908329 - [keyboard] German keyboard extended character list: Preselect common characters ('ß' for 's', 'ä' for 'a' etc)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Gaia::Keyboard, defect)

Description

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

Unagi with Boot2Gecko 1.1.0.0-prerelease 20130822041201

For the German keyboard, the extended character list should preselect the common characters:
'ß' in 's'
'ä' in 'a'
'ö' in 'o'
'ü' in 'u'
'Ä' in 'A'
'Ö' in 'O'
'Ü' in 'U'

At the moment, 'ß' is the right most character in the s-list and left most one is preselected. For 'ä', if you are landscape mode (e.g. browser) and tap on the right edge of 'a', the second left a-character will be preselected ('ä' is the left most one).

Comment 1

[Mihai Cirlanaru [:mihai][:mcirlanaru]]

Attachment: Pull Request #11794 - Update first key alt width and German alt ordering

Update German keyboard alternatives order and make the first alternative character at least the width of the key it is an alternative for, thus ensuring it is the first one selected when tapping on sides of the key that shows the alternatives popup.

Comment 2

[David Flanagan [:djf]]

Thanks for fixing this, Mihai.

The code seems fine at a quick glance.

First of all, this bug is listed as blocking a bug titled "languages needed for 1.1". Is it a blocker? Does it need to be uplifted to v1-train?  Needinfo on Joe for more information on the priority of this bug.

Second, I don't speak German, so I can't review the sanity of making this change on the S key. Mihai, are you a German speaker? Can you confirm that the reporter's request for the S key makes sense? I'm fine making that change if that is what Android and/or iOS does for their German keyboards.

Third, for the alternatives menu, forcing the first, most frequent item to be wider seems like an excellent idea to me, but not something I want to land without UX approval, especially if it is something that is going to go into 1.1. Mihai, could you attach before and after screenshots showing the visual change you've made here?

Comment 3

[David Flanagan [:djf]]

Mihai,

After attaching the screenshots, please set the ui-review flag for this bug.  I forget who is doing keyboard UX stuff these days. You might have to ask in the #gaiaux channel

Comment 4

[Mihai Cirlanaru [:mihai][:mcirlanaru]]

(In reply to David Flanagan [:djf] from comment #2)
> Second, I don't speak German, so I can't review the sanity of making this
> change on the S key. Mihai, are you a German speaker? Can you confirm that
> the reporter's request for the S key makes sense? I'm fine making that
> change if that is what Android and/or iOS does for their German keyboards.

I do speak some German and I can confirm that "ß" is indeed a frequently used character; both iOS and Android have it as the first alternative for "s" on the German keyboard layout.

> 
> Third, for the alternatives menu, forcing the first, most frequent item to
> be wider seems like an excellent idea to me, but not something I want to
> land without UX approval, especially if it is something that is going to go
> into 1.1. Mihai, could you attach before and after screenshots showing the
> visual change you've made here?

I am adding the screenshot right now -- the visual change is almost imperceptible, however it ensures that the alternative key above the pressed source key is always "preselected", regardless if the user presses on the edges of the source key or in the middle of it.

Comment 5

[Mihai Cirlanaru [:mihai][:mcirlanaru]]

Attachment: Before and After screenshots of kb alt menu

Due to their length, some alternative character menus for the keyboard have individual key widths smaller than the source key, thus causing unwanted "preselected" characters when long tapping the edge of the source key (see description of bug).

The patch submitted for this bug ensures that the preselected alternative char (i.e. first above the tapped key) is always at least the width of the source key.

Please let me know if this visual change makes sense.

Comment 6

[Wilfred Mathanaraj [:WDM]]

I just wonder if this should block leo? The user is still able to make that selection of the special characters by doing a long press and moving left or right.

I would consider this nice to have and bring into v1.2. 

The ß is being used less and less with the german spelling reform. A lot of the words have lost the ß and were replaced with ss.

Comment 7

[Joe Cheng [:jcheng] (please needinfo)]

defer this to koi? as it seem like a suggestion rather than a blocker for launch

Comment 8

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

Yes, this is entirely a suggestion

> The ß is being used less and less with the german spelling reform. A lot of
> the words have lost the ß and were replaced with ss.
It's the only letter from the extended 's' list which gets used in German and the ß is still and will stay a common letter (only if a fast spoken vocal was left of the ß and no letter or a consonant to the right, the ß got replaced with ss).

Comment 9

[David Flanagan [:djf]]

Comment on attachment 796304 [details]
Pull Request #11794 - Update first key alt width and German alt ordering

Code looks good to me.

Comment 10

[David Flanagan [:djf]]

Comment on attachment 797610 [details]
Before and After screenshots of kb alt menu

Carrie,

Would you review this UX change, please?

Comment 11

[Carrie Wang [New account: [e-mail]]]

Hi guys,

I don't speak German, but I've tried the German keyboard on Android and found it's same as what Mihai mentioned above. Thus, I'd suggest following their rules. 
In addition, I agree that the width of the selected alternative key should be the same as the width of source key. From UX perspective, it could reduce the confusion in visual perception. :)
Thanks!


(In reply to David Flanagan [:djf] from comment #10)
> Comment on attachment 797610 [details]
> Before and After screenshots of kb alt menu
> 
> Carrie,
> 
> Would you review this UX change, please?

Comment 12

[Carrie Wang [New account: [e-mail]]]

Comment on attachment 797610 [details]
Before and After screenshots of kb alt menu

It looks good to me.

Comment 13

[Mihai Cirlanaru [:mihai][:mcirlanaru]]

Thanks David and Carrie!

Landed on master:
https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/commit/0d226095c9486e45d662d6f5da8ac807e04e17b8

Comment 14

[Preeti Raghunath(:Preeti)]

leo+ as German is a supported language for 1.1

Comment 15

[John Ford [:jhford] CET/CEST Berlin Time]

Uplifted 0d226095c9486e45d662d6f5da8ac807e04e17b8 to:
v1-train: ebacea45a9bc652ce55de3be07f27efc88e812a5

Comment 16

[Sarah Parsons]

Verified fixed on Leo 1.1 Build ID: 20130918041204

Environmental Variables
Build ID: 20130918041204
Gecko: http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-b2g18/rev/6b8a7556ab2e
Gaia: 7310d9fd969db201bdc9ff275a3ac8b537f7070a
Platform Version: 18.1

For the German keyboard, the user can select the following characters:
'ß' in 's'
'ä' in 'a'
'ö' in 'o'
'ü' in 'u'
'Ä' in 'A'
'Ö' in 'O'
'Ü' in 'U'

Comment 17

[Tim Guan-tin Chien [:timdream] (please needinfo)]

v1.1.0hd: ebacea45a9bc652ce55de3be07f27efc88e812a5

Comment 18

[Rudy Lu [:rudyl] (inactive after 2015/7/3)]

Attachment: Pointer to Github pull request: https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/pull/11794

Pointer to Github pull-request

Comment 19

[Rudy Lu [:rudyl] (inactive after 2015/7/3)]

Comment on attachment 8342925 [details]
Pointer to Github pull request: https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/pull/11794

It is easy to (mistakenly) click the "attach to Bug xxxxxx" button if I installed the add-on...