[Linux-aus] GUI programming

[Les Kitchen]

Hi Russell and everyone,

On Mon, May 22, 2023, at 21:39, Russell Coker via linux-aus wrote:
...
> https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/
>
> My interest is in having Linux desktop systems and phones run in the same way 
> (see the above URL).  Support for iOS and Android isn't important to me in 
> this.

Another approach to doing this, which I take, is to use a small
chording keyboard with my phone to drive terminal interaction.
That way, you have the full screen available, not losing any
screen real-estate to the virtual keyboard, and with practice
you can type at pretty close to full speed.

This is easier with a phone with a good Unixy system underneath,
like the Librem-5 or Pinephone, but can work on Android say with
Termux.

Of the available chording keyboards, my favorite is the Decatxt.
It has separate Bluetooth and USB versions.  I prefer the USB
version.  I find plugging in a cable less hassle than dealing
with charging and pairing.  I use the "convergence bar" that
comes with the Pinephone to plug in the keyboard.  (The Librem-5
has a similar accessory, and there others around that might
work.)  Or plug in using a tiny USB-A-to-USB-C adapter I found
online, which fits inside the shell of the USB-A plug.

(The inventor, Wayne Rasanen, is working on a new version of the
Decatxt, which is combo Bluetooth and USB.  I don't know when it
will become available.)

I'm actually such a fan of chording keyboards that I use it even
on my laptops (as I'm doing now).  I can sit back in a more
comfortable position, without hunching over the main keyboard.
With left hand on the chording keyboard, and right hand on my
trackball, I don't have move my hand back and forth between main
keyboard and trackball (or mouse).

I find that with the Decatxt, I can type at about 70% of my
speed on a good full-size keyboard, and that's good enough for
most purposes.  I'll use the full-size keyboard only when I'm
typing in a big slab of text.

The downside, aside from the expense of a low-volume piece of
hardware, is that it took me several months of practice to
develop sufficient competence for it to be useful.  That is an
investment of time which I found paid off.  And it's probably
less than the effort to touch-type well.

It's worth looking at "The Mother of Demos" of 1968.  Even
though it's most famed for the introduction of the computer
mouse, if you look closely at the videos, you can see that Doug
Engelbart is also using a primitive chording keyboard.  That's
not mentioned on the Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos

but you can find more info from the "External Links" section.

...
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS
>
> Progressive web apps are interesting for some things and apparently have been 
> tried on phones several times with Firefox OS being one of the most 
> noteworthy.  The fact that Firefox OS was abandoned might be considered 
> evidence that a "everything as PWA" strategy is bad, but the fact that it got 
> anywhere suggests that PWAs can be a useful part of a phone platform.  It 
> probably isn't the solution for my immediate problems but may be something to 
> use at a later time.  As an aside I don't like JavaScript at all.  Thanks for 
> the suggestion Adam Nielsen.

Yeah, I was going to mention Firefox OS, even before I read
this.  I have a Firefox phone (now used mainly as an alarm
clock).  It was a really nice idea.  Sad that it didn't gain
more traction — and the idea of webbrowser-based apps.  In
general, it's hard to fight against the Apple/Google duopoly.
In particular, I guess neither of them like the idea of an app
that can run anywhere, and not just in their walled gardens.

I'm no great fan of Javascript either (though I guess it is a
functional-programming language in a way).  Myself, I tend to
think of it as Forth with infix syntax.  However, quite a few
compilers can emit Javascript as their target language.  I'm
most familiar with the Haskell compiler, GHC, but there are
others.  So, with the right setup, you can write Javascript
webapps in your favorite language, and never have to look at
Javascript itself.  There's also Webassembly.

> Thanks for all the other suggestions, I haven't had time to go through them 
> all yet.  I'm averaging about half an hour per suggestion.

Yeah, lots of suggestions from the good LA people.  I've learnt
plenty from the conversation too.


— Smiles, Les.