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Enso Gives Keyboard Commands to Windows Users
illuminatedwax writes "The Wall Street Journal's Walter S. Mossberg's latest column is a writeup on a new software system called Enso. Enso is from a small software startup called Humanized, led by Aza Raskin. The software allows Windows users to do common tasks, like launching programs, spellchecking, or Googling for search terms, but what's interesting is that it allows you to do these tasks from within any program in Windows by use of the keyboard. From the article: 'There are two initial Enso products, which can be downloaded at humanized.com. One, called Enso Launcher, allows you to launch programs and switch among windows via typed commands. The other, called Enso Words, allows you to do spell-checking, even when the program you're using doesn't include that capability, and to look up the meaning of words. Both products also include a simple calculator and the ability to launch Google searches.' Humanized says that users will be able to program their own commands for Enso in future versions."
Aren't I paying a subscription so I *don't* have to look at ads? Perhaps I'm missing something in this "article"...
"The need to build the internet comes from something inside us, something programmed... something we can't resist."
So what it can do that csh cant?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Except you don't get to type with your left pinky finger cause it's holding down the caps lock. And it can't do things like "move this file to here." And it's $25 instead of free.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
I don't believe that people can't learn to use the keyboard if the GUI isn't there. I remember learning wordPerfect 5.1 back in highschool, and everything could be done via the keyboard. There was a strip of paper that sat above the keyboard outlining which combination of shift, ctrl, alt, and F# key did which action. Every student I know had most of that memorized. I'm not just talking about the computer geeks either. This is just the way the software worked, and people learned to use it. I guess it would be kind of annoying to new users, or people who only used a program once every couple of weeks. However, those people would have a hard time anyway. Even with a GUI.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I can't understand why people pay for stuff like this. Okay, a system-wide spellchecker is cool, but a hotkey launcher? I'm a mouse hater myself (not in the Disney sense... er, ok, maybe that applies too).
Google desktop + web search == [Ctrl, Ctrl].
A great deal of what needs doing can be done with standard key combos plus a few links ("shortcut" files) in a folder that's in your %PATH% environment variable. Then it's [Windows key + R] to get a Run prompt, and e.g. "ff" for FireFox, "ie" for that other browser, "vlc," "mmjb," "notepad2," "pskill iexplore.exe," etc.
Most Windows keyboards have a context menu key on them now anyway -- usually to the left of the RH [Ctrl] key -- so context-specific commands don't require a mouse either. A registry entry can add a command to any file type, complete with a shortcut key.
Really, I rarely have to find my wireless mouse between the couch cushions, and I don't have any special software installed. Their app integration sounds cool and all, but just using a series of standard key combos [Ctrl + C], [Ctrl, Ctrl], [Ctrl + V], [Enter] is so simple that I haven't been motivated to find a better approach.
Pi Ran Out