Software Lets Programmers Code Hands-free

Yetihehe writes "New Scientist is reporting about a new speech recognition tool that promises to let programmers write clean code without ever having to lay a finger on their keyboard. 'The tool, called VoiceCode, has been developed to help programmers with repetitive strain injury (RSI). This is a common affliction for people who spend a lot of time using a keyboard or mouse and causes pain in muscles, tendons and nerves in a sufferer's arms and back. Some estimates suggest 22% of all US computer programmers, or 100,000 people, suffer from the condition.'"

Comments

Repetitive Strain Injury

[foundme]

If a programer has to say if-then as many times as he types, no doubt his mouth is going to get RSI.

Many people thought obesity is caused by junk food, but in reality is caused by having too much junk food.

So the best way to prevent RSI is to work out a reasonable and healthy work schedule that prevents such excessive usage.

Alright!

[TechnoGuyRob]

Pound include less than -- unf -- io -- unf -- stream greater than character return new line feed -- unf -- pound include -- AW SHIT ALL OVER THE KEYBOA--NO MOM, I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!

All talk. Little action.

[Anonymous Coward]

"'The tool, called VoiceCode, has been developed to help programmers with repetitive strain injury (RSI). This is a common affliction for people who spend a lot of time using a keyboard or mouse and causes pain in muscles, tendons and nerves in a sufferer's arms and back."

And now vocal cords. Now imagine this sytem in say a team environment. Everyone talking at once.

Really bad idea.

[serial_crusher]

My workplace is constantly bombarded by the sound of several Indian guys arguing about mundane stuff such as coding conventions and color schemes. I really don't need my computer thinking that's me talking.

Re:Really bad idea.

[Bloke down the pub]

Problem with C++ and other case sensitive languages would be also how the upper and lower case letters are entered.

For uppercase you just have to SHOUT.

failed compile

[Khashishi]

void calculate_offsets(Node *foo) {
      int dummy;
      double buffer[ Hey, Smith, what, are; you doing there;
      damn(it)->im.busy_coding.here;
}

E443 2:12 syntax error after [

Is actually for...

[x2A]

...finally being able to safely program whilst driving! Woot!

Would finally mean that people learn the difference between brackets, braces, and parenthesis\

For, four, fore!

[StikyPad]

"For x equals two two to"

FOR X = 2 to 2

"Erase word, erase word, erase word"

FOR X =

"Twentytwo to"

FOR X = 222

"Erase word"

FOR X =

"Open parenthesis eleven times two close parenthesis"

FOR X = ((((((((((())

"Son of a.."

Re:Not _Exactly_ Hands Free

[bcat24]

Heh, that reminds me of a UserFriendly strip. OK, here it is.

Voice recognition software: Welcome to Naughty Wibbling Dot Com!

Mike: Close browser, close browser, close browser, close browser, close browser, close browser, ...

Re:Repeatative Tongue Disorder

[TechnoGuyRob]

Next thing you know, software development will be hazardous to your tongue and mouth in general.

As much as we like to hope for "getting risky with our tongues and mouths," we're programmers; we know that's never going to happen.

Eat your own dogfood

[SirSlud]

And the programmers of this software didnt get RSI why? Its easy to avoid RSI. It seems like voice recognition software to help sufferers of RSI get back to work is tantamount to putting an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff instead of a big sign at the top that says, "DONT WALK OFF THE CLIFF"

Wizard of Oz can tell you how will this works

[rufusdufus]

Imagine you not only have a really good speech recognition system with a good language parser but an actual AI to talk to when you are writing your code. How well would this work? You can find out by getting a human friend to play Oz by 'hiding behind a curtain' and typing what you say in natural language. Try it. Then decide if a system like this will ever be useful.

How $` $] brilliant

[DysenteryInTheRanks]

I program in Perl, you insensitive clods!

Try saying $|++; $@?@^W--:!s/$#_/$_/g while <>; for 3000 lines !

My throat will never recover!

Re:How $` $] brilliant

[numbware]

It's still possible to code Perl hands-free. Try using your forehead. Trust me, you'll hit the right keys.

Re:Escape mode

[x2A]

ooo what about REGEX??!!

Tha's gonna hurt!

This might work with a decent programming language

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

I'm not sure I'd trust a system like this for a language like C, C++ or Java with its icky grammar full of parentheses, braces, commas and other types of pointless noise. But it might be nice with languages from the ML family such as Haskell where the main bit of syntactic 'glue' is simply white space. Haskell code is pretty compact too, in the sense that there's less to type per 'concept' that you want to express, so it's ideal for coding when your input rate is less than optimal.