Android and hardware keyboard - peace forever? Why?

Question

Android

HTC Dream, the first Android smartphone with a hardware keyboard.

And now it's impossible. Even if you design such a smartphone and change the Android kernel, libraries and framework for it, all the same, in some applications, for example, in OpenGL games, the interface elements will not respond to the keyboard, the problem will only be solved by rewriting all these applications.
Are there many such applications?
How was the problem solved in HTC Dream? Just there were no such "problem" applications? Or was it impossible to control the buttons from the keyboard (there was never a Tab at all)?
How is it solved on BlackBerry? Just no "problem" applications? Or is there no Tab there either?
Why on Windows in various UI subsystems, in Chrome, Firefox, no one refuses to switch the focus of controls with the TAB key, despite the fact that everyone has mice for a long time, and in Android they simply abandoned the keyboard?

Answer 1

I'll tell you as a programmer about the background of this. There are two questions here.
1. What gestures should the developer of this do? How easy is it?
2. And what will be the benefit from this?
Once upon a time, business software was developed for a specific screen resolution. When IBM began to make more and more machines, maintaining continuity, programmers began to make the software “stretch”: it is checked in five seconds and brings considerable inconvenience when it is poorly implemented.
But with HiDPI it turned out not so rosy. The kinescope had all the permissions "non-standard", in contrast to one regular one on the LCD. And there was also an irreducible DPI limit, of the order of 0.2 mm, limited by the convergence of the rays. The first Microsoft OS with HiDPI support is Windows 95 (!). But to check, the computer needed to be restarted. And reboot again to return as it was. Naturally, they forgot about it and returned when the rooster had already pecked - Yabble appeared with his Retina.
Exactly the same here. I tried a couple of programs on KitKat. In the "chanterelle" Tab works. It works in Yandex Maps, but you can't see what is highlighted. This means: there is some kind of support from the OS, and the Google manual says: everything should work on devices with an “iron” cross. Really got hooked on it.
OK. Let's give up programming for now. Disabled people. All these ramps, ramps and stuff. A lot of body movements from the designer are required. Benefit - except perhaps to the disabled. Here we have what we have.

Answer 2

And now it's impossible.
...android just ditched the keyboard

Where the hell did you get that from? Everyone knows that the mouse in Android via OTG works great. And after reading your question, I immediately sat down to check whether the same feint would work with the keyboard. And it did! I connected it via an OTG adapter, the lights on the keyboard lit up. I launched the android scheduler (I don’t have a text editor on my smartphone) and began to type text calmly. True, I did not check all 102 keys - after all, a large keyboard loads the battery quite strongly, and I was afraid that it would not last long. In order not to worry about the power supply of all this "large" peripherals, you need to connect your smartphone through an active OTG hub (like this one , for example), not forgetting that recharging your smartphone while using OTG is nothappening. Perhaps this ban can be bypassed using a wireless BT keyboard, but I can’t test this option due to the lack of one.

Answer 3

some models of modern tablets (samsung galaxy tab s and sony z4 taablet) of the standard keyboard complex. can see what the manufacturer has come up with?

Answer 4

and in Android just abandoned the keyboard?

No one has abandoned the keyboard in Android.
The developers of this software refused only in specific software.
And you are trying to replace concepts, placing the blame for specific programs on the OS.

Answer 5

What kind of nonsense? Who said that android does not support a hard keyboard? Who said that tab does not work there? https://developer.android.com/training/keyboard-in...

Answer 6

It's terrible how inconvenient, so they removed these hardware keyboards