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Can we get more hands on Florisboard? We need a modern open source keyboard with all crucial features. (github.com)

submitted 11 months ago by unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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I could not recommend AnySoftKeyboard to my mum. I could recommend Florisboard, tho.

Openboard is virtually dead from what I can see. So that leaves Florisboard as the only open source alternative (that I know of) that could really be used by the masses. And the world would actually be a way better place if we all opensource freaks could install Florisboard on our family/friends phones and them barely noticing anything weird.

The problem is... no word suggestions yet. It's been years and we are still lacking what is almost an essential feature of a phone's keyboard.

I wish I could really work on it, but I lack the knowledge to do so; so I hope I am bringing some attention to the project.

Is there any other alternative I am unaware of?

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[-] sxan@midwest.social 44 points 11 months ago

The state of OSS keyboards is lamentable - no shade to devs, because most projects seem largely abandoned, except for Thumb-Key, which is exciting, active... and mostly not my bag. 8VIM is a fun version of this, but again, I'm mostly a two-thumber, so these slow me down.

Floris is almost there, except there's little development activity, and the lack of autocorrect keeps me from using it most of the time. The clipboard is great, and the alt-key keyset is fantastic (it includes interrobang!). But the swipe is decent, and it has a 9-pad number entry which - although it can sadly not be made the default - should be mandatory.

AnySoft has some serious stability bugs that keep me from using it.

So I use OpenBoard most of the time, because its autocorrect works pretty well. It has no swiping. It has no 9-key number entry. It has no interrobang. While I like the multiple-choice paste history, most of the time the multi-step paste is just more work.

Gboard has all of these, but it comes from Google.

Keyboard development mist just be unfun; I agree with you: it's a sad state of affairs.

[-] csfirecracker@lemmyf.uk 7 points 11 months ago

There's a fork of openboard that you can add the DLL for google swipe typing to. I'm currently using it and the swipe works as well as gboard

[-] dillydogg@lemmy.one 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There is a fork of openboard with swiping at https://github.com/Helium314/openboard

Edit: you technically need to download the swiping library to keep it fully FOSS, but I am okay with that given there is no other alternative. Instructions on where to find a swiping binary are on the github

Edit edit: another fork of openboard with swiping here, but is less up to date https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard

[-] Carter@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago

How do you enable swipe after loading the library?

[-] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 11 months ago

Sweet, thanks! It'll be interesting to see how safe it is, vis-à-vis the swipe library talking to the mother ship.

[-] not_amm@beehaw.org 3 points 11 months ago

AnySoft is still testing because of all the functionality it has, which is massive compared to other keyboarda. I moved to a fork of OpenBoard, but I recognize all the effort put in both AnySoft and FlorisBoard

[-] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Do I understand you correctly that Floris had swipe typing? Cause I tried the OpenBoard fork that has it, and it was horrible. It technically worked, sometimes, but most often was even slower than hitting individual letters. Usually I have to correct maybe 1 word out of 20 or so with GBoard, and even then what I want is one of the suggestions 95% of the time. with the OpenBoard fork, 3 out of 5 words were wrong and the correct one was suggested like 2 out of 5 times.

If its swipe is usable, I might give Floris a go...

edit: ah, English only. Not gonna work for me. I also prefer to have multiple languages active and being able to swipe in any/all of them. guess I'm stuck with GBoard...

[-] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah, the swipe on Floris is pretty excellent; it's too bad about the English-only thing.

[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago

‽

[-] Communist@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Try out the two handed mode on thumbkey, it works great as a fellow two thumber

[-] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 11 months ago

Is this normal? It looks messed up, and I'm not sure how to fix it. If I make the font tiny enough, both sides fit, but it's useless. I'd expect half the letters to be on one side, the other half on the other... no?

[-] Communist@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This is how it looks for me, I didn't get a screenshot in your comment.

You'll probably need to fiddle with the look and feel > key size because it's set by default for a one-handed experience

[-] sxan@midwest.social 1 points 11 months ago

Yah, I deleted it because (a) I forgot to link a screenshot, and (b) I fiddled with the font sizes for a while and got it to fit. It's a bit too small for comfort, for me. I'd rather have it split (deduplicated) and be able to make the keys larger, which seems important when slight swipe angle changes mean the difference between two characters.

Thanks for letting me know about that, tho!