so essential for this type of application that there's really no getting around it. A keyboard app without correction is pretty limiting.

Lastly, please forgive any perception of a lack of thankfulness on my part. When you do QA for a long period the by-product is a very blunt personality especially in text. It's all about what's wrong for QA people. What's right is what's expected so we tend to skip right over all that. What you're doing is very appreciated. I only get involved when I get excited about apps done by people that seem to really care and that look like they have the potential to think beyond just their own world view. This is one of those cases.

Thanks.

 

[cyril]

I'll have a look at this swipe thing, I just don't know when... Anyway the tricky part will be to detect a swipe on a single key; once it is done, adding settings to configure the behavior is just the most trivial part of the app

 

[DigiK]

Lastly, please forgive any perception of a lack of thankfulness on my part. What you're doing is very appreciated. I only get involved when I get excited about apps done by people that seem to really care and that look like they have the potential to think beyond just their own world view. This is one of those cases.

Uh oh, here comes the other member of the tag team on Cyril. Agrajag, I completely concur with you regarding contributing feedback to apps with real potential and developers who care. The way I see it, two of Android's most important applications, Keyboard & Browsing, still haven't seen applications that are really platform defining, but I think xScope and Smart Keyboard have that potential.

I also agree that swiping symbol secondaries is potentially huge, but completely understand your priorities here, Cyril. You've really done an outstanding job taking the time to listen to us beta testers and implementing improvements. It's time for you to start making some money on the market.

I couldn't find the TouchPal beta download anywhere, but you can also check out the Swype beta for clues on an implementing, as they use something similar for auto-capitalization. Probably defining the upper keyboard boundary as a 1 pixel hitbox or something.


So as you move toward adding auto-correct functionality I have one question and one suggestion:

1. I noticed that a letter input is initiated by onPress but letter registration is defined by onRelease. If I hit A and swipe to S horizontally, S is registered; same with going from say G to Y vertically. Should this type of swipe perhaps register as a non-input for now to help prevent user input errors? Eventually, if you were to re-visit swipe-up-for-secondaries functionality, this would be exactly the behavior you'd be assigning to that method. Not a big deal, but just something I figured I'd bring to your attention.

2. Ironically the one thing that slows me down more than anything is Auto-correct. Google's implementation doesn't give users enough control over manual reordering of word priority, it doesn't learn fast enough, NOR does it provide the option to disable useless words and names from the dictionary like 'Cummings' in my case.

I'd love to see an option where I can long-press the autocorrect bar and go into an auto-correct configure menu where I can re-rank that particular word choice and manually disable specific dictionary entries from the auto-correct word list presented. A sub menu also accessible from keyboard settings would potentially show the database of disabled words and have the ability to manually disable others via search.

Thanks again, Cyril. We're all pulling for your success on this one. Time to cue the dancing bananas. :icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana:

 

[cyril]

hi
too many ideas.. but maybe one day you'll have all that ;-)

Anyway I just added secondary symbols accessible with a long press, I think this should already help ! (dictionary is not for today.. and neither for tomorrow )

 

[DigiK]

Ok, so I tried TouchPal; and to be honest, the timings and smoothness of long-press you just implemented convinced me it's not even worth bothering with the extra over-head. I'm withdrawing my swipe-for-secondaries feature request. Having the pop-up bubble change to confirm symbol long-press in a future revision would be icing.

Also, really liking the programmable swipe gestures. Any chance you could also add Alt-Symbol keyboard as an option?

Shutting up and enjoying now.

 

[Agrajag]

Thanks for press and hold. Getting there for me. As I'm making do with other solutions I can wait for this to hit my minimum needs level (I really need the dictionary and realize it'll be a while and not trivial). Keep up the great work.

 

[cyril]

Dear testers,
Smart Keyboard Pro is not vaporware
Integration of the stock keyboard dictionary (with suggestion, auto-correction, contacts) into Smart Keyboard is going quite well... actually it already works 100% (I think) with english language!
It needs some polishing and multi-language support, but I think version 1.0.0 will be out next week, or the week after at the very latest. Be patient

 

[Agrajag]

How's performance looking so far?

