Yes, this layout has all the characters needed. The problem is that these extra characters take space from other useful symbols, like punctuation, parentheses, hyphenation, etc. The idea of having floating diacritics is to save space and require less memorization, allowing the needed character to be “constructed” on the go. I think this is very useful for languages as Portuguese, while maybe not needed for languages with fewer accented/special characters.
Moreover, I don’t like the idea of having to use a keyboard optimized to a specific language. I often write in Portuguese as it is my native language. However, I also write in other languages quite often, and the symbols needed are different… And changing to a different layout for every language would obviously be a nightmare. In MessagEase, I use the standard “ANIHORTES + symbols” for everything.
I don’t like long presses as well, because they take time and require the eyes on the screen. However, drag-and-return and circle-drag are very handy because they are quick and avoid extra swipes (for example, drag-return on “f” returns “F”, avoiding a up swipe on “r” followed by a top-left swipe on “f”. For big letters on the button, circle-swipe solves the problem. Also, drag-return on shift turns autocaps), save space (I can have only “(”. To get “)”, I can drag-return on “(”), and open the possibility for extra symbols (I can drag-return on “?” to get “¿”, useful in Spanish).
The “combine” key is on the top left of the A button. Lots of symbols can be reached from there. For example, Greek letters. To get an α, you can type “al” + “combine”. This is true to all Greek letters (that I use a lot). Also, to get en em-dash (—), you can type “m”, “-” and “combine”. In MessagEase, all results from combinations are customizable, so you could only add the key and the users can create their combinations.
Yes, this layout has all the characters needed. The problem is that these extra characters take space from other useful symbols, like punctuation, parentheses, hyphenation, etc. The idea of having floating diacritics is to save space and require less memorization, allowing the needed character to be “constructed” on the go. I think this is very useful for languages as Portuguese, while maybe not needed for languages with fewer accented/special characters.
Moreover, I don’t like the idea of having to use a keyboard optimized to a specific language. I often write in Portuguese as it is my native language. However, I also write in other languages quite often, and the symbols needed are different… And changing to a different layout for every language would obviously be a nightmare. In MessagEase, I use the standard “ANIHORTES + symbols” for everything.
I don’t like long presses as well, because they take time and require the eyes on the screen. However, drag-and-return and circle-drag are very handy because they are quick and avoid extra swipes (for example, drag-return on “f” returns “F”, avoiding a up swipe on “r” followed by a top-left swipe on “f”. For big letters on the button, circle-swipe solves the problem. Also, drag-return on shift turns autocaps), save space (I can have only “(”. To get “)”, I can drag-return on “(”), and open the possibility for extra symbols (I can drag-return on “?” to get “¿”, useful in Spanish).
The “combine” key is on the top left of the A button. Lots of symbols can be reached from there. For example, Greek letters. To get an α, you can type “al” + “combine”. This is true to all Greek letters (that I use a lot). Also, to get en em-dash (—), you can type “m”, “-” and “combine”. In MessagEase, all results from combinations are customizable, so you could only add the key and the users can create their combinations.