[Sugar-devel] seeking help to enable nepali keyboard input for XO-4

[John Watlington]

Sameer,
   We made a tooling change to improve that feeling --- we increased
the chamfer around the key openings so that if you miss the key slightly,
your finger slides into the opening more easily.
Unfortunately, this didn't go into production until the XO-4 hit production.

Thanks for pointing that out.   I'm not sure if Subir and Rabi are aware
that the original membrane keyboard is no longer available.   The current
membrane keyboard is covered by a plastic grid (making it much harder
to peel off a key).   See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/File:XO-1.75_siblings.jpg

Cheers,
wad

On Jun 16, 2014, at 9:08 PM, Sameer Verma wrote:

> On a related note, I was curious about deployment experiences with the
> new membrane design with plastic grid in between keys. Although this
> does help with premature peeling of keys, I've always had trouble with
> these keyboards - the outer edges of my fingers get in the way of a
> full key depress. Then again, the keys aren't designed for me, so I'm
> curious how these do in the field.
> 
> cheers,
> Sameer
> 
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 6:03 PM, John Watlington <wad at laptop.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Walter,
>>   You remember correctly.  The hard/clicky/crunchy keyboards are not rated
>> for as long a lifetime as the membrane/chewy keyboards.   While the membrane
>> keyboard design was tested to 5 million key presses, IIRC the clicky
>> keyboard is
>> only rated to 1 million key presses.   (On the other hand, it takes one
>> minute
>> to replace a clicky keyboard versus twenty for a membrane keyboard.)
>> 
>> WARNING:  The clicky keyboard was not approved for use by small children
>> by UL.   The reason is that if the keys are pulled off they present a
>> choking
>> hazard.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> wad
>> 
>> On Jun 16, 2014, at 7:13 AM, Walter Bender wrote:
>> 
>> James,
>> 
>> Do we have any data re the mechanical reliability/durability/repairability
>> of the "hard/clicky" keyboards? We do know that although there were some
>> issues with membrane pealing (presumably resolved with the newer design)
>> there numerous ingenious local repairs such that most are still working
>> after 7 years.
>> 
>> regards.
>> 
>> -walter
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 5:35 AM, James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Jun 16, 2014 at 01:54:19PM +0545, Basanta Shrestha wrote:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>> We are planning on ordering the next lot of XO-4s and I need some
>>>> suggestions on which keyboard model to choose -membrane  or
>>>> hard/clicky one.
>>> 
>>> I think it is great to seek input from the community, but don't forget
>>> to ask your OLPC contact for help as well.
>>> 
>>>> We had membrane one for our first lot and keyboard switching was
>>>> very convenient on that model.  One reason not to choose hard/clicky
>>>> one is that it doesn't have key for language switching ( correct me
>>>> if I am wrong) -I have one spanish hard/clicky and it doesn't have
>>>> that key - key 56 at
>>>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Keyboard_layouts.
>>> 
>>> Yes, that's a good reason not to choose the mechanical keyboard; you
>>> would have to customise your operating system build again, to add a
>>> key combination for keyboard language switch.  If the cost of
>>> customising is too high, you should order membrane keyboard.  I don't
>>> know the relative costs of the keyboards, and their replacement rates,
>>> but it might be factored in to your decision.
>>> 
>>> You identified the lack of language switch key in this same thread on
>>> sugar-devel@ back in November 2013, from which I'll draw some status:
>>> 
>>> Walter says use a key combination:
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045724.html
>>> 
>>> And says that customisation will be needed:
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045800.html
>>> 
>>> Then you suggest alt+space:
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045807.html
>>> 
>>> Daniel Drake says to use olpc-os-builder:
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045851.html
>>> 
>>> And you asked about the alt+space:
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2013-November/045857.html
>>> 
>>> But the thread dried up on that subject because the units you received
>>> had a membrane keyboard, not a mechanical keyboard.
>>> 
>>> I think you need to change the xkb files, but I'm not sure.  Do you
>>> have a mechanical keyboard you can test with?  If not, you'll have to
>>> get someone else to do this.
>>> 
>>>> Hard/Clicky on the other hard is more convenient while typing.
>>>> Please suggest.
>>> 
>>> I don't understand why you think it is more convenient.  To me the
>>> keyboards are equally convenient for an inexperienced child.  Perhaps
>>> you intended to mention some characteristic?
>>> 
>>> --
>>> James Cameron
>>> http://quozl.linux.org.au/
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
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