So I have this application, that runs smoothly on a standard PC, and does quite well on a tablet too. With one exception, the virtual keyboard causes quite the headache. Not only does Windows seem to have two different virtual keyboards, they behave quite differently too:
First there is the keyboard that has to be actively opened by the user by clicking on the symbol in the tray area. This works fine, but has the disadvantage of "an additional click". (Image 1)
Then there is a keyboard (image 2) that can be opened automatically when
FMX.Types.VKAutoShowMode := TVKAutoShowMode.Always;
is set. According to the fine manual this will cause the virtual keyboard to show even if there is a physical keyboard present. So as soon as the focus is set on an editable component like TEdit, this keyboard will popup and as soon as said component looses focus the keyboard will disappear. Now here's the tricky part: This keyboard looks different, and on some machines (HP tablets with an i5) takes ages (at least 30 seconds) to "pop up". On my VM that I'm running on a Mac with an i7, this happens instantly.
Any user who knows iOS will consider option 1 to be "out of the question" so I use option 2, but for the life of me am not able to speed up the virtual keyboard popup process. This might just become a deal breaker, hence this post.
TL;DR: Does anyone here have experience with virtual keyboards on Windows tablets, and knows how to open them up quickly on slower systems?
Thanks,
Sherlock