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Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
41–50 of 73 posts
Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am hoping for an eye-tracking mouse solution in the meantime, where looking at a portion of the screen and pressing a key on the keyboard will click rather than having to move a hand away from the keyboard to use a mouse, or wait for the analog stick mouse to reach the right point of the screen. Seems to be getting more plausible but still fairly expensive for a few years yet.
Talon has an eye tracking mouse, the necessary hardware runs around $250.
I would say that an eye tracking mouse is what OptiKey has, and for Talon it's more of an eye tracking+head pointing+voice clicking mouse. If you have tmj/vocal cords/neck problems you won't be able to use eye tracker as a mouse replacement.
Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#43To anyone tempted to get into Talon: note that it is very much not open source - https://talonvoice.com/EULA.txt (except when you contibute code to them; in that case you implicitly license your code as open source, but theirs is still their property).
Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
And TDD is bad because it requires too much of typing /sarcasm
TDD is bad because it introduces distracting busywork. The actual typing isn't the actual problem. In terms of just typing, I could probably produce something like 50,000 lines of code in a 40 hour work week in a moderately verbose programming language. In practice I'll probably crank out somewhere between 1000-5000. It's the thinking that is slow. It's made even slower by adding additional tasks and context switchin…
The average professional software engineer produces around 10 LOC per day.
Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#45I find it annoying that they are not using the standard phoenetic alphabet
I think the main reason is too easily distinguish (to the program) between letters - and I guess to also have shorter words.
That's also the NATO phonetic alphabet's raison d'être, where a lot more's on the line; a lot more research time and money has been spent on it over the years.
Air, Jury, and Quench in particular strike me as ambiguous examples NATO would never go for. Krunch is just baffling. Plex breaks the scheme followed by every other (that it's the first letter in the word).
Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#46I do a lot to reduce context switching even on the small scale, and reducing how many times I switch to the mouse is one of those things. I also reduce screen switching, "alt-tabs" or workspace switching, for that I use a tiling window manager (i3). Since it's impossible to avoid web browsing for work, I also use Vimium to bring more keyboard into that process. I would consider my approach "low-mouse" rather than no mouse. Certainly not no-keyboard. Although not quite voice activation, if you can type then typing is concise and accurate, which makes it quick. Does anyone have any experience comparing this to Vim?
Especially for Vimium (chrome extension, not Vim), I consider it a superpower, because it feels a bit like telekinesis. I can just look at things and make them happen with my keys, no need to navigate toward them.
Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#47The issue i have with this and will always with speech to text software. my voice will never pick it up unless im very clear and i take the time to prounouce a word or a chord?. I will have more luck writing in a stenograph keyboard or a chording keyboard then this. I like the fact that this technology assits for those who can have their voice be read by a computer. It will never work for me... Despite how modern a l…
You may want to look at your hardware setup. Modern (1-3 year old) laptops now generally have incredibly good echo cancellation microphone setups which massively improve recognition accuracy. If you are stuck with an older machine, try a USB based (integral ADC, the logical inverse of a DAC used for playing audio) lapel mic. These can be had off amazon for a tenner, but will infuriate you everytime you forget to take it off and get up from your chair... One last tip: My experience suggests the bluetooth microphone quality is not good enough for voice recognition tasks like this.
Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#48Cursorless is fantastic, this saved my bacon last year when I couldn't use my hands for months. I donate to Pokey because I'll need this again in the future, though right now I'm typing okay. I think able-bodied programmers will probably get annoyed setting it up, setting talon up, learning the phonetic alphabet and basic commands, but like.. if your hands don't work, this can literally save your career. this is a di…
I have some very mixed feelings about talon. I looked into it a decent bit when I started having hand issues as well, and never got anywhere useful with it. For one, it needs to be programmed to do anything. This gets you all the options, which is wonderful, but also is a bit of a problem when you're looking into because you can't, ya know, program. And it's not a simple thing to interact with. Lots of moving parts a…
It sounds like Serenade.ai would be more useful to you. It is more of a complete product, with the ability to add custom commands on top of it. Plus it's open source.
I'm not trying to steal the spotlight from Talon/Cursorless though, they are amazing and super useful. But it is definitely a much more fragmented ecosystem which requires more work.
Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#49To anyone tempted to get into Talon: note that it is very much not open source - https://talonvoice.com/EULA.txt (except when you contibute code to them; in that case you implicitly license your code as open source, but theirs is still their property).
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Re: Cursorless – A spoken language for structural code editing
#50Cursorless is fantastic, this saved my bacon last year when I couldn't use my hands for months. I donate to Pokey because I'll need this again in the future, though right now I'm typing okay. I think able-bodied programmers will probably get annoyed setting it up, setting talon up, learning the phonetic alphabet and basic commands, but like.. if your hands don't work, this can literally save your career. this is a di…
I have some very mixed feelings about talon. I looked into it a decent bit when I started having hand issues as well, and never got anywhere useful with it. For one, it needs to be programmed to do anything. This gets you all the options, which is wonderful, but also is a bit of a problem when you're looking into because you can't, ya know, program. And it's not a simple thing to interact with. Lots of moving parts a…
I agree the non programmer use of Talon is still unpolished. That was an intentional prioritization as I work to solidify the underlying tech. Note that your best option for documentation right now is the Slack, where I am very active.
I have a clear vision for easier customization and adaptation in the long term.
Maybe check back every now and then, it's a labor of love and I plan to continue improving it for a long time.