IanSav's reworking of VirtualKeyboard

[prl]

This is alpha firmware and is not intended for normal use.

Here's a alpha patch that tests the rework of VirtualKeyboard by IanSav (and several other smaller contributors). It contains an enigma2 binary image and it only runs correctly on a V2.

It works with the two pre-loaded skins, easy-skin-aus-hd and Full-Metal-Wizard, and with Ian's OverlayHD skin, version 1.70. For it to work with OverlayHD, OverlayHD must already be installed when the patch is applied.

The patch has been tested with firmware version 20210826 but it should also work with other recent betas.

To apply the patches, download the linked .ZIP file (it's a Dropbox link), and extract it. It will create a new directory/folder called vkbd-installer.v2, which contains two files, installer.sh and uninstaller.sh.

Copy the two files somewhere convenient on a T/U/V series box (like /home/root), then log into the box using telnet or ssh, change directory to the place you put the installer.sh/uninstaller.sh files. If you put the files in /home/root you'll be in the right place as soon as you log in.

To install the patches run:

sh installer.sh

and restart the GUI (or reboot).

To uninstall the patches, log in and go to the directory as you did to install, and run

sh uninstaller.sh

Then restart the GUI.

Make sure you uninstall before doing an online upgrade.

You can check whether the patches are installed by logging in and running this on the box:

find /usr/lib/enigma2 /usr/bin /usr/share/enigma2 -name \*.bak

It should print nothing if the patch isn't installed, and it should print a list of 23 changed files if the patch is installed.

The patch can also be installed by running the scripts from FileCommander (MENU>sources / Files from live TV). Doing it that way avoids the need to use the command-line interface and have a login set up on the PVR. It also allows you to run the install/uninstall scripts from a USB thumb drive, and avoids the need to have the box networked (though I suspect that most folk who will use this have it networked anyway).

Comments welcome!

vkbd-installer.v2.zip

[peteru]

Do you have a public branch somewhere that has the commit history to show the series of changes? The branch I found on BitBucket has not seen any updates for a while.

[prl]

I took a copy of the OpenVision version of VirtualKeyboard.py on 18 August - the OpenVision one was what IanSav recommended as the most up-to-date. Its most recent commit was on 8 August.

I was simply going to check that in with the minimum of cherry-picks of other code changes (two commits) that allow the new VirtualKeyboard.py to work with minimal changes to itself. I could try to preserve the commit history from OpenVision, but that may be quite a lot of commits, and may be bound up with other changes to the code.

The commit history of that version can be seen here:
https://github.com/OpenVisionE2/enigma2 ... eyBoard.py

[peteru]

Could you please post a screenshot of the new keyboard? Bonus points for also posting a screenshot of the existing one, so we can compare.

[prl]

Current VirtualKeyBoard:

IanSav VirtualKeyBoard:

The new skins for the VirtualKeyboard are merges of the embedded skin of IanSav's VirtualKeyBoard.py and the Beyonwiz skins for VirtualKeyBoard.

[MrQuade]

Looks odd having the hint buttons on the right like that.
(And what do INFO and TEXT do?)

The keyboard has two case buttons and no selectable shift button? Quite a few oddities going on there....I wouldn't have called the yellow function "shift" I personally I think.

No @ on the base keyboard.

What are the weird symbols in the bottom right? I assume the one on the far right is a "delete right" function.

[sub3R]

... and no selectable shift button?

Aren’t the shift buttons on each end of the second bottom row (up arrows)? The same as on a normal keyboard.

[peteru]

It's a shame you cropped the images, it would have been good to see the relationship of each version to the total screen real estate.

I'm not a fan of the new version. It appears to have lost some of the conveniences related to common use cases, such as quick entry of email and web addresses. It appears more cluttered and unbalanced in terms of element placement. It appears to aim at matching the layout of a physical keyboard, which is not necessarily the best approach.

At this stage, I don't see a compelling reason to adopt a backport of the VirtualKeyboard. The only motivation appears to be API compatibility with OverlayHD. If the only reason for this change is to provide an API that is compatible with a single skin, I'd rather see a small API adaptor interface to the existing implementation of the VirtualKeyboard.

Having examined the commit history you pointed at, I can see that the new implementation of the VirtualKeyboard has seen frivolous changes to the existing API without regard to existing code. It's been called out several times and in some instances a backwards compatible API has been implemented. Let's see what the new version of OverlayHD needs and what can be done to satisfy that API requirement, without having to pull in all the new code.

