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Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

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Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#471

Post by alas_coo »

satvikpendem wrote: post #403
Nition wrote: post #398

> We saw this in our user testing when users tried to place the text cursor accurately: they would miss by a few characters... One small thing: I don't know how it works on Android, but I used to have an N9 and then the Jolla phone and you could tap anywhere in text to place the cursor there. iOS doesn't let you, except confusingly on the very first tap that activates the cursor. For subsequent taps, you can tap exac…

Hold down the space bar and you can move the cursor wherever you want, also on Android. I'm surprised more people don't know about this feature.

How am I only discovering this now..

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#472

Post by zogrodea »

mabbo wrote: post #341
adithyassekhar wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of stuff you read on 4chan as memes about orange site. While going through all that you decided to create a website of all things and update it by hand editing html. Normal people, and I hate saying that, would create a facebook/WhatsApp group or something like that. I'm not making fun of you or anything, not everyone has the same lives, I'm just amazed by the hn crowd.

I'm not disagreeing with you. This was a very bad idea. But I was a few hours away from becoming a parent, hadn't slept much in days, and was not thinking very well. Sub-optimal decisions were made.

Congratulations on parenthood. I thought the decision was very much overkill myself, but it's impressive you had the determination and skill to execute it while in the state you describe. I doubt I would be able to.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#473

Post by matheusmoreira »

dTal wrote: post #2

- Take laptop, remove the keyboard, nerf the OS, call it "mobile" - Wait for someone to point out that text editing is no longer practical - "I am not anti-mobile. My goal is not to return back to the desktop, but to move mobile forward." Why? Why should we privilege an intentionally nerfed computing experience as the inevitable future? Almost every trend "mobile" is pioneering is bad.

Because using my phone while lying down in bed or sitting in my couch is so much more comfortable than using a bulky laptop or personal computer while sitting in a chair. I've written way too much code inside Termux. It's gotten to the point I only use my laptop to edit open street map now.

I'm looking for a way to build new Android apps inside Termux itself. Wonder if anyone here's managed it.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#474

Post by otp209 »

satvikpendem wrote: post #436
Nition wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know about it, but that's a second action (moving it after tapping), or a more difficult one (moving it all the way there via the spacebar touchpad). Most of the time if a tap would put the cursor where I tapped, it'd already be there. Edit: I just discovered now that if you long-press on the text to place the cursor, you get a little magnified view and it does let you place the cursor in the middle of a word. So t…

> Edit: I just discovered now that if you long-press on the text to place the cursor, you get a little magnified view and it does let you place the cursor in the middle of a word. So that's probably the most efficient method currently available. I chuckled a little at this as this is one of the oldest features of iOS, probably even from back in the pre-iPhone 4 days.

> I chuckled a little at this as this is one of the oldest features of iOS

Reminiscent of how I feel whenever I copy and paste something on Android

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#475

Post by matheusmoreira »

bakugo wrote: post #51
dTal wrote: post #2

- Take laptop, remove the keyboard, nerf the OS, call it "mobile" - Wait for someone to point out that text editing is no longer practical - "I am not anti-mobile. My goal is not to return back to the desktop, but to move mobile forward." Why? Why should we privilege an intentionally nerfed computing experience as the inevitable future? Almost every trend "mobile" is pioneering is bad.

> Why should we privilege an intentionally nerfed computing experience as the inevitable future? The fact that the author worked at Google should be a hint. Advertising companies like Google want desktops and laptops to be left behind in favor of phones and tablets specifically because of the inferior, more locked down and consumption-focused computing experience they provide, and I'm guessing this idea is hammered i…

I agree with your general point but there's nothing inherently bad about the smartphones themselves. They are perfectly good computers, it's these big corporations who turn them into locked down approved content consumption machines. We shouldn't be dismissing these computers just because of that, we should be working to empower ourselves to use them to the fullest with projects like postmarketOS.

I'm waiting for the new Pixel to come out so I can buy it and run grapheneOS on it. Then I'll try to port postmarketOS to my current phone.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#476

Post by matheusmoreira »

KirillPanov wrote: post #3
dTal wrote: post #2

- Take laptop, remove the keyboard, nerf the OS, call it "mobile" - Wait for someone to point out that text editing is no longer practical - "I am not anti-mobile. My goal is not to return back to the desktop, but to move mobile forward." Why? Why should we privilege an intentionally nerfed computing experience as the inevitable future? Almost every trend "mobile" is pioneering is bad.

Like the linked article says, > Mobile devices were originally designed for consumption ... and will always be consumption devices. A television isn't a substitute for your laptop either.

Termux lets you turn your Android phone into a software development environment. It's surprisingly good.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#477

Post by savoyard »

bombela wrote: post #432
dan-robertson wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think internet explorer did this selection thing at one point years ago. I don’t recall chrome doing it. Firefox used to have a ‘caret browsing’ feature but people didn’t use it so it was eventually removed. So I don’t really think it’s a missed opportunity so much as a feature people didn’t sufficiently love.

Press F6 in firefox for caret browsing.

That would be F7. The same works in Chrome.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#478

Post by Waterluvian »

jll29 wrote: post #462

Writing/editing worked fine on my Blackberry. It's the people who introduced the glass surface keyboards that are the root of the editing evil. Cursor keys to edit, a scroll wheel to navigate one's inbox, it was a dream that "they" stole from us with RIM's demise.

I’m so much faster with touch than I ever was on my BB. But your comment made me realize how much I’d love a jog wheel where my right index finger rests (top right side) while my thumbs are typing. I’d use it for adjusting the cursor location or press in to select a word for replacement.

Ooouhhh… imagining this already feels right.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#480

Post by matheusmoreira »

tomjen3 wrote: post #66
superkuh wrote: post #49

Nothing on mobile is okay. I know everyone loves their smart phones but they really are terrible computers in every way except for portability. Use a computer when you actually want to do things. Smartphones are just for when you're literally unable to use a real computer.

They are much, much better for photos. I will even say they are better for most videos chats. They are better music players. They are better GPS nav systems.

> They are better GPS nav systems.

Android even supports access to raw pseudorange data from the GNSS chipset now. Today's phones support all the constellations and new technology like GPS L5. There's even a way to turn off things like duty cycling to maximize accuracy at the expense of battery consumption. Should be possible to set up centimeter precision relative positioning with these things.

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