From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Thu May 03 2007 - 10:30:57 CST
Don Osborn:
> * What about the possibility of a "hybrid" keyboard in which only some
> keys
> are dynamic OLEDs or LCDs? For instance the numeric keypad on the right
> could be used this way. As costs decline, this might be an alternative
> (though it would require keyboard layout creators that take this into
> account).
Hello Don,
Where will you place the numeric keypad on a laptop?
Remember that now, there are much more laptop computers sold than desktops.
And this is even more important within developing countries (desktops are
most often used only in telecenters and cybercafés, plus some offices), but
the general population needs laptops that can be handled easily, they don't
have a desk room at home, or no electricity plug: they charge the laptop at
school or in common areas, but can't leave a desktop there.
I think that such limited set of OLED/LCD keys will better fit in a single
row (for example the first row with digits, or the functions keys F1..F12 if
they could be programmable for text input.)
But will this be usable in countries that have multiple scripts for the same
language, or for a minority/national language and a official language?
Probably no, unless the non-official languages are adapted to the same
script as the official language (this is quite easy between Latin, Cyrillic
and Greek scripts, but there are too many issues with Arabic or Hebrew
scripts, and it is even difficult for Han where such transcription creates
lots of linguistic ambiguities).
Anyway, such limited dynamic keyboard will not be convenient for Han users,
they will want a full keyboard to replace or enhance their on-screen IME)
Philippe.
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