Comment 1 Neil MacLeod 2009-12-28 05:40:43 UTC

Was this ever working in 1.2009.42-11?

I tested the "up stroke" gesture in 42-11 and it didn't appear to work. I
didn't think to test any of the other "traditional" vkb gestures as I just
assumed none of them had been implemented either.

I agree this is a definite bug, but I don't think it's new to 51-1.

Comment 2 Andre Klapper 2009-12-30 01:59:38 UTC

(In reply to comment #0)
> EXPECTED OUTCOME:
> Left-swipe deletes, right enters a space, back and forth deletes several
> characters, up shifts the selected character, etc.

Is/was that somewhere documented, like in the User Manual of the N900 or N8x0?
If it's an undocumented feature this won't be considered a bug...

Comment 3 Neil MacLeod 2009-12-30 02:19:33 UTC

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #0)
> > EXPECTED OUTCOME:
> > Left-swipe deletes, right enters a space, back and forth deletes several
> > characters, up shifts the selected character, etc.
> 
> Is/was that somewhere documented, like in the User Manual of the N900 or N8x0?
> If it's an undocumented feature this won't be considered a bug...
> 

Yes it's documented in the N800 manual, here:

http://nds2.nokia.com/files/support/nam/phones/guides/N800_US_en.PDF

and on page 13, in the bottom right corner of page with accompanying image, it
describes the four gestures (backspace, space, switch case and line break) that
are not working on the N900.

These gestures have been supported since the first 770 release.

There is no mention of these gestures in the N900 user guide.

Comment 4 Andre Klapper 2009-12-30 02:38:27 UTC

Let's try, though I'm afraid of an "INVALID as not defined in the Specs"
answer...

(In reply to comment #1)
> Was this ever working in 1.2009.42-11?
> 
> I tested the "up stroke" gesture in 42-11 and it didn't appear to work. I
> didn't think to test any of the other "traditional" vkb gestures as I just
> assumed none of them had been implemented either.

I'm on 42-11 here and I'm using the following gestures:
"up" for capitalisation 
"down" for new line
"back" for deleting one character 
"back and forth" to delete more than 1 character (tends to stop working,
though, after a while)

So yes, they do work on PR 1.0, and if they don't on a later release, it's a
bug. Plus there's a bug in the specs if they forgot to mention it there.

Argh, confirmed, just when I thought they couldn't cripple input methods more
:-(

Votes welcome.

Comment 7 Andre Klapper 2010-01-04 12:21:11 UTC

Internal comment:
"The gestures have been dropped so the FKB allows the users' fingers to be
dragged through the keys.
This new behavior is much more useful to input chars using the FKB since it
will allow fast typing (user presses two places at a time) as well as
correction.
The drop of the gestures has been accepted from the specification people."

Comment 8 Ryan Abel (reporter) 2010-01-04 21:18:28 UTC

(In reply to comment #7)
> Internal comment:
> "The gestures have been dropped so the FKB allows the users' fingers to be
> dragged through the keys.
> This new behavior is much more useful to input chars using the FKB since it
> will allow fast typing (user presses two places at a time) as well as
> correction.
> The drop of the gestures has been accepted from the specification people."
> 

Debatable, my input speeds have actually dropped significantly with virtual
input.

But we all know Nokia hates virtual input (why else do they seemingly seek to
cripple it as much as possible with every release?). Can we at least get a
setting if it's going to be spec before reason again?

Comment 9 Andre Klapper 2010-01-04 21:26:18 UTC

(In reply to comment #8)
> But we all know Nokia hates virtual input (why else do they seemingly seek to
> cripple it as much as possible with every release?).

*yawn* Vague generalizations don't help convincing people, but you know that...

> Can we at least get a setting if it's going to be spec before reason again?

If you re-read comment 7 you will see that Spec folks accepted *afterwards*?
;-)

(In reply to comment #9)
> (In reply to comment #8)
> > But we all know Nokia hates virtual input (why else do they seemingly seek to
> > cripple it as much as possible with every release?).
> 
> *yawn* Vague generalizations don't help convincing people, but you know that...
> 
> > Can we at least get a setting if it's going to be spec before reason again?
> 
> If you re-read comment 7 you will see that Spec folks accepted *afterwards*?
> ;-)
> 

Unless there was a reason to remove the functionality that this sort of
advanced community can wrap their heads around, it is a silly "suit" decision
that we would except an unimaginative company like Apple to make, with little
regard to actual end-users.  Unless enough of them whined, of course.

These sort of gestures would be HIGHLY useful for a portrait virtual keyboard. 
But wait, last I heard a virtual keyboard in portrait mode was not going to
even be included, correct?

I didn't even know about these gestures and they would fit perfectly.  The
virtual keyboard is already decadent enough, please IMPROVE it's functionality,
not hinder it.

Comment 11 Neil MacLeod 2010-01-16 13:49:45 UTC

(In reply to comment #7)
> Internal comment:
> "The gestures have been dropped so the FKB allows the users' fingers to be
> dragged through the keys.
> This new behavior is much more useful to input chars using the FKB since it
> will allow fast typing (user presses two places at a time) as well as
> correction.
> The drop of the gestures has been accepted from the specification people."
> 

I'm sure this seemed like a really smart idea to those who did their testing at
an office desk in Finland, but on a moving train in the UK this change has
rendered the FKB far less useful as the error rate has now gone through the
roof - every train jolt means a slipped finger which means the wrong letter is
chosen. I would expect similar results when using on any other form of
transport.

This is a really badly thought through change - it doesn't help improve typing
speed, on the contrary it actually increases the likelihood of errors and we
have lost a useful feature to boot.

I would urge the team to reconsider this design change as it is not a positive
one.