considering making a virtual keyboard
 

i'm sure i'm not the only one looking for a nice virtual keyboard. The default one isn"t bad, but it isn't good either. Even the downloadable keyboard don't quite fit my needs.

So i decided to make one myself!
but there rises a first question!
What programming language should i use to build this thing?
wich one's the fastest? Because some of you might type quite fast i think. :D

so please leave a comment.
Tell me if you think this is a good idea, what languag i should use or even so features you'd like to see in an app like this.

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

whats wrong with:

http://wiki.maliit.org/Main_Page

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

looks like i'm a little to late :D i did not see this yet...
checking it out right now

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

Maliit developer here. There are two VKB plugins provided by us:
* QML-based: very basic, but works on more platforms than Harmattan.
* Harmattan: the one that gets all the nice reviews lately.

We would like to improve the QML version, but at least for the N900, it is feasible to get the Harmattan version to run (its dependencies are all available for N900).

The problem with Maliit on N900: We have only basic support for Hildon-based apps, and that's sadly the majority of apps still :-( We have a GTK+ plugin, but it needs more work.

So even if we don't have much time for the N900, we do accept patches. In fact, I just merged a N900-specific patch on Friday ;-)

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

Please please please! :)

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

mallit does look quite nice but is can't get it to work.

When i run the test, maliit crashes when i rotate it.
and the biggest "dissapointement" (couldn't find a less neggative word) is the lack of AZERTY..
In my country, and many others, keyboard are azerty and we find it annoying everytime we are forgotten.. if you know what i mean :p

i'll try to make a plugin.. is there some sort of deadline?
Because i only know C# at the moment so i need to learn a new language

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

@mikhas

thank you to support Arabic language. I can't waiting to get it working on my N900 :)

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

Just to clarify things (Michael correct me if i'm wrong) this is the work required to get a software virtual keyboard running on N900:

• Adapt gtk im context from meegotouch-im to upstream maliit
• merge mikhas hack of current meegotouch-im packages into maliit
• Add keyboard variant support

And this is what we have right now:

• Upstream maliit properly packet with full support for N900
• QML based keyboard up and running with full support for QtComponents apps

by far, the fastest approach is to contributte to maliit. Those guys are very receptive. There are a lot off efforts but IMO the correct approach is to work on it

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

Problem with this approach is meegotouch, but, if we could get rid of that dependence... ;)

Re: considering making a virtual keyboard
 

Thanks for the summary, inean. Getting GTK+ support "out-of-the-box" is currently ongoing:

https://gitorious.org/maliit/maliit-...ge_requests/77

(that's a huge patch, think twice before clicking!)

But that's only the patch, someone needs to figure out how Maliit can be properly installed onto Fremantle so that the GTK_IM_MODULE is set to meego-im (for QT_IM_MODULE, it should be Maliit) and that maliit-server process is running.