So Close and Yet So Far: the Webshell On-Screen Keyboard

One thing people continually want for the WebOS is an on-screen keyboard.  And why not? Sometimes you only need to write a quick message and don't want to pull down the keyboard. Other times, you're in landscape and don't want to have to attempt using the hardware keyboard sideways.

Well, today PreCentral forums member Deesugar was playing around with WebShell, a browser-based SSH client, running in the Pre's browser, when he discovered an on-screen keyboard.  Don't get too excited though. Contrary to the confusion in the forums thread, it's not a WebOS on-screen keyboard, it's actually just a part of WebShell, as you can see from the official screenshots webpage).

So where do that leave us? Well technically we're back where we started, with no on-screen keyboard.  That being said, it could be possible to use the WebShell keyboard as a basis to try and create one for the WebOS.  Which is a definite possibility given that the WebOS itself is based on html/css/js.

Even better, it seems the idea of a virtual keyboard has been now added to PreDevWiki's Development & Tweak Ideas page with people already working on it. Let's hope it's not too long before we see an official or unofficial on-screen keyboard solution.