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Beta is on cohost dot org @stillinbeta2/22/2024, 10:33 PM

Nire Bryce @NireBryce

count swagula @clip4/30/2023, 3:46 PM

looking at old pre-modern smartphone sony ericsson pda style phones and i think i just found one of the worst keyboards ever conceived

"The "butterfly keyboard" which delivered a qwerty experience on a constrained keypad using rocker keys was conceived by Björn Ahlberg who is credited on the patent for this design."

via https://www.mobilephonemuseum.com/phone-detail/sony-ericsson-m600

frankie boyle's beanbag chair of death @micolithe4/30/2023, 3:50 PM

If you're gonna constrain yourself to this kinda space you may as well go back to the numberpad + t9 predictive text

Glyn @glyn4/30/2023, 4:09 PM

honestly we should go back to t9 on a lot of things because no way am I fucking typing out a message on a qwerty keyboard with a controller

Super Mario Bros. Movie (1993) apologist @outrider2/22/2024, 2:15 PM

you know what's far worse than software qwerty keyboards?

THIS FUCKING GARBAGE

Nire Bryce @NireBryce2/22/2024, 2:57 PM

the ideal controller text input scheme is MessagEase

Beta is on cohost dot org @stillinbeta2/22/2024, 10:33 PM

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in reply to @clip's post:

~@modulusshift4/30/2023, 3:54 PM

Wait, oh god, rocker switches? I thought it’d be like T9, where the software just does it’s best guess at which letter you wanted from the key lol

count swagula @clip4/30/2023, 4:06 PM

YEAH... that was my first guess too but nope! rocker switches! :)

~@modulusshift4/30/2023, 4:22 PM

Okay, between this and Apple’s experiments with the ultra thin “butterfly keyboard” design, I’m beginning to wonder if that term was ever used for anything good.

Maya @Mayabotics2/22/2024, 5:11 PM

Only way back in the 90s, for the IBM ThinkPad 701's Butterfly Keyboard.

Jessica @ticky4/30/2023, 4:55 PM

you know what I think this could’ve been okay

does mean you lose the traditional letter relationship with the keys though, making it somehow less compatible with vanity numbers lol

in reply to @micolithe's post:

tess , this proliferation of elf gifts @tessfromhell4/30/2023, 4:42 PM

at least texting on numpad+t9 made me feel like a telegraph operator... this just seems like it'd be difficult to use

frankie boyle's beanbag chair of death @micolithe4/30/2023, 6:10 PM

yeah it seems like a user experience nightmare lol

in reply to @glyn's post:

frankie boyle's beanbag chair of death @micolithe4/30/2023, 4:13 PM

whenever the ps3/ps4 decided to give me an on-screen t9 pad i was always so happy lol

in reply to @outrider's post:

signal eleven @widr2/23/2024, 5:26 AM

if you make this a physical keyboard though it switches around and becomes super fucking good again, check this shit out https://www.infogrip.com/bigkeys-lx.html

it even has a physical switch on it that changes the layout from QWERTY to ABCDEF for real deal hunt-and-peck typists

in reply to @NireBryce's post:

jckarter @jckarter2/22/2024, 3:25 PM

im sure this already exists but chording seems like a good fit for modern controllers too. you’ve got 8 cardinal directions on the two sticks, and two triggers on each thumb, so 576 possible “keys” without making people try to press both triggers at once with one thumb

Nire Bryce @NireBryce2/22/2024, 3:42 PM

twin-stick flick stenography

maggie @amikumanto2/23/2024, 8:33 AM

iirc steam (used to?) have an input method like this: point one of the two joysticks in one of 8 directions and press one of the 4 face buttons for a total of 64 possible characters!
there was also a kickstarter for a project with a similar idea that sought to make a kind of universal gesture keyboard that could work on controllers, smartphones, etc. it was called crosstap, but sadly the kickstarter failed and now its creator writes anti vax books :/

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