Keyboard Layout And Durability

[Caine]

QUOTE
I'm not sure about using an analog stick direction as a button press...

I just tried it out on a dualshock clone for my pc. It works surprisingly well.

If there are any glovepie users that want to give it a spin, here is the simple script I used:

var.scale = 50

if joystick.Button1 then // compensate for poorly calibrated joystick
var.originx = joystick.roll
var.originy = joystick.z
endif

mouse.x += (joystick.roll - var.originx) / var.scale
mouse.y += (joystick.z - var.originy) / var.scale

mouse.Button1 = Joystick.x < -0.5
mouse.Button2 = 0.5 < Joystick.x
mouse.Button3 = Joystick.y < -0.5

QUOTE
Scroll on the analog stick might not be bad

Whoops, forgot about the scroll wheel. Hmmm, I suppose Fn+Right joystick would do.

 

[cosurgi]

Interesting idea, cosurgi. It keeps the symbol layout closer to a traditional keyboard. (Doesn't leave much room for AltGr labels should they become possible later on though.)
It means you can't hold-fn-and-press for the six second-fn symbols, but they're infrequent characters except + & -.

You'll have to relabel Fn, because shift-Fn isn't Fn Lock any more. (fn2?)
Actually, I'd probably suggest Fn-Fn (press twice), that way it's just *tap*tap*-A for ~.

Thanks for your comments. So I am updating this layout:

- Change label "Fn lock" to "Fn ↗". It will depend on software configuration if it's *tap*tap* (press twice Fn) or Shift-Fn. Regardless of that the same thing is printed on the keys.
- I looked, but I could not find any place to move '+' & '-'. I could swap '+' with '|' but then '-' would stay there alone, and in the end it might be harder to find (becasue '+' should stay close to '-' IMO).

Cosurgi, the Fn+shift approach is very interesting. However, in my opinion, this would be easier if Fn and shift were next to eachother such that you can hit both with a single thumb and use the other hand to strike the required key (although, it might also increase the amount of misspresses).

@Caine yes, would be nice to have shift close to Fn, but it's only 6 rarely used symbols. I thought for a while about swapping Fn with Ctrl. But I didn't like it, because then pressing Ctrl-Alt combos will become more difficult. And although it's impossible for me to know, I guess that Ctrl-Alt combos will be more frequently used than ~-+{}\. Besides now, you can use also Fn+Fn (press twice) solution, instead of Shift+Fn.

Hm, in fact I'm looking at it now, swapped, and It's not that really bad. You can press Fn-Shift and Fn-AltGr with single keypress. While pressing "Compose" (that's a traditional name for "Accent") still has the same difficulty as before. Not that bad at all...

Ok, so here are two revised versions:

SVG SOURCE

SVG SOURCE

 

[cosurgi]

That's a yet another variation:

1. All labels that I consider unnecessary are removed.
2. Mark Ctrl & Alt because I'll never remember which one is on the left and which on the right. (but I guess that I'll need to put a sticker there, becuase it requires printing on the case)
3. Move all other labels onto the buttons. They become really small, uh.
4. Who needs "Space" on space?
5. Didn't rearrange any symbols - they are the same is in Kagato's final proposal.

This layout would be very nice and most useful.
But isn't the simplistic layout already set in stone?

Thanks IceBerg303, but actually I wanted to withdraw this one from the poll... Because those changes are just tiny details and everything else is exactly the same as kagato final revision. Those details (whther to print "Space" on space) are more up to devs. The original idea to print Alt and Ctrl on the case is nice, however.

If you want me to inlude that proposal in the poll, you are welcome to resubmit it as your own And I will put it as another poll choice in the voting. Just let me know about that, before I'll make that poll thread, probably somewhere around tomorrow.

 

[IceBerg303]

There is not enough difference to resubmit this one. bothe are very good, I like them much more than what we've been seeing on the mock up pandora.

I was afraid I was going to have to carry a roll up keyboard with me, but if we get something this nice I will be ecstatic.

 

[kagato]

Can we have a bluetooth toggle as well as the wifi toggle?

I figure the wireless toggle disables all wireless features (wifi & bluetooth -- "airplane mode"), and returns them to their previous state when enabled. Bluetooth has multiple management options (active, discoverable, device list etc) which probably needs its own settings page accessed via Menu.

To turn off Bluetooth (eg for power saving) I'd guess you'd do something like Menu -> Settings -> Bluetooth -> Disable.
The Wireless button is more to guarantee "stop all broadcasting now".


...Of course, it's all software controlled anyway, so you could have that button launch a quick-config app instead, where (B) toggles Bluetooth and (Y) toggles Wifi. (Y-fi, get it?)