Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

As we all know, the amount of nice hacks and tinkering going on on the N900 is wonderful. There is a fair bit happening on the Jolla too, which is reasonable, considering that OS-wise it is even more open and accessible than the N900.

One thing I am wondering about is if the lack of a keyboard on the Jolla makes a big difference for hacking compared to the N900? Do you regularly do any on-phone hacking? Or do you just use the N900 keyboard for text messaging and short emails, using an ssh-session and full-size keyboard when you want to hack?

Re: Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

I do pretty much all my coding almost exclusively on the N900 itself. The only exception is the UI design on the PC in Qt Creator. If there were a way to do it on the phone then I would not need the PC at all. At least for hacking, that is.

Re: Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

Well, you will have to persuade Dirkvl to make you a keyboard if you want to code on the Jolla then :-) (Well, if you have a Jolla and don't have a TOH-KB, of course.)

Re: Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

Excuse my ignorance, but I always thought that it is exactly the opposite, IE that whole UI stack on Jolla is closed as <put some pun comparision here>?

As for on-topic - yes, I use N900 keyboard while "hacking", while writing (no, really!), while playing games, while using camera application as set of 38 additional HW buttons, while... Oh way, you actually don't want to know that one ;)

Mobile devices without such comfortable hardware keyboard could cease existing. Well, in fact, they aren't already, for me.

/Estel

Re: Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

I wrote all of bq27200.sh and charge*.sh on N900 keyboard, while referencing datasheets with osso pdf reader...

I prefer pc keyboard and screen, but they don't fit in pocket easily. Most of the 'hacking' is done out of reach of PC, to pass time.

Re: Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

Exactly. Same counts for me.

Bug I have to say diffing/merging or reading spec is quite hard on that small screen...

Re: Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

No Jolla. Much as I admire the initiative, I do not have 400-odd euros spare for a device that does not even have a decent (read: hardware) keyboard.

As a matter of fact, I am currently getting to grips with the N9. I can get used to the on-screen keyboard, even though the typing speed is about a quarter and the accuracy about a hundredth of that on a real keyboard. What I miss most dearly are the cursor keys. How on earth do people fix spelling mistakes three words back? If the damn thing had at least a resistive touchscreen where I could point exactly at the wrong character with a stylus or a finger nail. As it is, all I can do is touch vaguely somewhere in the area and hope. I doubt Jolla is any better in this regard.

Haptic and similar feeble attempts at simulating the real thing are a step in the wrong direction, IMNSHO. The main point of the physical keyboard is to feel the key before you press it, not after. By that time it is already late. What's the point of vibrating reassuringly to confirm that I hit a key when it is the wrong one?

Err, sorry, I got carried away, didn't I? :)

Same here. Most of the time in the bath :)

Re: Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

@pichlo
took me also some weeks to find, understand and finally implement my German vkb, see here

Are you sure you meant bath? Or was/is it the toi...? ;)

Re: Poll: Do you use the N900 keyboard when hacking?
 

1337 H4x0rs code UIs by hand. :p However, it could be a cool project to write a custom Maemo5 Qt Designer. :)