bug(developer/ide): Touch Layout: When either View Controls, Platform, or Later Option is changed, change only that option.

[alex-larkin]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Thank you for developing this amazing tool! I have a slight feature request.

When in Touch Layout, editing either View Controls, Platform, or Later Option is changed, oftentimes doing so will cause the other options to change as well.

For example:

1. Change View Controls to portrait
2. Change Platform to Tablet
3. Note that View controls is now landscape again. Ideally this would not have changed.

Another example:

1. Change View Controls to portrait
2. Change Platform to Tablet
3. Change View controls to portrait again because it auto-reverted to landscape. (Especially vexing, since I selected my options from top to bottom, but now have to go back to the top option again, before going on to the bottom one.)
4. Change Layer to Symbol
5. Change Platform to Phone
6. Note that Layer is now default again, and that View Controls is now landscape again. Ideally these would not have changed.

I explain this in this video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DhQnpbAeF11Gj3xbY4LPKzUsVtSCf41O/view?usp=sharing

Thank you for considering this improvement.

Describe the solution you'd like

My feature request would be that changing any one of those options wouldn't cause the other options to change as well.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Perhaps some people would prefer the current functionality.

Related issues

No response

Keyman apps

• Keyman for Android
• Keyman for iPhone and iPad
• Keyman for Linux
• Keyman for macOS
• Keyman for Windows
• Keyman Developer
• KeymanWeb
• Other - give details at bottom of form

Keyman version

16.0.147

Operating system

Windows 10 Pro

Device

Asus Laptop

Target application

No response

Browser

No response

Keyboard name

No response

Keyboard version

No response

Language name

No response

Additional context

No response

[jahorton]

Could you try with the latest beta build of Keyman Developer (refer to https://keyman.com/downloads/pre-release/) and tell us if the same behavior occurs?

I'm not aware of any recent changes in this regard, but I do not experience the behavior you describe here when using our latest beta build - for me, it acts according to what you've requested here. If it acts differently for you, we probably have a bug somewhere.

[alex-larkin]

I just upgraded to 17.0.305-beta.

I am still seeing the same behavior I saw in production and which I described in my two examples.

Something I mentioned in the video but which I forgot to write here is that it would also be nice if upon startup KD could remember the View Controls, Platform, and Layer choices I had when I last closed KD.

I tested this behavior by creating a new project in 17.0.305-beta and importing the Latin American keyboard. Then in Touch Layout I selected "Template..." and then the option, "template-latin.keyman-touch-layout". I selected View Control to be "iPad (portrait) and then Layer to be "Symbol." I then saved the project. When I restarted KD, it was back to landscape and the default layer.

[mcdurdin]

Thanks @alex-larkin we'll look at improving this in 18.0. Some of the controls you are asking for may not be possible in all cases, e.g. platforms may not have identical layers. But where possible, we should try and maintain those, yes.

[alex-larkin]

Thanks Marc! Also, I just noticed that adding a new layer also causes a switch from portrait to landscape.