Dreamtrove, Sounds like a job for RelativeLayout.
See: http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/index.html http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-relativelayout.html http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/declaring-layout.html --Fred ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fred Stluka -- mailto:[email protected] -- http://bristle.com/~fred/ Bristle Software, Inc -- http://bristle.com -- Glad to be of service! Open Source: Without walls and fences, we need no Windows or Gates. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On 12/29/11 3:36 PM, Dreamtrove wrote:
Okay, I'm just beginning this project. I've been programming for many years but I'm new to Android. I did the hello world and a few other test apps and now I want to start my first real app, which is going to be an input method. I've got some Android books stacked up here and am holding an animal book right now, but there's nothing here on good layout control. I end up with a flow layout, which may work for many things, but it makes for a sucky on screen input. I'd appreciate any ideas. Here are the specs that I want to aim for: 1) I want to be able to place the keys exactly where I want them 2) I want them to register on finger down, I'll explain below* 3) I'm considering key registering by collision like a video game rather than by button, but that is probably too complicated for a first time out, so I'll just stick with the other two for now. * On many on screen input methods, if not most, the key registers on finger up. The problem with this is if I hit G and then hit an O before letting go of the G, most devices will give me the G but not the O, and some will even give me a J instead, as a compromise of the two locations. I know this problem isn't unique to android because it happens on a few iOS apps as well. So, what I'd like to do is register a finger down event, and have that trigger a routine that sticks things in a buffer, to be released as text out on a finger up, but I digress.... I really have to tackle the layout issue, so, starting with, absolute layout, or what would be really nice is "layout as % of total screen" so each key could be 10% of the screen width for qwerty, and then again for asdfg, only with a left margin of 2.5% and a right one of 7.5% (or a key there, like enter, or the elusive apostrophe.) Also, I'm thinking that I want to possibly be able to resize this keyboard for tablets, (this is mostly a tablet app, you can't really finger type on a phone.) If I resize it, then it just has to be some % of an abstract size that the app creates, and then that can be translated to the user's screen size. Anyway, sorry this post was longer than intended. Any ideas for better layout control?
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