@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmygrad.ml What would be some good privacy/security related communities, or github repos to tell people about Thumb-Key?
I posted to a few subreddits and it got a lot of likes, but I don’t know of other places I should be showing it.
hello world
i am tmying to type this comrent using thumb key and checking if I can adopt to it within 5-10 minutes,
This is purely about functionality. I installed it today afternoon as part of my weekly F-Droid repo check to see new software and updates, and the above comment was slow to type compared to ASK. I do understand the inspiration of it from T9 days, and it is a nice idea.
This ties into privacy part, because Floris is better. If its out of memory crashes are managed, it can be extremely good thing for privacy of people that use GBoard/Swiftkey/Fleksy with internet firewalled, because swipe typing surpassed T9 typing and basic keyboard finger typing.
Its not much but my r/privatelife can help boost engagement, there is also r/fdroid, r/fossdroid.
Eit:i have decided to try this keyboard for a day or two to adapt,test and provide perspective from someone that has never used this unique layout in their life. Maybe it can be of some help. Ttping using it.
Thanks! Once the builds finish on f-droid, I’ll post it over on those subs. I was thinking also there might be some privacy related github repos I could do pull requests to?
Thanks for trying it out, let me know what I can do to improve it. Currently I’m typing at about 35 wpm with it.
So I tested it, and the typing just happens to be slow for a myriad of reasons.
- The need to capitalise letters between sentences can be slow, because of no equivalent for dedicated Shift button (which could be possible with a long press action assigned to # key).
- The empty space on left and right sides could be used as 4-6 suggested words that use AOSP keyboard dictionary. Autocorrect could be paired up with this but unsure how you feel about it. The bottom left and right one square spaces can be left empty since people cannot reach them one handed with thumb easily.
- The space bar could use a functionality similar to GBoard allowing to scroll across text with per character accuracy.
- The backspace could utilise same functionality to erase text by swiping, number of characters depending on swipe length.
- The theme could allow more colours than green and dark pink, like grayscale or solarised blue.
I think that I am too spoiled by the perfection of AnySoftKeyboard’s utility, and treat the keyboard like an enhanced desktop keyboard.
It has a shift button, swipe up on the
akey.The empty space can go away based on the size of the keyboard, which is customizeable.
There’s an open issue for character scrolling, but it seems pretty complicated. Same for the next point.
Themes can be added on request.
I updated yesternight to test it again. Realistically, the keyboard height will be kept at about 40% of a 18:9 screen phone, so the space will always stay there, which allows for utilising this space for suggestive words using AOSP dictionary a good idea. For example, nobody will do the first one, too goofy. Most will set key size to 64 or 72. This allows for 4-6 words of boxes.
example screenshot
Edit: on second thought, a key size of 90 mostly eliminates sides. Either there can be spacebar scrolling (complicated), or a simpler functional solution like a fixed width extra row be creatd atop thumb keys like this, incorporating left right arrow scroll keys plus most common symbols and fractions, with long press allowing double character capacity. This is operable using one thumb so it works well.
suggestion to solve character navigation
Not being able to train comma, question mark and double inverted commas into main alpha keys is also not helping. There are also some missing useful symbols like long hyphen (–), not equal to (≠), degree symbol (°) and pipe symbol ( | ).
A bit of a stretch, there is also inverted question mark (¿) for Spanish/Portuguese users, but I suppose the Spanish audience also needs (á, é, í, ó, ú, ü, ñ, ¿, ¡) characters which warrants alternate keyboard layout. This is because Spanish has only 1 extra alphabet over English, so might be easier to accommodate here.
I think for themes, dark grey and solarised dark are great presets, and likewise for light themes, light blue (like the sky blue Windows uses) would be good additions.
You can swipe left or right on the spacebar for navigation.
Comma, question mark, and clause-ending punctuation, you keep tapping the spacebar.
The extra vowel-type characters are on the specific language layouts.
There are also some missing useful symbols like long hyphen (–), not equal to (≠), degree symbol (°) and pipe symbol ( | ).
I think for themes, dark grey and solarised dark are great presets, and likewise for light themes, light blue (like the sky blue Windows uses) would be good additions.
Could you make issues on the github for these two? They would be useful.
I do not have a Github account, no idea if I want to make one just for this. I hate stalkers hounding me wherever I exist, if that is understandable considering my privacy work. Just implement them without credit or mention.
I assume it might be extra work, but the # key having a second panel might open up more room for a more decluttered space for extra symbols, fractions (¾,⅛,⅔), subscripts (₃, ₆, ₈) and superscripts (², ⁴, ⁷, ⁰). There can even be room for financial symbols (₽, ¢, ₹, ₿, ¥).
