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How One Programmer Is Coding Faster By Voice Than Keyboard

Posted by samzenpus on from the greased-lightning dept.

mikejuk writes "Is it possible that we have been wasting our time typing programs. Could voice recognition, with a little help from an invented spoken language, be the solution we didn't know we needed? About two years ago Tavis Rudd, developed a bad case of RSI caused by typing lots of code using Emacs. It was so severe that he couldn't code. As he puts it: 'Desperate, I tried voice recognition'. The Dragon Naturally Speaking system used by Rudd supported standard language quite well, but it wasn't adapted to program editing commands. The solution was to use a Python speech extension, DragonFly, to program custom commands. OK, so far so good, but ... the commands weren't quite what you might have expected. Instead of English words for commands he used short vocalizations — you have to hear it to believe it. Now programming sounds like a conversation with R2D2. The advantage is that it is faster and the recognition is easier — it also sounds very cool and very techie. it is claimed that the system is faster than typing. So much so that it is still in use after the RSI cleared up."

3 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Input is not the limiter when coding by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unless you are programming utterly structure starved glue-code, input is not the limiting factor, thinking about what you want to input is.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Input is not the limiter when coding by pla · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unless you are programming utterly structure starved glue-code, input is not the limiting factor, thinking about what you want to input is.

      You beat me to it.

      I can type in code pretty damned fast - Fast enough that people frequently ask me how often I go through keyboards - Fast enough that I've actually had people in the room with me ask if I had just typed something meaningful or merely mashed keys for the hell of it - And, while coding, I tend to spend far, far more time thinking than coding. Someone watching me program for an hour would see 3-5 minutes at a time of complete inactivity, followed by assaulting the keyboard for a 30 second burst, rinse wash repeat.

  2. Re:Codijng faster by voice because... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's like saying someone can get around faster in a wheelchair because they've broken their legs.

    You might want to look up the record time for completing the Boston Marathon in a wheelchair vs. on foot.