[QtExtended] some things

Dale Maggee antisol at internode.on.net
Mon Mar 16 02:16:32 CET 2009


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Lorn Potter wrote:
> Just hold down on the letter you want to select. You will see a round 
> 'spy glass' thing pop up with your letter.

This is all well and good, but it's for all intents and purposes totally
useless in practical application - typing anything remotely long or
complex (examples: My mail server address, somebody's surname, a phone
number, an email address, a street/suburb name, GPS coordinates) takes
an *inordinate* amount of time - just try typing out your postal address
using that method - you'll soon find that you're developing a powerful
urge to stab yourself in the eyeballs with a rusty fork... ;)

If typing your postal address doesn't do it, see how long it takes you
to type the following (spelling is important!):

"yo doodz wots up? im sendin this sms cuz i cbf typin an email you ya,
and cuz i wanna demo jus how goddamn awful it is to type wen it takes 3
secs for each bluddy letta. Got ne rusty forks lyin round?"

How long does it take you to type 'antidisestablishmentarianism' using
this method? Don't forget to also include in this figure the time it
takes to type "antidisestablishmentarianism", only to discover that it's
not in the dictionary, then delete that, then type it out
letter-by-letter. For comparison, here are some figures I just worked
out, using a stopwatch to time myself typing 'antidisestablishmentarianism':

* My PC - Standard US 101-key IBM Model M qwerty Keyboard - 6.18 seconds
* My Ipaq - HP Ipaq 6515 with built-in mini-qwerty keyboard - 12.35 Seconds
* FreeRunner running QT extended, using 'predictive keyboard': 81.95
Seconds (almost a minute and a half!)

I can't think of a more dramatic way to point out how slow this method
is. Obviously I don't expect it to match the Ipaq, but more than 6 times
slower than the Ipaq is abysmal. It shouldn't take a minute and a half
to type one word.

The simple and easy solution is as I noted before: the predictive text
should always offer you exactly what you type - if I type "pwned", I
want to see "pwned" and  "owned" in the word list, regardless of whether
"pwned" is in the dictionary.
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