Slashdot Mirror
Type With Your Eyes
hof writes: "Ever wanted to enter text by just looking at the screen? Take a look at Dasher. You enter text by looking or pointing to letters or words which the program thinks you are about to enter. I wonder how this can be optimized for coding -- a break for your wrists, and the code is available under GPL."
First of all, I think that it works a lot slower than ordinary typing, especially when done by a trained typist. But more importantly, if you should use this for coding all day long, you would probably feel like you have been in an all-weekend Quake frag fest. The strain on your brain (oooh, it rhymes), especially the visual part, is a lot bigger than if you're working like you do now.
While I recognise the benefits for someone with serious RSI in their wrists (I've suffered, I know what it's like), the additional strain for my eyes would send me screaming.
I don't know how it is for most of you, but I'm extremely sensitive to flicker. Having moved back to the US, I notice the flicker on TV all the time. I notice the flicker on monitors, in lights, etc.
Looking from letter to letter, word to word to type would kill me.
Even if I could get higher than my current 65 wpm, I think the additional eyestrain would cause me to avoid the technology.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
So as you type away, the system decides the set of words you are likely to type next includes "fuck".
How do you stop your eyes immediately jumping to the funniest or most surprising word visible instead of the one you really wanted?
I know I couldn't. Everything I typed would look like slashdot browsed at -1.
(Moderators: for supreme irony please mod this post down to -1)
-- What do you need?
-- Gnus. Lots of Gnus.
sometimes the messages here at /. really piss me off. Now here is some really nice idea, a new kind of interface for entering text which is interactive and uses an adaptive, interactive language model. And all you guys whine about is how _fast_ it is!
Please try to appreciate that this is just a try-out for another kind of interface, as an alternative to static, dumb keyboards. Personally, i think that trying to make computer interfaces more interactive, simple, and contex-sensitive is at least as important as the speed at which you can input text. If the horrible colours and wobbly interface (it really feels like some ancient arcade shooter) would be developed into something a little less tiresome to use, i think this might really be of use. For example, what about using it with children that are just learning to write? They have to form the words themselves, but are not limited by their (slow) writing/typing skills... And Dasher teaches you to spell correctly, too...
By the way, i personally know a lot of people who would actually be a lot faster and have more fun when using a dasher-like interface...
While I don't think I want to actually type with my eyes, I have often grumbled after having typed half a paragraph into the wrong X-term that I wanted a 'focus-follows-eyes' mode...
Part of the speed of typing has to do with the fact that you are using (ok, some are using...) 8-10 fingers almost simultaneously.
Type "a quick brown fox jumps over the lazy sleeping dog". Now, mentally write it by LOOKING at each letter on your keyboard, and thinking 'click' on each one.
1) visually - takes at least 3 times longer, at least for me.
2) doing that for even a few moments is already giving me a headache.
I don't think it's going to be the next 'sliced bread'.
-Styopa