Keyman Roadmap – March 2020

Introduction to the Roadmap

This blog post contains the March 2020 update to our roadmap for Keyman. This roadmap depends very much on the resources available to our team, and it will change over time. It is not a promise to deliver by a date, but rather our best estimate as to where we want to take the project.

Older versions of the roadmap:

• May 2018
• October 2018
• February 2019
• November 2019

We’ll aim to update this roadmap periodically – as we adapt to the ever changing software environment and priorities shift accordingly.

Get Involved

As Keyman is open source, we also encourage you to consider becoming involved. There are many ways you can be involved:

• Software developers: jump into our source repository
• Keyboard developers: learn about creating keyboard layouts and submitting your own keyboard layouts to share with the Keyman community
• Testers and users: download the latest pre-release versions at https://keyman.com/alpha and send feedback through our community forums
• Donate!

Looking Back

In version 13.0, we added three significant features that were not on the roadmap:

• QR Codes for sharing keyboards
• Redesigned Settings for Keyman for Android and Keyman for iPhone and iPad
• Background keyboard updates and notifications for Keyman for Android

The Roadmap

14.0 – Feb 2020 – Nov 2020

• A Better Keyboard Download Picker
  • Consistent experience across all platforms
  • Search across languages, keyboards, scripts, etc.
  • Remove deprecated keyboards from search
  • Sort results in more useful ways

• Product Internationalization (i18n)
  • Existing products have mixed i18n. Consolidate using Crowdin.
  • Support i18n in keyboard documentation.

• Error reporting
  • Single platform for error reporting using Sentry

• KeymanWeb
  • Keyman Core for Web
  • Dropping support for IE, pre-Chromium Edge

• Predictive Text
  • Improved corrections
  • Common optimisations (e.g. Capital first letter, etc)

• Keyman for iOS and Android
  • Download .kmp from cloud rather than js (splits KeymanWeb and iOS/Android keyboard deployment)
  • Depends on: A Better Keyboard Download Picker

• Keyman for Mac
  • Make it possible to select language for keyboard at install time
  • Keyman Core integration

• Keyman Desktop
  • Use Chromium embedded web engine instead of IE
  • Improvements in Windows language integration
  • Make it possible to select language for keyboard at install time
  • Keyman Core integration

• Keyman Developer
  • Use Keyman Core in Debugger / Command Line Tests
  • Online Stage 1 (GitHub integration and publish to keyboards repository)

15.0 – Dec 2020 – May 2021 

• Keyman Engine: Web, Android, iOS, Windows, (mac?), (linux?)
  • Making Keyman Engine more accessible to developers
  • API stability
  • npm and other packaging formats for simplified distribution
  • cross-platform consistency
  • Integration
  • Documentation

• KeymanWeb
  • Refresh keymanweb.com
  • Rework UI integrations – Toolbar, Floating, Button, Toggle
  • npm distribution

• Keyman for Linux
  • Address serialised input limitation
  • Compatibility with Terminal
  • Fcitx support (alternative to ibus in CJK environments)

• Keyman Desktop
  • Out-of-process Keyman Core
  • Accessibility API integration

• Keyman for Mac
  • Address serialised input limitation
  • Per-language keyboard registration

• Keyman Developer
  • Formally split Keyman Developer and Keyman Desktop
  • Online Stage 2 (keyboard development tools, kmcomp backend)

• Keyman Core
  • LDML engine

• Predictive Text
  • Morphological models
  • Learning models

16.0 – Jun 2021 – Jan 2022

• KeymanWeb
  • Touch on desktop
  • Support for web intents – numpad mode, email mode (#1221)
  • Implement Keyman CoreJS API

• Touch gestures and actions
  • Double-tap shift for Caps Lock (#246)
  • Slide down for Shift
    • Select popup key with gesture below the displayed key (#1025)
  • Longpress consistency or customisation (#1113)
    • Longpress display delay timer customization (#877)

• Mobile apps
  • Async updates & downloads (#1316, #1317)
  • Implement Keyman Core for Web

• Keyman Developer Online Stage 3
  • Interactive keyboard development tutorial
  • LDML editor

• Keyman Desktop
  • Touch on Windows Desktop 
  • Longpress?

• Keyman for Mac
  • Longpress?

• Keyman for Chromebook

• Keyman for Linux
  • Longpress support?
  • Alternative (custom) on-screen keyboard (using KeymanWeb?)
  • Finding other communities to pick up and package keyman (Fedora, Suse, …)

Discuss this roadmap

Join the discussion on the Keyman Community.