Ukelele is a HORRIBLE, OVERLY COMPLICATED computer program.

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Nathan King

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Feb 5, 2018, 6:59:38 AM2/5/18
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Ukulele is an absolutely horrible program.  I was hoping to use it to remap my keyboard for a special alphabet I have using emoji characters, complete with 26 emoji characters and 10 number characters.  But it turned out to be way too complicated so that now I have to face the fact that I cannot do what I was hoping to do with Ukulele.  I have run into problem after problem with installing keyboards, saving files, getting to windows, and many other things like that.  The point is not that I need help with understanding this horrible computer program from hell, but that I wouldn't even need help if this program weren't so complicated that it requires 83 PDF pages to plow through.  I want Ukulele to be improved not by adding features, but by taking away features --- lots of features.  A program that's designed to remap keyboards should be able to be simple enough to require only 4 PDF pages or even less than that.  Here is how I want a keyboard remapping program like Ukulele to work:  I want to open the application.  Then I want a blank UNTITLED keyboard to appear on my screen.  I want to immediately name it and save it, just like I would a TextEdit document.  This would make the new keyboard like a text document.  Then I would drop my characters into the keyboard and keep saving as I go, as many times as I want to save.  When I am all done making the keyboard, I then install it and start using it.  Simple as that  Period.  Of course I have to add all of the characters I want to use on the keyboard since it's a blank keyboard, but that would not be tedious by any means since I would only be dropping 36 characters, plus a few more for the characters that represent punctuation marks, and leaving everything else on the keyboard blank.  What's tedious about that?  What's really tedious is working through all of those features of Ukulele which I don't need and which only make the program full of bugs.  This program should not need all of those windows and menu commands.  I should not have to save a new keyboard twice, one for the keyboard and one for the file it's in, whatever that means.  I save a TextEdit document in only one place, so why couldn't I do the same thing with a new keyboard and be done with it just like that?  In addition, who needs dead keys and terminator outputs as long as you write only English and not Spanish or French?  Then, whenever I want to make improvements to the keyboard, I copy my original keyboard and it shows up as "copy 1," or copy 2, or whatever.  Then I discard the original keyboard from Keyboard Preferences and install the new improved keyboard, and I keep doing this every time I make an adjustment on it.  THAT is how simple I want Ukulele to work, and because it isn't that simple, I can't use it and don't want to use it.

By the way, I am not a very literate person as far as computers are concerned.  I understand only the most basic, simple things about computers and can't handle complicated programs and complicated computer science terminology, and I don't even know what many of those words mean --- words like kernel, source code, XML, whatever.  I am absolutely horrible with social media so that I can't even understand how to use Facebook.  That means that I'm not even sure I'm using this user forum properly.  That's why I had to start a new thread here, because although I see a reply button, I can't be sure who I'm replying to when there are multiple people who have responded to my initial posting.  I understand mechanical and electrical systems, but when it comes to computers I have always been a dud.

Sorin Paliga

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Feb 5, 2018, 8:07:29 AM2/5/18
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Nathan, you are more than impolite with UKULELE’s creator: it is a quite simple and free app, used by many users. If you do not like it, remove it from your computer.

On 5 Feb 2018, at 13:59, Nathan King <plumbin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ukulele is an absolutely horrible program.  I was hoping to use it to remap my keyboard for a special alphabet I have using emoji characters, complete with 26 emoji characters and 10 number characters.  But it turned out to be way too complicated so that now I have to face the fact that I cannot do what I was hoping to do with Ukulele.  I have run into problem after problem with installing keyboards, saving files, getting to windows, and many other things like that.  The point is not that I need help with understanding this horrible computer program from hell, but that I wouldn't even need help if this program weren't so complicated that it requires 83 PDF pages to plow through.  I want Ukulele to be improved not by adding features, but by taking away features --- lots of features.  A program that's designed to remap keyboards should be able to be simple enough to require only 4 PDF pages or even less than that.  Here is how I want a keyboard remapping program like Ukulele to work:  I want to open the application.  Then I want a blank UNTITLED keyboard to appear on my screen.  I want to immediately name it and save it, just like I would a TextEdit document.  This would make the new keyboard like a text document.  Then I would drop my characters into the keyboard and keep saving as I go, as many times as I want to save.  When I am all done making the keyboard, I then install it and start using it.  Simple as that  Period.  Of course I have to add all of the characters I want to use on the keyboard since it's a blank keyboard, but that would not be tedious by any means since I would only be dropping 36 characters, plus a few more for the characters that represent punctuation marks, and leaving everything else on the keyboard blank.  What's tedious about that?  What's really tedious is working through all of those features of Ukulele which I don't need and which only make the program full of bugs.  This program should not need all of those windows and menu commands.  I should not have to save a new keyboard twice, one for the keyboard and one for the file it's in, whatever that means.  I save a TextEdit document in only one place, so why couldn't I do the same thing with a new keyboard and be done with it just like that?  In addition, who needs dead keys and terminator outputs as long as you write only English and not Spanish or French?  Then, whenever I want to make improvements to the keyboard, I copy my original keyboard and it shows up as "copy 1," or copy 2, or whatever.  Then I discard the original keyboard from Keyboard Preferences and install the new improved keyboard, and I keep doing this every time I make an adjustment on it.  THAT is how simple I want Ukulele to work, and because it isn't that simple, I can't use it and don't want to use it.

