Hacker News Reader

Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

I generally agree and also disagree with a few aspects of both your comment and the OP.

First of all, to the OP, maybe not for the leet kids, but I absolutely find large amounts of text input on a phone to be a pain. I can do it if I’m away from a computer and have to, but I don’t enjoy it and it takes more time and requires a lot of concentration.

As for cursor positioning, holding down the space bar on iOS works pretty well—although it took me a few years to learn about it.

I do think text editing could always be better and I actually think it’s a pretty broad use case. I’m also not convinced mobile is easily adapted to it, especially without really good text input [probably speech] which also isn’t suitable in a lot of situations.

View on HN

> As for cursor positioning, holding down the space bar on iOS works pretty well — although it took me a few years to learn about it.

I did not know this and it’s a godsend. I have otherwise found iOS cursor positioning to be awful, especially when text selection is involved as well. Thank you.

Most operating systems have a lot of really useful shortcuts that most people don't use despite it potentially making their lives 10x easier like Ctrl/Cmd+C. Swipe to undo, holding down the key to access accented keys (also works on address bars as it prompts you to add common domains like .com or .net), slide to type, etc. An easy way to discover most of these (on iOS specifically) is just to go through the working with text section in the iOS Tips app.

I have been using this sine iphone 6/3d touch era and it is ok, but has gotten worse.

1. The space bar is a much smaller target than the original whole keyboard and I often find myself needing multiple press drags.

2. Something changed recently and it is harder to hit your placement target in text especially in single line inputs. When this happens your cursor ends up back where it was or at the start of the line. It is particularly difficult to edit or select a url in the safari menu bar.

Note: I used the space bar cursor placement at least 5 times writing this. It would have been much more difficult without.

Maybe I’m a leet kid but I type 65 WPM on my phone so I find actual typing on my phone on par with typing on desktop, except if special punctuation is involved.

…but the whole mobile experience is still terrible with a lot of scrolling, panning, and annoying text selection.

I’m aware most people don’t type that fast so they would never type on mobile but for those that do, it would be sweet if the mobile experience was better.

One thing I found out on iOS recently is that you can shake your phone for text undo.

I’m probably more like 20 with a much higher error rate than on my laptop. And more focus required.

Wouldn't typing on a touchscreen for long periods cause RSI much faster than a keyboard in the long term?

(because of the body positioning - back, neck - and the hard surface)

(not arguing against improving typing on mobile, obviously)

Wouldn’t be surprised.

Truthfully I’m most worried about the thumbs. I feel like they can ache if I’ve been doomscrolling for hours

Holy cow, you just improved my life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRUCnZFv9Ro

When I somehow inadvertently found out about this a few years back, I was “How could I not know this?”

> As for cursor positioning, holding down the space bar on iOS works pretty well—although it took me a few years to learn about it.

It’s great until you need to move the cursor downward. Being completely undiscoverable doesn’t help.

Maybe we need something like the old thinkpad nub on touchscreen keyboards.

It’s great until you need to move the cursor downward.

Actually I just discovered the spacebar trick thanks to the parent comment and... I can move up and down in a block of text by using the same method.

Maybe I don't understand what you mean?

You can move the cursor up maybe 10 lines from where you start before going off the edge of the keyboard.

Now try moving down 10 lines from where you start. Hopefully you will see the issue with starting from the spacebar at the bottom edge of the screen.

Ah ok, thanks - I experimented with a iPhone note and did not go very far, actually.

Holding down spacebar and swiping side to side changes keyboard language for me. Have to hold stationary for quite a bit longer before it becomes a cursor mover.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com