Would creating a 2 row landscape keyboard be difficult?

[zetabeta]

Hi all!

It has occurred to me that when I turn my pinephone to landscape, the keyboard covers an enormous amount of space, as the keys become twice as wide as in portrait mode, -which is perhaps a huge waste of space on such a precious, small area of available screen?

I have calculated that every key currently visible in portrait mode could fit into 2 rows in landscape mode, and I think I would far prefer to spend a few days getting used to a different layout than covering up so much of my screen.

I suspect that the 2 row keyboard could be done simplest by just putting the characters in alphabetical order, mostly on the first line, and the few on the second line, followed by the normally visible symbols and numbers. The space bar could be reduced to just one and a half squares, as it does not need to be huge, just a little distinctive. Symbols etc. would be accessed in the same way as in portrait mode.

Perhaps this compact landscape keyboard could be a choose-able option for those who prefer the space?

Does anyone know how hard this would be to accomplish -or perhaps there are other comments too?

Alternative: -another way to make better use of the space in landscape mode would be to still use 4 rows, and move the portrait mode keyboard, at it's original, portrait size, to the middle, and then surround it on either side with the numbers, and a lot of the most common symbols, at slightly narrower sizes, so that typing in landscape mode becomes much faster for programming etc, as many more keys are always instantly available?

Regards!

short version: take a look at this https://developer.puri.sm/projects/squeekboard/tutorial.html

i tested briefly but found some weird issues, like not being able to create altgr modifier key. basically is possible what you describe.