
Goodbye Spacebar: Google wants keyboard without spacebar - vivek11439
http://www.postcrawl.com/goodbye-spacebar/
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falcolas
> but this surely paves the way for complete virtual keyboard where all the
> physical keys will be replaced by virtual keys.

Like the laser keyboard:
[http://www.laserkeyboard.com/](http://www.laserkeyboard.com/) ?

Or every tablet/phone in existance? Personally, I don't find typing on a flat
surface to be a very pleasant experience. As a touch typist, I depend on a
certain amount of feedback to my fingers to identify when a key has been
actuated, and I'm not always looking at my screen when I'm typing something
out.

With this device, how could I know the spacebar registered properly, and
didn't accidentally send my cursor into another location due to an errant
swipe of my thumb as it rests on the spacebar?

~~~
nolok
> Personally, I don't find typing on a flat surface to be a very pleasant
> experience. As a touch typist, I depend on a certain amount of feedback to
> my fingers to identify when a key has been actuated, and I'm not always
> looking at my screen when I'm typing something out. With this device, how
> could I know the spacebar registered properly, and didn't accidentally send
> my cursor into another location due to an errant swipe of my thumb as it
> rests on the spacebar?

Well, you kind of answered yourself there

> Like [...] every tablet/phone in existance ?

Haptic feedback solve that particular issue. From what I understand some
haptic technology like the one planned to use on steam console's controller
also handle the "I need to feel where the keys are without looking", although
I personally never experienced any of it first hand.

I agree with you that I still prefer an actual keyboard and space key on a
laptop though

~~~
chimeracoder
> Haptic feedback solve that particular issue.

It really doesn't. I could type faster on a Blackberry keyboard than I can
write by hand, or type on an Android or iOS device even _with_ text prediction
on the latter.

Ironically, as they started to lose market share in ~2009, Blackberry tried to
pioneer the use of haptic feedback on flat-screen phone keyboards, using a
vibration to simulate "clicking"[0] the screen[1]. It was a disaster.

I use flat keyboards on my phone and tablet out of necessity - for phones,
there's really no alternative these days. But the typing experience on even
the best phone/tablet is light years behind the experience of typing on a
physical keyboard.

[0] This is different from the way that Android and iOS devices vibrate when
you press a key

[1] Not to be confused with the earlier model which _actually_ had you "click"
the screen.

~~~
nolok
I agree, but then I genuinely believe you are mistaken in what makes you
faster: it's not the feedback that the touch is pressed (what you described in
the above post, and what haptic feedback currently solves), it's the feedback
that the touch is even there ! In other words, it's not the pressing, but the
finding/reaching the next key.

Again, I agree that current phone keyboard are faaar beyond an actual keyboard
in speed, only arguing on the cause.

As I hinted in my previous message there are new haptic techs that aims to
actually give a sensation of where the various keys are, I have never tried it
but I hope they can do even half of what they claim.

~~~
chimeracoder
> I agree, but then I genuinely believe you are mistaken in what makes you
> faster: it's not the feedback that the touch is pressed (what you described
> in the above post, and what haptic feedback currently solves), it's the
> feedback that the touch is even there

That's my point. Haptic feedback doesn't solve this, as evidenced by the
keyboards that have haptic feedback on keypress but no tactile indication that
the key has been located.

~~~
nolok
Then either I misunderstood or you weren't clear enough, your first message
said

> As a touch typist, I depend on a certain amount of feedback to my fingers to
> identify when a key has been actuated [...] > how could I know the spacebar
> registered properly

Which specifically means when the key is pressed, not when you are on it /
reached it, which I believe is the thing causing the slow down of our speed.

------
funkyy
imo this will be nightmare for both hands fast typists. Spacebar provides
"anchor" for your hand. When you have bigger hands you can also put your
thumbs under the spacebar in natural position to rest your hands.

There is so many better things to work on to be honest...

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kraftman
Kinda crap title. They don't want to get rid of it, or even move it, just
incorporate it into the touchpad.

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xnzakg
Seems like an awesome idea for gaming. "No, I didn't mean to shoot, I wanted
to jump!"

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lowmagnet
The Planck keyboard design splits up the spacebar into multiple meta keys.
It's a much nicer use of space:
[http://i.imgur.com/7nSlhyQ.png](http://i.imgur.com/7nSlhyQ.png)

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7952
It could be useful it it allowed you to scroll the cursor in text by swiping
you fingers left or right. You could even have another vertical bar on the
left for vertical scrolling. All without moving from normal typing position.

~~~
function_seven
That would be pretty awesome. Mock up:
[http://imgur.com/k2Iee5B](http://imgur.com/k2Iee5B)

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amelius
Why not get rid of the touchpad, and use a pointing stick like the Thinkpad?

~~~
ghshephard
Touchpad is a rich input devices that supports gestures, think about how you
use it to scroll your page, go back/forward a web page, select test, move
windows, etc...

Point Stick can only capture a small fragment of those without keyboard
combinations.

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o0-0o
Two reasons this won't work, movies and music. You need a HUGE button to
stop/start play.

~~~
rokhayakebe
Interesting, I never intentionally control media with the spacebar.

~~~
joshuapants
It's pretty helpful in a number of situations for me. Occasionally I like to
put my laptop on the coffee table and recline on the couch watching something.
If I have to pause for whatever reason it's much easier to slap the spacebar
at arms length than to do something else.

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gd2
Like the direction this is going in, but true that its combining space and
gesture area, not getting rid of the space bar.

I've thought that it would be more efficient, if one could keep ones fingers
on the keyboard rows, and use the some type of thumb gestures to move the
cursor.

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benologist
Summary of [http://qz.com/393209/google-wants-to-do-away-with-space-
bars...](http://qz.com/393209/google-wants-to-do-away-with-space-bars/)

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XorNot
Whereas I want a keyboard with two spacebars. How much simpler would shell
command lines be if we could hit an 'command space' key which would mark the
end of a shell argument array string.

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suprjami
This is making me think of the buttonless trackpad Lenovo tried for a while.
Everyone at work who got one totally hates it.

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VeejayRampay
Google should insist on a browser without a back button.

~~~
dpcan
I think developers of web apps should be able have more control when back is
pressed, but i use it all the time during normal browsing.

~~~
Nemcue
Hm? How so? I think we have plenty of control with the history API, no?

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nness
Maybe I'm going a little mad, but is the acceleration when scrolling on that
site incredibly high for anyone else (Chrome, OSX)? I doubt it's by design,
but its certainly hard to navigate.

~~~
Nemcue
They have some sort of strange "SmoothScroll" contraption going on in tie-
scripts.js

That's what's causing your issues.

edit: Ah, it's actually a minified version of
[https://github.com/galambalazs/smoothscroll](https://github.com/galambalazs/smoothscroll)

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higherpurpose
Because...?

~~~
shawnfratis
Editors, for both music and film, animators and pretty much anyone who use
non-linear systems very much rely on the space bar to start/stop playback.
Much easier, faster and more efficient than always having to reach up and push
a button.

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vivek11439
howitwouldlookandhowyouwillreaditwithoutspacebar.

