Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman) wrote: > i was hoping to be able to keep a SIMPLE ascii qwerty keyboard for as > much as > possible - so you can just type and it will work and offer the selections as > it's trying to guess anyway - it can present the multiple accented versions > too. this limits the need for special keyboards - doesn't obviate it, but > allows more functionality out of the box. in the event users explicitly > select > an accented char - ie a non-ascii character, it should not "decimate". it > should try match exactly that char. > We will still need to select the correct dictionary for the language somewhere. It is no more work if this also selects a keyboard layout adapted to that language.
I can see why you want a simple keyboard with fewer keys - the keys can be bigger and so there will be fewer finger-misses. I don't see any reason why it should be limited to ascii though - that division does not seem natural to me. An example from the Norwegian laguage: The letter ô is rarely used, and everybody thinks about it as an "o" with a "hat" on it. So this one fits your scheme - type "o" and "ô" will be suggested in the few cases where it is appropriate. But the three vowels "æøå" is different. They are letters of their own, they are not seen as "modifications of a/o", even if that may be historically correct. These three have their own names and their own places in the alphabet (after z). An "å" is not merely an "a with ring", no more than the "E" is an "F" with an extra line attached. The "ø" is not merely an "o" with a slash either. Many people don't know that "æ" originated as an "ae" ligature. "æ" and "ae" can both occur in words, but the pronunciation is different and they are not interchangeable. So when Norwegians type, they expect to see the 29 letters of their alphabet: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzæøå. "ô" and "é" are sometimes useful too, but these are just "o" and "e" with modifications. "æøå" however, are parts of the base alphabet. Just like "abc". A keyboard without "æøå" is assumed not to support Norwegian. I hope things like this will be possible, if a new dictionary format is realized. It is ok if typing "for" suggests "fôr" as an alternative, but "før" should not come up unless the user types "f" "ø" "r". In which case "o" must not be suggested... Helge Hafting _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community