Morse Text Entry Enhancements: Sound, Speed... and Space.

[cevgar]

Ideas about features (and possible implementations thereof) that I would like to see implemented. Not an actual request though, because that is a potential legal bottleneck 'request' is, it seems, something of a difficult concept, with hidden implications and causes misunderstandings. So, I'm just putting these ideas for features I want down, in a public place, where they can easily be stumbled upon by people with the interest, know how and connections to make it happen. ... does anyone actually believe that?
 
A)Space. Space is by far the most frequently used character. Requesting alternate handling.
  1)Extra long dash (5 dots? Adjustable?) - Reduces wear on Select button and can be used to replace first 4 characters of other punctuation marks.
  2)Separate space button - Pressing Right with no space present adds a space... or something.
  3)Wait - If no keypress for 7 dots, and no space left of cursor, add space. Backspace is easy enough.

B)Sound. Because Morse code in inherently audible.
  1)One Pitch - Select down= sound, Select up= no sound.
  2)Multi Pitch - Pitch varies by hold length.
   Select held down: Short(dot)= low pitch,  Long(dash)= mid pitch, Select held XLong=  high pitch. Pitches should be distinct.
  3)Screen lighting - At times, users may not want to interfere with their music. Light is an option. Same ideas as above. Replace pitch with color. Red, Yellow, Green.

C)Speed. Just because Morse code is uncommon, doesn't mean we all suck at it.
 1) WPM - Standard Words Per minute. Scale all morse code entry based on dot length.
 2)Letter/Word cutoff speed - Alter the length of time before automatic character and/or space recognition.
 3)Letter Advance - Allow manual letter processing when interrupting with non Select input.

D)Usability
 1) Sound Recognition - Tapping, click, tone or hum recognition by the microphone would reduce wear on mechanical parts.
 2) LOCK THE SCROLL WHEEL - One of the advantages of Morse input is that you don't have to look at what you are doing. Considering how easy it is to accidentally highlight the line with the scroll wheel, the user can easily delete several SENTENCES before noticing what they are doing.
 3) A proper multiline text editor for morse code?

If anyone has any other Morse related feature ideas please feel free to post them here.
  

EDIT: Added Lock Scroll Wheel. ... and I made sure to put the word IDEA at the top of the page.

[AlexP]

Just to make sure you spotted it, from the sticky in this forum:

This forum is for the discussion of feature ideas. These are not requests, and there is no guarantee they will be acted upon.

 

[cevgar]

Yeah, I spotted it. I also spotted the bit in the wiki about feature requests.

"Not everyone can code, however. Of course we'd like to hear your ideas for features. That's why there's a forum section called "Feature Ideas". If you think you have a good idea, that's the place to put it."

Seems like a matter of semantics. Rephrasing a request as idea has interesting legal benefits.

Still if it makes it more likely for these features to be included, by all means, call them ideas.

[AlexP]

My point is we don't take feature requests.  This is a forum for people to discuss ideas, then go about implementing them.  Unless you or someone who wants them does the work, then they won't be included.

[cevgar]

That is the definition of a request. Otherwise it would be a demand.

Fine, I humbly request that people look at these ideas, but know that by posting them I am in no way obligating anyone to do anything with them.

Better?

EDIT: Actually, wouldn't it be better to call them suggestions? That pretty much covers everything, right?

EDIT2: No, suggestion wouldn't do it either. I'm guessing the point of this forum is to get people interested in the same ideas to cobble the features together on their own, then post it to the patch repository.

*Sigh*

Bloody community based projects.

[AlexP]

Look, I was just trying to be friendly and lower your expectations in case you expected these to all be implemented, but forget it.

[torne]

Bloody community based projects.

If you don't like community based projects you are welcome to find someone who will take money to sell you a product instead

[Llorean]

It's nothing to do with a "legal bottleneck."

The project used to have feature requests, and that gave people the idea that we were actively looking for features to add. In general, nobody is actively looking for ideas, as most of the developers already have things they'd like to work on. So the idea was to make it clear that posts here may never even be read by active developers, and that it's not a forum for feature requests that you hope a developer will be interested in, but rather the expression of ideas that perhaps you'd be interested in developing yourself, or receiving help or feedback on implementing.

When that wiki page was created, there was a feature requests section. We intentionally removed it because we didn't want people making requests and bugging developers about "I think my request is better than this one you chose to work on" or whatever. It looks like someone trying to be helpful just updated that page to point it here once we took down the Feature Requests page without checking to see that this wasn't the new place for feature requests, but rather a place for people interested in actively contributing beyond just "good ideas."

[cevgar]

Hindsight... *sigh* what was I doing? Anyways, apologies for my behavior everyone.

@AlexP - I never expected any of these features to actually be implemented. Posting them is more a way to publicize the ways that the current handling is lacking. Also, I see nothing particularly friendly when the first thing a person does is to fire a warning shot about the rules.

@torne - or pay for someone to code the addon for the community based project. Best of both worlds, eh?

@Llorean - Yeah, sorry about that accusation. I was feeling a bit harassed about what I still see as a matter of language, and couldn't help but remember some stories about RCA. Apparently they used to discard any and all outside feature requests or suggested product improvements as it lead to some lawsuits over intellectual property. Considering any reasonable person should understand that a request is in no way obligatory, I could only see the rather specific and unique wording as a form of legal defense.

[saratoga]

Also, I see nothing particularly friendly when the first thing a person does is to fire a warning shot about the rules.

You're over-reacting to what was very clearly a friendly attempt to help you.  At this point, you should probably just drop it, as you have successfully sunk your own thread.

[AlexP]

It wasn't "a warning shot about the rules".  It was an attempt to help you not get the wrong idea about the purpose of this forum.  I'm sorry about that, I won't attempt to help you again.