By the way, I am not a very literate person as far as computers are concerned.  I understand only the most basic, simple things about computers and can't handle complicated programs and complicated computer science terminology, and I don't even know what many of those words mean --- words like kernel, source code, XML, whatever.  I am absolutely horrible with social media so that I can't even understand how to use Facebook.  That means that I'm not even sure I'm using this user forum properly.  That's why I had to start a new thread here, because although I see a reply button, I can't be sure who I'm replying to when there are multiple people who have responded to my initial posting.  I understand mechanical and electrical systems, but when it comes to computers I have always been a dud.

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Gé van Gasteren

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Feb 5, 2018, 8:55:11 AM2/5/18
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Dear Nathan,

Sorry to hear that you read the entire manual, although the Tutorial would have been a much better choice, I think. It comes with the Ukelele download and leads you through the basic steps.
I wish you had posted something here earlier…

It’s true that the Help inside the program needs work, but John, the one and only developer of Ukelele, is a busy man and regularly off-line for his real job. He’s keeping Ukelele in good shape in his spare time and has never asked for money – now where do you find that, these days?

The Ukelele-forum is a Google group, so if you have problems with it, that can’t be helped.
Everyone who has subscribed sees whatever is posted there, but you can choose to send a private message to the author of any message. This can be done by clicking on the triangle on the top right side of a message (next to the Reply button). A drop-down menu appears and you can choose the option "Reply privately to author".

Nathan King

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Feb 5, 2018, 9:07:54 AM2/5/18
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I do not understand who I am replying to by typing in this window because, while this message is immediately below Ge van GASTERSON, this window has the email of the ukulele users google group on it.  So which of those two is this message going to?

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Geke

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Feb 5, 2018, 9:44:11 AM2/5/18
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Nathan, please understand that this is not an email program, it’s a forum: a public place.
The default way of working is that anything posted here goes to all subscribers.

So if you answer a message, any message, your answer will be posted in the public area, in the same thread where the original message was posted.

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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Feb 10, 2018, 4:27:53 AM2/10/18
to Ukelele Users


On Monday, February 5, 2018 at 7:59:38 PM UTC+8, Nathan King wrote:
Ukulele is an absolutely horrible program.  ...

Everything worth saying has been said, but I was so cross when I read this offensive nonsense that I needed to add my two bits. There are lots of happy users of Ukelele, and, as has been said, John offers it free and is very responsive to queries. If you don't like it don't use it. It's as simple as that. 
 

Gé van Gasteren

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Feb 10, 2018, 7:01:35 AM2/10/18
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Dear Athel,

Duly noted! I guess Nathan wrote his first post like you wrote yours: in an emotional moment.

I think Ukelele is a blessing indeed.
Still, there are always things one can improve. Notably, for newcomers, the in-program Help is not a help at all, as it’s too wordy and moreover, the structure is broken. Ever since John included wholesale a passage I had suggested, I’ve had a notion to try and rewrite the Help, but I seem to never find time to actually sit down and do it. Also, much of what is needed is probably there, actually, it’s just inaccessible as the «Next page» links don’t work as they should.

So for the time being, it would be good if people looking for help would find the tutorial as the first thing, not the manual. One way this could be achieved is by putting the tutorial on the root level of the download; another would be including it inside Ukelele (like the manual) and putting a link to it on the Help menu and on the first page of the in-program Help.


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