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An idea hit me when I was on the phone, using one hand to hold the phone and another to type... wouldn't it be nice if you could enable the number pad to turn into a phone keyboard for one-handed tasks? Predictive text autospelling (similar to T9) would be nice, although it would probably make sense to have the standard ABC tapping method as well. I would assume it probably makes sense to have a small popup above where you're typing to show you the available options as well so that you could use the + and - buttons to move back and forth through the options of words.

The idea is good, but... according to wikipedia T9 is a patented technology which means it is a no-go for an open source project.
But if there is out there something without patents to use, it would be great.
I suggest you to change the text of your idea to make it more general and not dependant of a particular technology.

Thanks... I was able to edit the body, but not the title. Also, I'm a bit curious as to why this was labeled as "no-fix"... won't something like this be fairly necessary with KDE SC Mobile?

envalin wrote:Thanks... I was able to edit the body, but not the title. Also, I'm a bit curious as to why this was labeled as "no-fix"... won't something like this be fairly necessary with KDE SC Mobile?

Maybe you can PM a moderator to reactivate this idea. I think it was "trashed" because the reference of a patented system. But if a "clean" (i.e., without patent risks) alternative is possible, I think the idea is good.

Is there a patent-free alternative available? You suggest we use one, but unless there is one available that doesn't help much. I don't think this idea should be re-opened unless such a system actually exists.

Ah, makes sense. I'll see what I can find, although would it be too much to actually develop such a system if none exists if KDE really plans on becoming a strong mobile platform?

Developing such a system would be easy. Developing such a system that does not infringe on the existing patents is likely much more difficult, and may not be a risk KDE is willing to take. It depends both on how broadly the patents are defined and how broadly they are interpreted.

envalin wrote:Ah, makes sense. I'll see what I can find, although would it be too much to actually develop such a system if none exists if KDE really plans on becoming a strong mobile platform?

I'm not sure it would be necessary for KDE itself to provide a T9 input method for it to be a strong mobile platform. After all, if the KDE technologies are capable of running on platform X, it should essentially be "tapping into" the input methods available on the given platform. A sort of abstraction if you will.

On a desktop/notebook, it would use the keyboard. On some cellphones, it would use a T9 input method. On yet others it would use an on-screen keyboard, and on others it would use a slide-out miniature keyboard.

Right, but touchscreen smartphones becoming the standard, there is less of a defined input method. KDE, in the case of a touchscreen device, has to provide an onscreen keyboard, or onscreen numberpad in which the user has to touch. It could be an argument that on a touchscreen phone that users will usually just go to a keyboard, but the numberpad is, in my mind, a much better solution for typing one handed. Plus, predictive text can be applied to keyboard layouts as well, not just number pad-style inputs.

envalin wrote:Plus, predictive text can be applied to keyboard layouts as well, not just number pad-style inputs.

Sure, but in such a case I'm not sure if the T9 patents would even apply (depends on jurisdiction I guess). Predicative text is what I at least would consider a standard feature of every spellchecker I've ever used (or at least the variants of "Check spelling as you type", since they often provide a convenient "hit enter when the spellchecker has detected the word you're trying to type". Oo.org as just one example).

If predicative text is a part of those patents, I'd say (without being a lawyer) that they are far too broad.

I think the topic strayed off of a number based input by a bit, heh. All that would be needed is predictive text based input off of a number pad, it would be much more efficient for one handed situations.