[squeakland] [etoys-dev] Keyboard support

[K. K. Subramaniam]

On Friday 17 Feb 2012 1:35:38 AM Ricardo Moran wrote:
> It's now a single-key morph and it compares the keyStrings (I don't know if
> this is good or bad). I hope it works across platforms (even if you have to
> reconfigure the keys when you open the project). I only have windows here
> so I would appreciate if someone can tell me if this works on Linux and
> Mac.
I tried it on Linux (Kubuntu 10.04). Single and double key presses work as 
expected. But third and further keys are ignored (i.e. up+left+right acts as 
up+left instead of up).

KeyPressMorph gets my vote. It has awesome implications for interactive 
projects on handhelds and smartphone form factors. Thank you, Ricardo.

A few observations:

* apart from just isPressed state, could you also track timePressed? Authors 
can use longPress etc. for driving interaction. A key can also be used as an 
analog input (e.g. acceleration). Note that isPressed == (timePressed  > 0).
* If a user presses the button area accidentally, there is no way to escape 
out of it. How about clicking the button or the floating tip to cancel the 
operation?
* The tip "Press a key" is confusing. Suggest changing it to "Press new key" 
or similar and perhaps use blink or color change to indicate modal status.
* The stringmorph "Key:" is superfluous. It comes in the way of grouping keys 
into a panel. This could be dropped.
* A new key is not initialized with a label. If a new key is initialized with 
'a' label, 'currentKey != nil' becomes invariant. the check for nil in 
currentKey could be replaced with an assert or dropped.

HTH .. Subbu