Thanks, that helps!
How about some more specific questions...
1) I have heard that the GoType driver has the ability to send an event to a hidden
button. For example, I often use an icon button instead of a standard button to
implement New. But, I also put a standard New button on the form, but make it unusable
so it doesn't appear on the form. On the GoType keyboard, when the user presses the
New key, I get a CtlSelect event as if the user tapped on the hidden button, and I can
then do the right thing. In the current driver for the Palm keyboard, this doesn't
work. Can we get that changed? It would make the user experience much better.
2) Next to the "=" sign on the keyboard is a blue asterisk, that you would get to by
holding down the Fn key. What does that do? It does not seem to be documented
anywhere, and it doesn't appear to do anything.
3) I assume that when you press the Ctrl or Cmd key down when typing a key, the
corresponding modifier in the keydown event is set. What about the Alt key, how would
we test for whether it is down?
4) It appears from the description that the tab and shift-tab keys are sending the
next field and previous field characters. I realize we should be implementing those
keys anyway, but developers should probably know that it is now more likely that those
characters will come to their apps, because it is now easier for the user to create
them. There will be a user expectation their now.
5) In using the keyboard, it seems natural to want to use the up and down arrows to
select items in a list or table. It would be great if that was built-in to the list
and table widgets in the OS. Or, at least encouraged in developers. The more that
users can expect a certain functionality across all applications, the better the
experience.
Even though the keyboard is not an OS thing, but rather an add-on (like a modem),
since it is a Palm product, is there still developer support for it? For the Mac and
Windows platforms, I remember all kinds of information from their developer support
department to describe how the keyboards work, what kind of standard key combinations
should be implemented, etc. to make the user experience with the keyboard a common one
across all applications. I realize that the Palm was never intended to have a
keyboard, but its got one now, and it is a great user experience. I would like to
continue to see either OS or driver improvements that are specifically tailored to
improving the keyboard experience. Some other improvements would be:
a) After tapping the menu key, the menu pops up. But once it is up, you can't do
anything to it with the keyboard. The keyboard should be able to select items with the
arrow keys or letter combinations, including left and right keys to show the menus in
a menu bar. The enter key should then do the selected action.
b) The next and previous field keys should probably be extended to popup lists in a
form as well. This extends the idea of "focus". I don't want to see full "focus" stuff
like in Windows, but there is no way to select a popup list in a form using the
keyboard currently. Perhaps it would be a key combination instead, but I bet it would
require some kind of developer action to make it work.
Thanks,
Shannon
> >What codes are generated by the various special keys, arrow keys, etc.
>
>Nearly all of the keys are sending standard codes as defined in Chars.h,
>and those codes have been there since forever, but just don't have any
>standard ways of being input through Graffiti.
>
>
> >How do the special buttons work, like New, Details, etc. What should we do
> >to support them?
>
>I believe they just look at the active form for buttons they think would be
>appropriate. I imagine if they didn't find your button properly, that'd be
>a bug in the driver... (or perhaps that you don't have such an object).
>I'm pretty sure if you don't have a "New" button (as far as the driver can
>tell) there wouldn't be any event sent to you.
>
>
> >Can POSE use the computer to emulate the keyboard? How would the New,
> >Done, Details keys be fired off in POSE? How about the Cmd?
>
>You can already type in Pose, obviously, and when you hit the up-arrow
>button it should send the same thing as the device-connected keyboards
>would... chrUpArrow. Things like New and Done are implemented by the
>keyboard driver, and thus wouldn't be active in Pose.
>
>I don't think that the keyboard or its driver are a part of the Platform,
>meaning there isn't special OS support, or SDK documentation for how they
>work, etc. It is just an accessory for a product, not an OS feature.
>
>-David Fedor
>Palm Developer Support
>
>
>
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