Customisable keyboard for iOS

[abhibeckert]

I've started working on a customisable keyboard for iOS, available on github: https://github.com/abhibeckert/Pro-Keyboard

It's very basic so far, but allows you to specify the keys you want as a simple list, and will lay everything out. For example:

Code: Select all

  let dvorakKeyStates = [
    ["1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "0"],
    ["'", ",", ".", "p", "y", "f", "g", "c", "r", "l"],
    ["a", "o", "e", "u", "i", "d", "h", "t", "n", "s"],
    ["↑", "q", "j", "k", "x", "b", "m", "w", "v", "z"],
    ["⊙", "⌥", " ", "←", "↵"]
  ]
  
  let dvorakShiftKeyStates = [
    ["!", "@", "#", "$", "%", "^", "&", "*", "(", ")"],
    ["\"", "<", ">", "P", "Y", "F", "G", "C", "R", "L"],
    ["A", "O", "E", "U", "I", "D", "H", "T", "N", "S"],
    ["↑", "Q", "J", "K", "X", "B", "M", "W", "V", "Z"],
    ["⊙", "⌥", " ", "←", "↵"]
  ]

Which gives:

[andrewjoy]

You can install custom keyboard on ios ? since when ? I must be out of date !

Looks nice.

[Muirium]

iOS 8 lets them in now.

https://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/quicktype/

It's a pretty big step up in 3rd party support across the board, actually. Still no Android, of course. No terminal yet either…

[andrewjoy]

i am in the happy possession of having an ios device and an android device

my ipad is getting a bit old now ( ipad 2 ) but its ok for what i use it for watching movies and reading books i will give your keyboard a go when i update ios

my android device is much better a lovely nexus 5 with root access so i can do anything i need on that

both have there advantages and disadvantages and no one is better than the other imo

same with mac and linux and windows all have a use i just wish windows did not

[abhibeckert]

[dupe post]

[abhibeckert]

It's a pretty big step up in 3rd party support across the board, actually. Still no Android, of course. No terminal yet either…

At this point I think iOS is as open as it can be without security or battery life compromises.

You could ship a Terminal app but data encryption limits access to the disk too much and Apple doesn't allow executing code on the device that originated on a remote server (e.g. downloading shell scripts that may contain malware).

Vim has been ported to iOS (it's buggy though) and there are a bunch of SSH clients. Not sure what else you would want whithin the security model.

There's room for more than one mobile platform, especially with priorities as different as iOS and Android.

As an example how strict Apple is about security, it is impossible for my keyboard to log keystrokes (no network access at all and very limited disk access) but Apple still won't let third party keyboards be used while typing a password.

[Muirium]

They might be thinking ahead with that belt & braces move. There's nothing worse than pulling back a feature once it starts causing trouble, when people have gotten used to in the meantime.