TLDR: I miss Swype. Lots of people miss Swype. We need Swype on Sailfish, or something similar which is just as good. Please post on Swype forums so Swype know that we are interested! Also, we could do something other than Swype as a community... maybe.

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Moving from N9/Harmattan to Jolla/Sailfish is turning out to be a fairly pleasant experience, but with some big and obvious bumps in the road.

My single biggest issue right now is text input. Like various other people on TMO, I miss Swype terribly; after two years of Swype, going back to hunt-and-peck on a vkb is painful.

I know that Swype is covered by patent(s) and it isn't just a case of "add some dependencies and port it from somewhere".

Quite apart from the game-changing brilliance of Swype's "draw words with patterns", I also miss the convenience N9 Swype's very well thought-out implementation of "hold key down to get more options", I see that vowel-accents are available, but not numbers of quotes (double-quotes are hidden behind two screens). I suspect this could be resolved by editing keyboard layout, although I haven't had time to get to grips with that yet. A further functionality I miss from Swype on Harmattan is "tap word to see replacement suggestions". Perhaps I missed something, but this doesn't seem to be a thing in Sailfish right now.

Most of all, though: I miss the speed and accuracy of Swype. As it stands, using my Jolla even just for replying to an SMS or other short message is painfully slow and error-prone compared to my N9. I have written just a couple of short e-mail on Sailfish, but that experience makes me think maybe I should put my SIM card back in my N9.

So: this thread is intended for discussion of how we get from the current hunt-and-peck situation to having an improved/advanced text entry, either Swype or some other similarly useful method. I started a new thread since the existing Sailfish keyboard thread linked above is more about vkb layout; I think there is value in holding a separate focused discussion here.

Can we get Swype? How much would that cost, assuming licensing is a possibility, and who might pay for that? What other options are there? What appetite is there - both at Jolla and in the wider community - for a side-project to deliver Swype or an open (or even a closed!) alternative along these lines? etc.

Edit: if you want to see Swype on Sailfish, please take 2 minutes to post in the Sailfish thread at the Swype forums. No guarantees, but if we don't ask, we don't get. Thanks strongm for the pointer.

write to Swype company and ask. Nobody can answer you there,

While Swype have apparently already said that there's nothing in the pipeline, Jolla say they are giving it some thought.

As per my OP, I'm not just asking about Swype, but other equivalent possibilities too. Hence, even if we accept that no-one(?!) here can say anything useful about Swype itself, as I see it there is still something worth discussing here.

well, maliit keyboard api is open, anybody can make own keyboard with no problems

Well, that is indeed a great starting point! All other things being equal, open is better than closed, although there still remains the question: how do we move beyond hunt-and-peck?

I only just started giving this issue some serious thought, and as I'm at work I don't have the time to start reading anything in depth right now. Also, although I do have technical knowledge, it is mostly related to my work and not usually relevant to Sailfish (well, Unix abilities are useful in both). Over the coming days/weeks, I hope to read/discuss and understand better what our options are here. If we don't collaborate, chances are we get nothing, and that would be a shame in my opinion.

hunt-and-peck what?

Hunt-and-peck for L, E, T, T, E, R, S, <space>, O, F, <space>, T, H, E, <space>, A, L, P, H, A, B, E, T, <space>, A, N, D, <space>, S, Y, M, B, O, L, S, <space>, A, N, D, <space>, S, O, <space>, O, N.

Takes me at least five times longer to type such a phrase on the current Sailfish vkb compared to Swype on Harmattan, and I make more errors, which then take more effort to correct than with Swype on Harmattan. I don't accept that this is the best possible way to enter text via touchscreen on Sailfish!

i dont know what "hunt-and-peck" menas, i'm not native english speaker
but i see it means "swype" tehnology. So, its easy to do. Hardest part is accuracy algorithm and dictionary database

Hi. As a expectant Jolla Phone owner, I'd be interested in swype capability. I happen to come across this post. Would it be useful?

http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2014/0...qt-enterprise/


I currently use a Galaxy Note 3 and my ranking of speed in writing is (from greatest to lowest) Voice dictation, Pen, swype, typing.
Any thoughts on voice or writing recognition. Perhaps some linux based software exists for this too.

Ah, I see. Sorry for any confusion.

"Hunt and peck" can be used to describe any sort of UI experience where the user must stare at the screen, find the desired button, then carefully tap in the right area (and repeat and repeat and repeat...)

Swype is certainly not "hunt and peck"!

I'm pretty sure that when used in an IT context, the term "hunt and peck" is based on the way that a free-range chicken eats food: scan floor for one small item of food, throw head down to floor to grab and eat it, hunt for next small piece of food, throw down head to eat it ad infininitum.

The chicken's technique does work, but it's slow and annoying and certainly not graceful! This is how current Sailfish vkb experience feels to me.