Am i alone wondering what's special regarding "true usefulness" of replacement vkbs like Maliit?

a) there's still no 4th row that provides digits directly, mode switching for typing digits is a hassle for passwords as well as any text where you have to enter them frequently
b) there are no CTRL, ALT and ESC etc. keys (also, no function keys)

The overall layout seems pretty standard, i.e. very basic, almost iOS vkb-like to me. Giving that it is the default MeeGo vkb, i am negatively surprised about the features. Maybe it's "in" because it's created using QML, i really dunno. Maybe you actually CAN easily alter the virtual layout, to add such things.. also i think most "apps" are not ported but created specifically anyway, so no need for those. But it's still bad for remote access and "not-invented-here" programs (i.e. desktop ports).

Here, this is how a vkb can and should look like (minus the preview area which can easily be omitted for space saving, and ok/cancel buttons which are better replaced by arrow keys if those are not mode-switched available):

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...29&postcount=5

My best guess is it's the trade off for having to primarily support portrait mode... another reason to omit this orientation.