[SUGGESTION] [OSK] Use the space bar for moving the text cursor

[Kugi Eusebio]

I have an idea which maybe considered to be implemented.
What if we use the space bar for moving the text cursor horizontally or even vertically.
Currently, moving the cursor is quite hard and inaccurate.
Space bar is quite big and makes it a good place to swipe to move the cursor.
With this approach, we're not using more space and instead use a big part of the keyboard that is only there mostly for inserting spaces. The sensitivity is critical though because you don't want unintended movement of the cursor but I think it's very much doable.

[Michael Sheldon (michael-sheldon)]

That's an interesting idea; we can send left/right cursor key presses from the keyboard to implement this without needing changes to other components, so it wouldn't be a particularly invasive change. I'll pass this along to the design team to see what they think

Thanks!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Kugi Eusebio (kugi-igi)]

I created a little hack and uploaded it in launchpad [1].
It can be used to see how this can be implemented and how useful it can be in different use cases.
For now, I'm enjoying this feature on my phone/tablet :)

[1] https://launchpad.net/spacekey-cursor

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

Just a caveat: the space has the current language written on it, which might suggest long-pressing it will get you something related to that (that's what it does on other platforms). Maybe we can differentiate between a horizontal drag and a long press.

Wonder if double-tap-drag could give us text selection on top of that (could be tricky to differentiate between all the different modes - but maybe it's doable).

[Kugi Eusebio (kugi-igi)]

One of the versions I did is triggered by immediate swiping. So far it doesn't interfere with its original function (double tap for period and space). It has sensitivity problems though. Maybe that could be considered as an option.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Specification updated. <https://goo.gl/m6ywSH>

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Can you be more specific? I'm wondering how this would work in dialogs where it's theoretically possible that you want to enter text in a text box starting with a space. How would you do that without losing focus?

Is this an OSK-only feature request?

[Michael Sheldon (michael-sheldon)]

Daniel - This is OSK specific, the final implementation of this doesn't interfere with normal space input (it activates only on a long press on the OSK's spacebar), there's a slightly old video of this functionality in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FYbtyweMs8 (the visuals and some of the movement thresholds have changed a bit since that video was taken but the broad idea remains the same). It's currently in silo 2386 if you fancy playing with it yourself.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-keyboard - 0.100+17.04.20170320-0ubuntu1

---------------
ubuntu-keyboard (0.100+17.04.20170320-0ubuntu1) zesty; urgency=medium

  [ Masoud Abkenar ]
  * Persian layout

  [ Michael Sheldon ]
  * Implement swipe based cursor movement after long pressing on the
    space key (LP: #1566172)
  * Allow predictive text in URL mode (but disable automatic space
    insertion) (LP: #1661283)
  * Tweak sizes for desktop use

 -- Michael Sheldon <email address hidden> Mon, 20 Mar 2017 12:58:05 +0000