[prl]

Looks odd having the hint buttons on the right like that.
(And what do INFO and TEXT do?)

Ian has added comprehensive help

The keyboard has two case buttons and no selectable shift button? Quite a few oddities going on there....I wouldn't have called the yellow function "shift" I personally I think.

Shift (YELLOW) shifts for the next character only. Upper case/Lower case/etc (BLUE) is capslock: stays that way until changed by used.

No @ on the base keyboard.

No. I know that there was a lot of discussion about the keyboards (and there are a lot of them), but I didn't follow it.

What are the weird symbols in the bottom right? I assume the one on the far right is a "delete right" function.

Up-arrow with yellow border is Shift (same as YELLOW), the globe (and speech bubble?) is national language keyboard selection (same as TEXT), eraser icon is erase all (same as MEDIA) and yes, the rightmost is the same as the classic DOS keyboard HOME button group's delete right button (same as NEXT & PLAY/PAUSE), and it's the same icon as on many DOS keyboard layouts).

[MrQuade]

Shift (YELLOW) shifts for the next character only. Upper case/Lower case/etc (BLUE) is capslock: stays that way until changed by used.

Text should say "Caps Lock" then?

What are the weird symbols in the bottom right? I assume the one on the far right is a "delete right" function.

Up-arrow with yellow border is Shift (same as YELLOW),

That up arrow has a blue border (hence my comment about two shift buttons on the keyboard).

the globe (and speech bubble?) is national language keyboard selection (same as TEXT), eraser icon is erase all (same as MEDIA)

And TEXT is shown on the right, but not MEDIA?



Sorry, I am sounding a bit negative, but I think some oddly non-intuitive choices have been made.

[prl]

Shift (YELLOW) shifts for the next character only. Upper case/Lower case/etc (BLUE) is capslock: stays that way until changed by used.

Text should say "Caps Lock" then?

What are the weird symbols in the bottom right? I assume the one on the far right is a "delete right" function.

Up-arrow with yellow border is Shift (same as YELLOW),

That up arrow has a blue border (hence my comment about two shift buttons on the keyboard).

Ah, yes, sorry, I was looking at the en_US keyboard when I warote that. It does have the "shift" uparrow button, just to the right of the spacebar.

the globe (and speech bubble?) is national language keyboard selection (same as TEXT), eraser icon is erase all (same as MEDIA)

And TEXT is shown on the right, but not MEDIA?


Sorry, I am sounding a bit negative, but I think some oddly non-intuitive choices have been made.

MEDIA is not one of the 4 buttons normally shown as button hints. The button hint buttons are MENU, INFO, TEXT & HELP. MENU has no function in Ian's VirtualKeyBoard.

As I said, I wasn't part of the discussion about the VirtualKeyBoard changes, so I can't give you much information about the rationale.

[MrQuade]

Ah, yes, sorry, I was looking at the en_US keyboard when I warote that. It does have the "shift" uparrow button, just to the right of the spacebar.

Oh gawd. And for some reason, the UK keyboard thought the pipe symbol was more useful on the default view.

MEDIA is not one of the 4 buttons normally shown as button hints. The button hint buttons are MENU, INFO, TEXT & HELP. MENU has no function in Ian's VirtualKeyBoard.

Yea, understood, more of a failing of the underlying enigma2 design than anything. Just seems like an oddly arbitrary key choice and a weird omission from the set of "special keys" to display.
Rather than MEDIA, tying that function to a long-press of PREV and/or NEXT might have been better.

As I said, I wasn't part of the discussion about the VirtualKeyBoard changes, so I can't give you much information about the rationale.

Yep, certainly not pinning anything on you with my critique.

[prl]

Long-PREV is also "clear all". Help is your friend

[MrQuade]

Long-PREV is also "clear all". Help is your friend

That would be great if I had this installed

So essentially, the MEDIA key is just redundant already.

You could easily repurpose the RED button to do this job too to make it visible. No reason to have RED as exit of you have a functional EXIT button.

Id have shift lock and shift on long press and short press of blue, and you could stick your language button on yellow if you thought that was a necessary thing.

And the two blue buttons on the keyboard could be handled as shift and shift lock with single press as shift and a second press to lock with optionally some kind of on screen indication to indicate the lock.

Anyway, all a bit academic and I just need to shut up I think.

[prl]

I think that perhaps some of what you're describing is "different" rather than being particularly "unintuitive". I don't think that IanSav's button choice is really that much more unintuitive than some of the button choices in the current VirtualKeyBoard, though in Ian's version, there are certainly more active buttons.