Termula2x 0.2.9.0 Early Alpha Needs Testing


canavar

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this is an early alpha of termula2x 0.3 "su", having a transparent on screen keyboard.
i want to get some feedback from the community. so here it is.

termula2x-0.2.9.0.jpg
 
Just downloaded, test pending...

EDIT: First impressions

The new virtual keyboard is darn slow to load, can probably be fixed to load "instantly". It is also hard to read under the keyboard. But having a big, sliding keyboard seems like a very good idea, i always like big buttons for readability.

Lazy question: how do we hide the keypad?
 
OK, just tested it out, it is definitely an exciting concept, putting the keyboard larger and overlayed over the terminal window.

My thoughts, like ati above:

Definitely make the keyboard hidable, sliding on and off the screen at the touch of a button, and get rid of the slow onscreen keyboard display times.. I am sure that is just a temporary quirk

It will be awesome when it has support for all the command shortcuts and punctuation, and shift/ctrl keys that standard sterm has.. F200 support makes this a dream to use
 
don't worry about the slow display times. i will optimize the surface manager later.

altough i have cut off some features, for example the cursor, shift and ctrl support remains. only we don't have indicators for them.

select+volup = shift
select+voldown = ctrl

hence i don't have an f-200, i can't test termula2x on it. (somebody donate me an f-200 :))
but it should work well with touch screen.

and here is a slightly better version, 0.2.9.1. press start to toggle keyboard visibility.

unfortunately i do not have enough time so the development goes on slowly.
 
termula2x 0.2.9.2 is here

termula2x-0.2.9.2.jpg


* added punctuations section.
* fixed slow display times.


it is far from complete but seems to be usable. don't forget to press START to toggle keyboard visibility.

waiting for feedback...
 
OK, it is very very cool you added the quick-command list back in, the trouble is, the area to tap for each element of the on-screen keyboard is now far too small for accurate tapping. Also, tapping or even double-tapping on any element does nothing, I have to hit "A" to actually get it to enter the selected key.

Here are my humble suggestions, I am sure you can figure out something even better:

Keep the current interface for F100 users, it works fine for them and I like it. Only change I would make is making the forward slash / the first character in the punctuation list (or at least moving it more to the top and left) because I feel it is the most-used character on a terminal.

Have two scripts that launch Termula2x in either touchscreen interface mode or standard mode, each with their own icon so F200 users without a stylus at the moment won't be left stranded. This will be necessary because the touchscreen interface will disallow use of the normal buttons, as you will see:

For the F200 touchscreen interface, make the default behavior be to split the OSK into two halves. Have the two L and R trigger buttons be linked to the same identical action (so both left and right handed users will be comfortable): When pressed, the triggers cycle between 3 states:

State 1: no keyboard on-screen
State 2: first half of keyboard on-screen (letters and numbers, maybe even bigger than the first beta you released here)
State 3: second half of keyboard on-screen

On both halves of the keyboard that are displayed, have two larger buttons down below: Enter, for entering a carriage return, and Tab, for allowing command completion (if busybox supports it)

Have LEFT and RIGHT and A and B linked to backspace and space, respectively. Have UP and DOWN and Y and X linked to navigating the command history. The idea is to treat the A/B/X/Y buttons as another identical DPAD for comfortable one-handed use by touchscreen left-handed people.

Lemme know what you think.. PS, I am trying to get my hands on a USB keyboard so I can add support to Open2X SDL.
 
***
hi,
***

OK, it is very very cool you added the quick-command list back in, the trouble is, the area to tap for each element of the on-screen keyboard is now far too small for accurate tapping. Also, tapping or even double-tapping on any element does nothing, I have to hit "A" to actually get it to enter the selected key.

***
yes tapping only selects the button. you must press insert after selecting a button. i may change the default behaviour.
***

Here are my humble suggestions, I am sure you can figure out something even better:

Keep the current interface for F100 users, it works fine for them and I like it. Only change I would make is making the forward slash / the first character in the punctuation list (or at least moving it more to the top and left) because I feel it is the most-used character on a terminal.

***
i am also an f-100 user and i like this version too much. i have removed some bugs and moved / to the top of the punctuations section. but as you know anyone can put a button anywhere by editing the configuration file. and i am releasing it for f-100 users now. get it here.
***

Have two scripts that launch Termula2x in either touchscreen interface mode or standard mode, each with their own icon so F200 users without a stylus at the moment won't be left stranded. This will be necessary because the touchscreen interface will disallow use of the normal buttons, as you will see:

For the F200 touchscreen interface, make the default behavior be to split the OSK into two halves. Have the two L and R trigger buttons be linked to the same identical action (so both left and right handed users will be comfortable): When pressed, the triggers cycle between 3 states:

State 1: no keyboard on-screen
State 2: first half of keyboard on-screen (letters and numbers, maybe even bigger than the first beta you released here)
State 3: second half of keyboard on-screen

On both halves of the keyboard that are displayed, have two larger buttons down below: Enter, for entering a carriage return, and Tab, for allowing command completion (if busybox supports it)

***
yes busybox supports command completion. f-100 users can press click to use it.
***

Have LEFT and RIGHT and A and B linked to backspace and space, respectively. Have UP and DOWN and Y and X linked to navigating the command history. The idea is to treat the A/B/X/Y buttons as another identical DPAD for comfortable one-handed use by touchscreen left-handed people.

***
termula2x allows button remapping. you can simply edit the configuration file to assign any button to any action.
***

Lemme know what you think.. PS, I am trying to get my hands on a USB keyboard so I can add support to Open2X SDL.

***
thanks for your help. i think i will follow your roadmap for f-200 users but let me think for some time.
and here is the version for f-200 users with the current state.

some default behaviour:
START: toggle keyboard visibility.
CLICK: tab ;command completion //i know there is no click button on f-200. edit the configuration file.
A: insert
B: enter
Y: space
X: backspace
SELECT+UP : cursor up; command history
SELECT+DOWN : cursor down; command history

and etc. i have not updated the README but it think it is still enough for this version.

***
 
I dunno, thought I'd throw my opinion in here, but I think it might be a bad idea to split the keyboard in two for f-200 users, I'd actually rather just leave the keyboard as it is (it's really not that hard to hit the correct letters, and I'm using my index finger), remove the extra step of pressing a for each selection, and simply add a large backspace button. I don't know, I just don't really expect to be using the keyboard in any natural way, i'd rather go for the quickest and easiest input, which I think is touch-typing with an easy to get at error correction like a big backspace.
 
narmak said:
I dunno, thought I'd throw my opinion in here, but I think it might be a bad idea to split the keyboard in two for f-200 users, I'd actually rather just leave the keyboard as it is (it's really not that hard to hit the correct letters, and I'm using my index finger), remove the extra step of pressing a for each selection, and simply add a large backspace button. I don't know, I just don't really expect to be using the keyboard in any natural way, i'd rather go for the quickest and easiest input, which I think is touch-typing with an easy to get at error correction like a big backspace.
termula2x is fully configurable via its configuration file. you can define 1 to n screens. so if you do not want to split the keyboard, simply do not split;) just drop your configuration file here and i can include it with the next release as an option. by the way the beta is here.
 
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