Quick Tasker tip: Watch out for auto correction when using Tasker
I’ve previously written about what you can do to debug Tasker creations you make and try to find out why something’s not working. The latest Tasker creation I set up however reminded me of one specific issue that has caused problems for countless Tasker users: auto correction.
Auto correction keyboards are great when you’re actually typing text, but can be an absolute nightmare when using apps that require unusual input more often than not. Tasker definitely qualifies, and everything from inputting file paths, to variable names and values, to shell commands and so on, can potentially be massively screwed up by an auto correction keyboard. Sometimes these will be easy to spot, with entire words being changed before your eyes, but often it’s something as simple as a space being inserted between a symbol and a word- hard to spot, but just as capable of messing things up.
Different keyboards will have different levels of “programmer incompatibility”. I use the stock Android 4.1 keyboard, which does a good job of not changing too much unless I use the swipe feature. I remember having many more issues with Swype when I used that, which is one reason I stopped. If you want to completely solve the problem, you can set up a Tasker profile that switches keyboards when Tasker runs, and use something like Programmer Keyboard or just any secondary keyboard with all auto correction disabled when in Tasker.
