How to directly (!) select german umlaute ö ä ü when long tapping on o a u?

[Ben S.]

When I open now Hackers Keyboard and long tap on "o" then a "9" appears.
Similarly when I long tap on "a" then french "a with accent" appears.

How can I adjust Hackers keyboard that at first, directly the corresponding german umlaute ä ö ü appear?

Ben

[Beverly Howard]

>> How can I adjust Hackers keyboard that at first, directly the corresponding german umlaute ä ö ü appear? <<

Not sure if you are asking about defaults or behavior, but I'm
guessing you might not be aware of the general android osk keyboard
design philosophy.

On most, if not all, android onscreen keyboards, a <longtap> brings up
one or more options.

Since most keyboard configurations do not show the 5th numeric row, it
is assumed that the user normally wants to type a number, so,
<longtap> on the top row defaults to the corresponding number on the
row above... i.e. "o" "defaults" to "9"

However, if you <taphold> the "o" a full selection of accent options
appear, and you simply slide your finger to the desired character and
when you "release" your finger that character is typed.

You noticed the different behavior of "a" for example, since it is a
vowel, but not on the top row, so, it does not "default" to a number.
On the hacker's keyboard, if you use settings to "turn on" the number
key row, you will then notice that <taphold> vowels on the 4th row no
longer default to numbers.

An important point to understand is that tapping a key does nothing...
the character is typed only when you _remove_ your finger from the
keyboard. For example, you can <taphold> the "j" key, then slide to
the "h" key and when you release, an "h" will be typed rather than a
"j"

This behavior is exploited on many keys other than the top row... for
example, <taphold> the punctuation keys and see what is available.
The hackers keyboard uses this capability extensively... for example
<taphold> the "l" and "n" keys.

You might also revisit other keyboards such as the default google
keyboard and compare and tinker with what they offer on many available
<taphold> keys.

Hope that this information is helpful,
Beverly Howard

[Ben S.]

@BevHoward

Thank you for reply,

BUT:

If you take for example the 3 row GBoard (=GoogleKeyboard with "German" as layout) and I long tap on the "a" then "ä" (=a umlaut) appears just above the a and I can select it.

Why is this not possible in Hackers Board?

When I tap here long on the "a" then a list of 8 special chars appears just above the "a" with "ä" only the fifth in the row.
So when I have to select "ä" then I have to long tap on the "a" then go one row upwards and 5 (!) columns to the right.
This finger move is quite complicated. I need an "ä" just above the "a".

Since GBoard shows that this is possible I ask you:
How can I re-order the appearance of the special chars in the long-tap selection panel?

Ben

[BevHoward]

(reposting, since ggroups apparently choked on email response with attached image)

>> I ask you: <<

First, I am not qualified to answer for the reasons behind
hackerskeyboard design and execution... I am simply a user who is
trying to help when questions are posted that I feel that I might be
able to help with.

afaik, you cannot re-arrange the long tap selections in GBoard, but,
if you want, I am sure you can create a custom hackerskeyboard layout
to meet your needs.

I would also wonder why you are not using the German keyboard layout
which includes dedicated keys for the keys that you reference.  In
addition, longtapping "a" defaults to the umlaut rather than the latin
accent which is likely to be more in demand for usa english layout
users.

Sincerely,
Beverly Howard

[Beverly Howard]

>> I ask you: <<

First, I am not qualified to answer for the reasons behind
hackerskeyboard design and execution... I am simply a user who is
trying to help when questions are posted that I feel that I might be
able to help with.

afaik, you cannot re-arrange the long tap selections in GBoard, but,
if you want, I am sure you can create a custom hackerskeyboard layout
to meet your needs.

I would also wonder why you are not using the German keyboard layout
which includes dedicated keys for the keys that you reference. In

addition, longtapping "a" defaults to the unlaut rather than the latin

[Ben S.]

Hi Bev,

you refer to the 5-row solution which offers only very small keys. So this is not suitable.

On the other side the 4-row keyboard layout does NOT contain (directly) the ä ö ü umlaute.

GBoard keyboard App shows that it is possible to setup even a 3-row (!) keyboard with direct access to ä ö ü on the long-tap char panel.

Have a look at the following snapshot:

This is excatly what I need for Hackers keyboard

Ben

[Beverly Howard]

>> This is excatly what I need <<

Glad you found something to fit your need

Beverly Howard

[Ben S.]

Your comment is not constructive.

There are a lot of good properties of Hackers keyboard.

Now I want to add a couple of features of other keyboards to improve it.

Are you one of the developers or just a user?