Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

This is simultaneously what I love and hate about the n900. I love the fact that we can have awesome projects like this. I hate the fact that we need awesome projects like this to fix what is an incomplete product that will never be finished.

+1 for qwerty and those little popups to let you know what key you are on like apple/google/opera.

This will be the single most important usability update for the n900 since it's release.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

If you want to switch back to the default virtual keyboard without uninstalling the app you can simply run this command in X-terminal :)


What is the name of this keyboard? So that the same command can set the portrait keyboard as default one??

Thanks

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Also seen on BlueMaemo, which borrowed it keyboard from some EFL POC keyboard -- don't remember the original project's name.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

guys i installed it but it doesn t work . . how can i make it work?

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

andrew_85 - did you either reboot the device or open x-term, type "killall hildon-input-method", and press enter? (It won't say anything when you run the command, it'll just go to the next line, but it will have done what it needed to do)

If not, that's probably where your problem is. In which case checking the very first post of and/or rereading this thread would have answered your question.

If you did do that, and it still doesn't work, please go into more detail as to what you're doing, what you have installed, etc, so that others can help you.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

This is the code to switch between keyboards :)

Default keyboard is called : hildon_western_fkb
Portrait keyboard is called : hildon_im_onehand_fkb

Just simple enter these commands in the order I list them in :

To enable portait keyboard:

Then if you want to revert to the default landscape QWERTY keyboard:

Hope this helps people wanting to switch ebtween them easily :)

Maybe somebody can make a script so we can simply execute the commands easily! Or a control panel applet? Last exam tommorow and I am gonna try and get in on the developing side to try and help :) Maybe I will make a toggle switch in the settings as a seperate applet if nobody does it before I get a chance to :p

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Just tried your commands. They do indeedly work. However, something I noticed: I went into X-Term, typed the code to enable the default vkb, ran it, ran killall hildon-input-method, closed the hardware keyboard, and pressed on the screen. Normal keyboard came up fine. Then I hid the keyboard by clicking outside it, opened up the hardware one, and did the code to enable the new portrait compatible one. Upon hitting enter for "killall hildon-input-method", X-Term crashed, saying "Internal Error. Application 'T-Term closed." I reopened X-Term, closed HWK, and pressed the screen, and the new VKB came up - SO, the commands worked perfectly, but I'm wondering if anyone knows why it behaved like that.

Just tried doing ONLY the code to switch to standard keyboard. X-Term crashed at entering "killall hildon-input-method" again. (But it did revert to the virtual keyboard again).

And just tried again with only the code to go back to this portrait compatible one. Same error again. (Keyboard went to the new one just fine.)

And tried "killall hildon-input-method" by itself. X-Term crashed again.

It's not horribly bad, and everything seems to still work, but it's annoying.

(Before hitting submit I rebooted N900 and tested again - no change. X-Term crashed upon "killall hildon-input-method".)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

I definitely agree that a good qwerty keyboard would be better, even the opera implementation is better than nothing.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

For what it's worth the main thing I hate about the Opera vertical keyboard is the iPhone-esque capitalization scheme - it's just a caps lock, not a cell-phone-like shift key (hence my recommendation to go with the latter for this virtual keyboard). I don't even mind having to click three times to get to certain characters, though that bothers me ever-so-slightly too. (This entire post is referring to Opera's keyboard only, obviously. Clicking three times to get to a letter on the vertical keyboard here doesn't bother me because I know it's a work in progress.)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

While you guys are at it, what about adding a cool feature that shaking the n900 for 2 seconds will erase all text? :D

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Yhh I have noticed this as well!

Thing is it works and does not harm anything. TBH its hepful because it means you dont need to close xTerm everytime :)

I have made 2 scripts one for Default layout and one for the Portrait layout :)

I have also made two application shortcuts that can be placed on the desktop to switch between each layout by activating the scripts :)

If you want I will upload and link to them? Let me know :)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

umm.. yes please thank you !! XD

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

It's helpful unless you're running X-Term with the intent to do something else. But that's neither here nor there.

But do you know why it does this? I would love a technical explanation for what happens at the deeper software level that causes X-Term to crash after the second time running the commands? Do you think it was caused by running both switches in a row in one X-Term session? Or is it something that was initially caused by switching to the new keyboard, and the both-in-one-section thing had nothing to do with it?

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

can you give me the link please? thanks!!

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Alrite uploading them know will update this post when they are online :)


EDIT: Here is the linke to the files! I have included a readme incase you are unsure of what to do. Pm me if you have any problems :)

KeyboardSwitcher.rar

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

I would like to kno why this happens as well :p

I dont have alot of technical knowledge of Maemo :p Im just starting to learn bits and bobs as I have more free time!

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

thanks so much for this.. do i have to reboot everytime i switch keyboard? because when i clicked the default icon, its still on the portrait mode

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Nope. No reboot is nesscesary as it performs a killall function :)

Does it open X Terminal and then close it?

because that is how it should function.

It should be:

1. Open app
2. xTerm opens
3. xTerm crashes/closes
4. selected keyboard is enabled

please make sure you have Rootsh installed. It enables the use of the "sudo gainroot" command which is vital for this script.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

it doesnt open xterminal.. it says internal error...

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

I suppose that you've not seen this yet, since I didn't find any mention about YouTube?

Detailed guide for: How to get Portrait keyboard in Fremantle (Unstable) - With Voice

You may want to enable HTML5 to YouTube, that's the only way I was able to watch this video.

YouTube HTML5 Video Player

If this can be found from the system and fixed from width's, you should be fine, right? I'd prefer this over the T9 (or Opera's over this/T9), since it's very, very slow method of input.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

I dont understand people's want for a qwerty keyboard. Have you slid open your N900's?!

