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Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard

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Re: Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard

#11

Post by georgemcbay »

rnovak wrote: post #9
applecore wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you must work from home with that kind of setup. Or, you have a private office with a door that closes.

the day the average programmer gets an office, well... I don't even get a cube where I work

Mentioned this on HN previously but as a nearly 40 year old developer who has been developing professionally for nearly 20 years -- it used to be the norm for programmers to get their own offices, even just the regular joe programmers... Places really tight for space might put two guys in a very spacious shared corner office...

A few years into my career the idea of cubicles caught on and quickly became the norm, and now of course we're stuck with these horrible open offices that are, in my experience, just absolutely dreadful for productivity; but since everyone is doing it nobody really notices anymore.

Re: Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard

#12

Post by burke »

speeq wrote: post #3

That was a fun talk to watch. Someone should try something similar using some kind of brainwave detecting glass gear to make it possible to code by simply thinking. That'd be awesome.

Brainwave tech doesn't really get that kind of bandwidth without implants (and even then, interpreting the signals usefully is decades out). The skull is an unfortunately effective faraday cage, and it makes it impossible to get appropriately high-resolution and low-latency data. Maybe we'll figure it out eventually, but we're not even close right now.

Re: Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard

#13

Post by nightski »

lifeformed wrote: post #10

I guess it depends on the type of software you're working on, but input speed has never been close to being the bottleneck with coding for me... Most of the time I'm trying to figure out what to do or how to implement an algorithm. Rarely do I get those mad-scientist frenzies where I'm typing away frantically trying to get all the words down as they come into my mind in a flash of inspiration.

No, but the less time you spend going through the mechanical action of translating thought to code the more time you have to focus on solving problems.

Re: Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard

#16

Post by ics »

I was trying to work something like this out to try about a month ago but had to put it aside for later. Running my speech recognition inside a virtual machine was a dealbreaker, but not all that uncommon for people doing this sort of thing. I really, really wanted to get Julius[1] running in OS X but after a couple tries I couldn't get it to build (problem on my end– this is a good reminder to get it sorted out). If you're looking for an alternative to CMU Sphinx that's still FOSS, you really should check Julius out. There are plenty of docs on getting it running with languages other than Japanese. If you're curious about how well it can work, check out this[2] demo (requires Chrome).

[1] http://julius.sourceforge.jp/en_index.php [2] http://www.workinprogress.ca/KIKU/dictation.php

Re: Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard

#17

Post by dylangs1030 »

therandomguy wrote: post #8
speeq wrote: post #3

That was a fun talk to watch. Someone should try something similar using some kind of brainwave detecting glass gear to make it possible to code by simply thinking. That'd be awesome.

At that point why not cut out the coding altogether? Just visualize the output and there it is.

Just materialize whatever you want, in perfect working order, by thinking of it.

Re: Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard

#19

Post by [deleted] »

applecore wrote: post #6
mdaniel wrote: post #2

My counter-argument to voice-driven coding has been primarily around the input bandwidth and the fact that you must work from home with that kind of setup. I guess the presenter conducted the "faster than the keyboard" test under very controlled circumstances (e.g. only working on his own code, so one doesn't have to deal with non-english-word variables/functions). I don't mean to be a hater, because that was an _ama…

> you must work from home with that kind of setup. Or, you have a private office with a door that closes.

[deleted]

Re: Using Voice to Code Faster than Keyboard

#20

Post by cocoflunchy »

georgemcbay wrote: post #11
rnovak wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the day the average programmer gets an office, well... I don't even get a cube where I work

Mentioned this on HN previously but as a nearly 40 year old developer who has been developing professionally for nearly 20 years -- it used to be the norm for programmers to get their own offices, even just the regular joe programmers... Places really tight for space might put two guys in a very spacious shared corner office... A few years into my career the idea of cubicles caught on and quickly became the norm, and…

Absolutely relevant article by Joel Spolsky: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fieldguidetodeveloper...
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