Dasher Available For Mac OS X

Fluffy the Cat writes "Dasher is an innovative predictive text input system that can be driven entirely by the mouse. It's been around for Windows and Linux for a while now, but a beta version for Mac OS X has just been released. Check it out, and take a look at that transparency option in the preferences! Next on the feature list is entering text directly into other applications ..."

Comments

Re:Fun, but definitely a specialty app

[Fluffy the Cat]

if you are good with the alphabet and get the hang of the interface, you can probably get pretty good speed

The best we've measured is about 40WPM, so it's pretty close to a moderately fast non-touch typist

Re:utility of dasher on mac os x?

[Fluffy the Cat]

Why would desktop/laptop users with full keyboards need to use this? It seems difficult for people with disabilities to use such a system.

You'd be surprised - large numbers of disabled users do use standard hardware with additional input devices. There's other potential advantages, too - we've had RSI sufferers tell us that it's preferable to a keyboard (though this is going to depend on mouse setup, I guess).

One other thing is that kids tend to find it significantly more entertaining than a typing tutor, and it's fairly good at encouraging correct spellings...

but with Dasher, one will always need to concentrate on the input... just by the nature of it

The transparency feature of the OS X version actually helps here. Make it sufficiently see-through and put it on top of the text that you're writing, and you ought to be able to flick your attention between the two without getting lost. It helps if you make the text window font a fairly thick bold one.

Re:Personal Experience?

[HotButteredHampster]

I am using Dasher to write this, after having never heard of it before today. I think that it is the most interesting piece of software I have seen in the last year.

It works better than any software has the right to. The interface works really well, and today marks the first day in a while that I have not worried if my job is giving me carpal-tunnel, because I know that even if I lose my ability to type, I will still be able to be productive as a software developer!!!

Plus, it's fun!

Anybody want to discuss developing something like a Dasher version of Inkwell for OS X? The only part of Dasher that I don't like is the need to copy-and-paste your text.