On the Hero and I guess other Androids as well, there is the "Search" hardware button. This works in Hero Contacts AND in Launcher, bringing up the soft keyboard. Not particulary intuitive I grant you, as you tend to look for a button to do that on screen, but it does make sense.
Of course, in Android tapping any field which would takes text input always brings up the keyboard anyway, so it is only an issue in Hero's list apps because there isn't a default edit field which you can tap to start typing, and thus auto-show the keyboard. Is it not the same on the Magic? 2009/9/25 tauntz <[email protected]> > > > At any rate, long press on menu has ALWAYS been there purely as a very > last resort for pre-1.5 apps that couldn't have been written knowing about > input methods. It is a super-sucky mechanism to get to the soft keyboard, > and anyone writing an app today really should assume it doesn't exist and > provide a decent UI as part of their app. > > Understood. I was just under the impression that long pressing the > menu is the suggested way how "apps should work" maybe based on > http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3577 and > > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/ca26e331dce350eb/10802a8263b52c72 > > > Long press on menu is NOT what you should be making your users do. > Seriously. It sucks. Who would guess that is how you get to a keyboard? > Please give them a decent UI. > > Of course it sucks - no argument against that - but IMO cluttering the > user-interface with "open virtual keyboard" buttons sucks even more. > What's the minimum size of an UI item that is big enough so the user > can touch this with his/her finger? 42px on a standard > Dream/Magic/Hero screen? That is almost 10% of all the screen > real-estate for an app with a titlebar (speaking of height). Or when > you'd put that option to the menu, it would still require the user to > press menu once and then go and find the "open virtual keyboard" item > and press it. Sucky, isn't it? > > > It's easy: if there isn't a hard keyboard (which can control resource > selection as well as being info available in Resources.getConfiguration()), > then make a UI that interacts in a nice way with the soft keyboard. Also > consider doing this even if there is a hard keyboard. Like, uh, the > standard platform and apps do everywhere. You -never- make people use long > press on menu to enter text. Because it sucks. > > Uh, are we using the same devices here? I have a Magic here and when I > want to do filtering then: > * Home launcher -> no UI for opening virtual keyboard, I have to long press > menu > * Contacts -> no UI for opening virtual keyboard, I have to long press menu > ..are there any more places where you can filter lists in built-in apps? :) > > > Would it be an option to not tell developers that "you need to design > a separate layout for every activity that has a listview that is > filterable" (beacuse well - why would you want to have this > button/menu item on devices where there's a hardware keyboard?) and to > tell device manufacturers/IME developers to follow one simple rule - > "long-pressing the menu should open the virtual keyboard"? That would > at least create a standardized way of opening the keyboard. Imagine if > really every app designer is going to design their apps with "open > virtual keyboard" buttons - what the end users will get is n+1 > applications that each have this option in different places and it > looks totally different in different apps - some have it under menu -> > search, some have it under menu -> filter, some have it on the screen > in green, some have it orange, some use one icon, others use a > different icon, some have it at the top of the screen, some at the > bottom.. For the user that'll be a total mess if they have to learn > how to open the keyboard for every application that they install. THAT > sucks, doesn't it? > > I don't really care if it'll be "long-press menu" or devices start to > have a standalone "open keyboard" hardware button or the framework > will automatically detect "open keyboard" gestures or whatever. My > point is that can we please have one standard way of opening the > keyboard so the user knows that "when I want to open the keyboard in > ANY application, I have to do X"? > I don't want to start an argument in the style "Your approach sucks > more than mine!!!", really. I just think that the current situation we > are in, sucks :) > > > Tauno > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
