move cursor by holding the space key

[rambip]

Your keyboard is reallu great for symbols, but it could be even beyyer for gestures.

I tried typewise for a few days, and the way you move your cursor ans delete characters with this keyboard is incredible.

If this keyboard had gestures for the cursor (and uppercase letters), this would probably be the best I have seen so far !

[Julow]

Hi! Thanks for the suggestion.

There's already a gesture on the keyboard that you might find useful. The key-repeat speed can be modulated by moving the finger farther or closer to the initial press, for the arrows, backspace and delete keys. Could this work for you ?

[532910]

I'd prefer to merge arrows button with the space button. Like on AnySoftKeyboard.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/14617699/155902354-63506240-4af2-4190-9cb5-e8fdc33dd11f.mp4

[Thunder-Squirrel]

In my opinion, moving the cursor by swiping the space bar would far more convenient, for the space bar is just larger and also can be reached by either hand. Moreover, an extra key could then be used, e.g., to toggle keyboard layouts instead of having to swipe and tap each time one needs to change the layout #109, which is pain.

[moya2162]

@Julow

The "precise repeat" function currently implemented is very difficult to precisely control the location of where the cursor will land since all it is doing is repeating a button press. The long the swipe the faster the button repeat. It's very analogous to using an actual computer keyboard. Not ideal on a virtual platform.

The implementation of swiping to move the cursor by having the distance move directly correlated to the movement of the swipe allows for precision control. If you stop swiping, the cursor stops moving.

There is already a keyboard on github which has swiping of the space bar to move the cursor implemented which works very well and is much easier to control on a phone. I would recommend checking out how they implemented it and consider incorporating in this project. You can find it here: https://github.com/rkkr/simple-keyboard

I think the best compromise would be to keep the directional arrow pad which you have implemented but have the movement of the cursor move with the movement of the finger. And this could be applied to moving left, right, up, and down.

[Julow]

Implemented in 854eff2. A debug version of the app can be found here (it needs to be enabled again in the settings): https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard/actions/runs/3981827849

[moya2162]

@Julow

Installed debug version to test this out. So far works well but there is 1 minor issue. After swiping to scroll to specific location, upon release of space bar the cursor moves by 1 space to left or right depending on where you are on the space bar when you remove your finger.

[sdrapha]

I can attest the issue that moya described is reproducible for me as well, same behavior, the cursor jumps one char.

Another issue I found on top of that, is that the SHIFT LOCK (by sliding the finger to the extra key) unlatches itself with any arrow movement. unlike the SHIFT LOCK by holding SHIFT for a time, which persists locked as expected.

[Julow]

Thanks both for trying. This should be fixed in 7bc93c4, debug apk is at https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard/actions/runs/4037961439