 

[cyril]

How's performance looking so far?

It's the same as the stock keyboard, as I use the same dictionary, whose core library is written in C++ for efficiency

By the way some people said they get sometimes a "force close" on Motorola Droid... does it happen to someone here ? It's a bit worrying for me, as I cannot reproduce...

Thanks

 

[atlharry]

I get it, but only when i reboot my phone

 

[cyril]

I get it, but only when i reboot my phone

ok I have this too with the emulator, I will try to fix...

 

[Ken_photo]

Please forgive my ignorance but how is a multi touch keyboard different from a stock one? Not clear what multi touch does in a keybjoard.

 

[cupfulloflol]

By the way some people said they get sometimes a "force close" on Motorola Droid... does it happen to someone here ? It's a bit worrying for me, as I cannot reproduce...

Thanks

I have a Droid and the only time I have seen it FC is on a reboot, and it has done it more than once. It only happens when it is set as default. I am rooted, and was backing up my nand, and installing a themed ROM (Smoked Glass), so I restarted it about 4 times during the process. Of those it crashed all four times. I just restarted, and am able to reproduce it.

When it crashes nothing bad happens, as I am able to go into something that uses it (I used Handcent) and brought up a text input, and it popped right up like it normally does.

I haven't seen it crash otherwise. I don't know if it is a conflict with something else I am using or what. I have a lot of stuff installed on my phone, mostly games, I really need to have a bit of spring cleaning.

*Edit* Got beaten, sorry for the redundant post. I got slightly distracted with the TV mid post. Thanks again for all the good hard work you have been putting into this cyril.

 

[Agrajag]

I get the Force Close too and also only on a reboot so far.

As far as I understand multi-tap with respect to virtual keyboards (and correct me if I'm wrong someone), the stock virtual keyboard doesn't support it while the iPhone keyboard does. On an iPhone it's easy to quickly type as often you will have one finger still making contact with one letter in the process of lifting while the other is just making contact with the next letter. With the stock keyboard this would result in the first character being entered and the second one just lost. On the iPhone both the first and second letter are retained and in the correct order.

It doesn't really happen if you don't type all that quickly or, of course, if you only use one finger.

Once Cyril puts up the dictionary I think the stock keyboard will never see the light of day for me. I keep SEVERAL keyboard apps running as I can't make up my mind right now. In addition to the stock virtual keyboard:

1. TouchPal - It has nice potential and has some really slick features. Very effective swipe features. EXCEPTIONAL context-aware predictive model. I've actually typed entire sentences just by selecting entirely predicted next words from this. It has a fantastic selection of choices for words. For example, the word last is on screen right now. It has a small down arrow on it meaning there's more there. Under it are the choices year, week and month! Thus I can type "la" and select "last" then select "month". It has a very big space bar which is good for me and a large delete (but it has TERRIBLE backspace speed for some reason).

2. Better Keyboard - It has so much flexibility and so many skins that there are actually a bit too many. I'm STILL looking for two popular ones that I can't find on the market because of all the "noise". It has so many options that it's hard not to get it the way you want it. You can swipe for different layouts and hold for alternative symbols or hold to get a selection of several symbols per key. Most of the skins are very appealing cosmetically. It has quick access to Speak which I like sometimes.

3. Swype/ShapeWriter - These have some nice features too but I find the sliding concept to just not work for me even though I LOVE the concept. I think if I just gave up and stuck to it that I'd probably prefer this method but so far it just hasn't happened.

4. HTC Hero Keyboard - This one isn't readily available but out there if you look. It's actually a VERY nice keyboard but not designed for the Droid so the resolution is a bit low and some things don't line up right but it's fast, laid out well and has some nice features too.

5. Of course Smart Keyboard which has a bucket full of potential at this point. I think it'll come down to this or TouchPal for me. TouchPal is in beta, has been forever and the developers are extremely slow and unresponsive. It's also been known to be buggy. If Cyril keeps up at the pace he's been going I can't see how it won't be my choice.