Dasher/Java/Android research linkdump

[kpreid]

I find Dasher an interesting input method, and after getting my Android phone I thought it would be nice to try Dasher on it. However, at the time there was no Dasher port or any information on the Web about the possibility, so I looked into writing one. I found several dead projects and miscellaneous repositories and eventually found that the main Dasher repository had a Java port of Dasher. I dabbled in getting it to run on Android, but before I got anywhere I found Dasher was now in the Android Market, though there was still no discussion/announcement/public project info.

I shall now dump the links I collected while I was working on this project, so as to make the matter of Dasher and Java better-indexed. Unfortunately, I don't recall the significance of all of them.

• The Dasher repository at gnome.org (see java/ for the Java code)
• GNOME wiki DasherJavaApplet — Some notes on the Java applet version of Dasher
• GNOME wiki DasherJavaEvaluation — Some apparently old notes on the possibility of porting Dasher to Java
• Chris Smowtown — The person that wrote the Java applet version of Dasher. Various links point to this site for more information about it but the site doesn't actually now contain that information.
• Inference Group Wiki: DasherProject
• Inference Group: Dasher Project: Development
• JDasher — Project Kenai — Not sure what the relationship of this is.

The Dasher port that's currently in the Market is pretty solid. It has a variety of options for input (touch, trackball, tilt); the main thing it's missing is independent control of the X/Y sensitivity of the tilt control.

Comments

[bitjuggler.livejournal.com]

I like the grafiti input app; I got way used to grafiti a long time ago and was happy to find it. My only quibble is that some apps don't seem to integrate with it well - there's a game called 'Trap' that I like but it really doesn't like me putting my name into highscores with the grafiti input.

[kpreid.livejournal.com]

I tried the Graffiti app, but it seemed far less accurate than the Graffiti on my Palm TX. It might be that (1) I wasn't using a stylus (but the drawn letter shapes seemed reasonable) or (2) it's Graffiti 1 rather than Graffiti 2.

Do you use/can you recommend a capacitive stylus?

[bitjuggler.livejournal.com]

I don't use one; I'd just chalked up the mistakes as user error due to my rustiness but maybe you're right about 2 vs 1 :)