A T9 input method would be perfect similar to that on 5th edition phones like the 5800.

Thanks for all your hard work.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Well for one, I happen to find QWERTY much faster, than T9. T9 is damn slow, I don't want to have that option ever again. Yes, I really can't stand it.

And yes, I have opened my keyboard. I though, for one, can't write with keyboard open in portrait-position. I also prefer using the device with one hand only (one holding, one typing) and that usually ends up in portrait, not in landscape. Landscape is good, but even when I'm browsing the net, I'm using Opera Mobile with portrait.

Just my opinion though.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

The internal error is fine. That is xTerm crashing after executing the killall command.

When it crashses it means its switched them. Make sure you are pressing the correct app?

Not tyring to sound lyk im underminding ur ability or anything just tryng to figure out everything to see if I can help ya out :)

Xterm opens soo quickly on mine i barely see it open. Just ends up in the multitasking viewer if I have apps open when i execute the command..

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

It probably takes the killall function seriously as in. Because xterminal can be inutted text into it causes it to crash as the keyboard switches duing the restart of the hildon-input-method??

Just a thought :)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

ive been using t9 for years and except for writing web addresses and such i can honestly say that i can write faster with t9 than any qwerty keyboard so +1 for t9 :)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

I prefer a hard keyboard, I always make typos with soft keyboards. But why not have both T9 and Qwerty?

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

yep let s have both . . t9 some time can be very helpful.
finally is working very well :-)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Yes. Have you tried typing on the thumboard with one hand while holding the phone portraitly? It works ok left-handed, not so much righthanded. ;)


For those of us unused to phone-typing large quantities of text, even T9 is awkward -- I don't care if it's qwerty specifically, but one button, one character for at least alpha (and preferably numeric and common punctuation) is the way my brain is trained. Why would I want to retrain with T9 for a virtual keyboard, where I don't even get the benefit of touch-typing? (Yes, I do have a certain admiration for those who can pound out SMSes with one hand while barely glancing at the phone, even though I can't myself.)

And I'll admit, silly as it is, I also like stealing all the features from competing platforms for showing off.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

i for one like T9 with QW-ER-TY check the BB PEARL and E55

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

TBH T9 has saved me soo much time when im in situations where i need to send a text quickly and only have one hand free.

eg. when im on the train and am holding onto the railings or even walking down the street. I can almost text without even focusing on the screen meaning i dont bump into people :p

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

True, but that doesn't explain why it started happening only after the first two executions of your script. I've ran "killall hildon-input-method" before then (and you probably had to at least once when you first installed this keyboard, before you wrote your switch commands), and I don't know what happened on your end but my X-Term didn't crash then.

(Just to be clear it's not like I'm blaming you for this. I'm sure it's no big deal, and if it is, and slowly killing our devices, we can always reflash. :) )

As for people *****ing about QWERTY vs. T9, I am still of the opinion that we should aim for a final version that has both, and let the end-parasites like us change the settings ourselves.

In the meantime, I think the complaining about how not-pleasant-to-use/impossible-to-use T9 is needs to become less... idk, demanding/entitled? Maybe I'm at an advantage because I'm only 19 now and learned T9 a little over a year ago, so I was young and my brain was still flexible, but age is no excuse to not rejoice at every opportunity to develop said brain flexibility by making it learn new things.

The same goes for people who don't like qwerty, honestly.

Ask for both, so you don't add to a sociological push that will only screw over the people who feel the same way about the choice you don't want, or better yet, ask for having both and then see if you can learn enough to contribute to making it happen.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

I agree with this. You, sir, have made a good point and this point should indeed be in the final edition. When I posted the video and mentioned my opinion about the T9 vs QWERTY I had no idea, that it would go on like this. Heck, I've even heard that someone started a war here earlier on, when portrait-support was asked.

Anyways, I think that's enough for now. :)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Awesome app.. this fone reli needs portrait mode lol, any idea if or when this app will include T9 input, would be a flawless app then :P

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

According to the first post, T9 is part of the plan for the future of this app :)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Thank you! Someone finally posted what I was thinking :) If there is both then NOBODY is left out. We are a community we all share the same interest!

Making our N900 as good as possible!

So lets just spend time focussing on trying to make that happen instead of arguing about how your method of texting is better then others!

Both options will allow everyone to choose and that way everyone is happy :)

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

The Opera Mobile 10 portrait keyboard is a much better one in my opinion.
I'd appreciate that design as an option to yours.

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Hello,

I'm trying to use portrait-keyboard-2.0.0-2-maemo2 from extras-devel and it doesn't work. Double clicking (pressing) on input field will show up keyboard with text filled, but any further editing don't give any results - text in input field remain the same.

Nevertheless, I curious about support of international layouts, particularly russian. Can you add a support for switching layout please?
Russian layout (with minor differences between manufacturers) looks like:
2: "абвг" / "АБВГ"
3: "деёжз" / "ДЕЁЖЗ"
4: "ийкл" / "ИЙКЛ"
5: "мноп" / "МНОП"
6: "рсту" / "РСТУ"
7: "фхцч" / "ФХЦЧ"
8: "шщъы" / "ШЩЪЫ"
9: "ьэюя" / "ЬЭЮЯ"

Full-featured russian layout: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JCUKEN

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Could somebody please outline this as a step-by-step process.

I've installed Rootsh and the Portrait Keyboard.
I've disabled the native keyboard, and i've entered the commands to enable the vertical keyboard, and rebooted.

However it will NOT work. It just doesn't apepar.

Somebody help. Please!

Thanks

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

Re: [Announce] portrait-keyboard: Portrait-friendly system-wide keyboard
 

can you please make an applet on the top for easy switching?