Live data from Hacker News

Hands-Free Coding: How I develop software using dictation and eye-tracking

joshwcomeau.com

1–10 of 141 posts

Re: Hands-Free Coding: How I develop software using dictation and eye-tracking

#2
I love the eye tracking. Even without having any issues with my hands, I'd like to have quick mouse movements without having to take a hand off of the key board. Zooming in to have more precision is clever.

It seems the current generation systems aren't working for Linux yet, but that gives me hope to have a way to work with it at some point in the future.

Re: Hands-Free Coding: How I develop software using dictation and eye-tracking

#3
As a developer who also has cubital tunnel syndrome, having keyboards that places commonly use modifier keys [0] on your thumbs, such as Kinesis advantage or Ergodox, helps reducing the fatigue and symptoms immensely.

[0] it is called Emacs pinkies for a reason, and yes, my CTS is totally emacs’s fault as well.

Re: Hands-Free Coding: How I develop software using dictation and eye-tracking

#6
post #3

As a developer who also has cubital tunnel syndrome, having keyboards that places commonly use modifier keys [0] on your thumbs, such as Kinesis advantage or Ergodox, helps reducing the fatigue and symptoms immensely. [0] it is called Emacs pinkies for a reason, and yes, my CTS is totally emacs’s fault as well.

It's pretty telling that RMS had to stop coding because CTS.

Edit: Not carpal tunnel syndrome, as he explains in https://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

"""In the mid 90s I had bad hand pain, so bad that most of the day I could only type with one finger. The FSF hired typists for me part of the day, and part of the day I tolerated the pain. After a few years I found out that this was due to the hard keys of my keyboard. I switched to a keyboard with lighter key pressure and the problem mostly went away.

My problem was not carpal tunnel syndrome: I avoid that by keeping my wrists pretty straight as I type. There are several kinds of hand injuries that can be caused by repetitive stress; don't assume you have the one you heard of."""

Re: Hands-Free Coding: How I develop software using dictation and eye-tracking

#7
post #4

The eye tracking sounds like it could be incredibly useful as a 3rd input. Very cool stuff, thanks for sharing

In addition to a pointer replacement, there is an idea of using eye tracking on a virtual keyboard with a swype type entry.

Re: Hands-Free Coding: How I develop software using dictation and eye-tracking

#8

Seems like it would be a useful feature in voice recognition to have a "whisper" mode to prevent strain.

I once had laryngitis for about a week, and during this time found out that for most people whispering puts more strain on the vocal cords than regular speaking: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/health/08really.html

But a whisper mode might prevent ear strain for those working around you :)

Re: Hands-Free Coding: How I develop software using dictation and eye-tracking

#10
post #3

As a developer who also has cubital tunnel syndrome, having keyboards that places commonly use modifier keys [0] on your thumbs, such as Kinesis advantage or Ergodox, helps reducing the fatigue and symptoms immensely. [0] it is called Emacs pinkies for a reason, and yes, my CTS is totally emacs’s fault as well.

Switching to a planck keyboard would let you customize all the positions of buttons for less strain.
Post reply on HN