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keymanapp / keyman

Keyman cross platform input methods system running on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows and mobile and desktop web
https://keyman.com/
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feat(android): split keyboard #5791

Open rmlockwood opened 2 years ago

rmlockwood commented 2 years ago

A support a user who would like to have a split Keyman keyboard for use on his Android tablet. This would allow him type more easily while holding the tablet. It would be nice if the split keyboard could be resized.

mcdurdin commented 2 years ago

This would be a nice feature to have.

We've just implemented vertical resizing of the keyboard in Keyman 15.0 -- so I think that's half the picture.

A split keyboard is somewhat tricky to make into a generic feature -- Keyman keyboards do not include data on how best to split, so we'd need to develop an algorithm on which keys to split over. Because Keyman keyboards can be built with arbitrary layouts, this may not be altogether obvious.

We would need to develop:

  1. Splitting algorithm
  2. New layout functionality to implement the split
  3. User interface to control the split - whether by menu or by gesture. (Gesture is a nice idea but may interfere with other gestures we are planning on implementing, as well as being less accessible to users who may only discover by accident.)

This fits in well with our 16.0 focus on on screen keyboard interaction so I'll list it for implementation there.

mcdurdin commented 2 years ago

We've had to re-triage this to a future version as we won't have capacity in the 16.0 release cycle.

MakaraSok commented 1 year ago

Related issue on the community site: https://community.software.sil.org/t/to-split-apart-touchscreen-landscape-keyboard/6389.

jbealle commented 2 months ago

Pardon me I am new here with a question. I plan to design a keyboard with the frequent keys on the ends where the thumbs can reach them. But I would never, ever, leave any dead space in the middle. There is always something useful to go there...numbers, symbols, control buttons, etc. There will be keys all the way across, with the end areas probably in a KALQ layout and my favorite symbols in the middle. I really don't understand why split keyboards exist, in their current fashion at least.

mcdurdin commented 2 months ago

@jbealle I guess different people have different needs.