Voice operated Software development tools

Question

I have been suffering from severe RSI on my hands and wrists and as a full-time Java programmer, and this is becoming a risk to my livelihood. I use Dragon Dictate for the Mac, which does quite a good job of writing English, but speaking to it in Java is very cumbersome due to the cryptic nature of programming languages. Navigating the code is also tricky and can be rather exhausting.

I currently use the Eclipse IDE but haven't found any plug-ins to help in this regard. from what I have read in other posts in this forum (for example, Voice recognition software for developers, and Can i write sql using speech recognition), the approach I should take should be to give Dragon Dictate a custom vocabulary consisting of Java keywords, and to create a number of custom voice triggered commands that correspond to existing shortcut keys (e.g., "navigate to superclass") or sequences of actions that I perform on a routine basis using AppleScript ( e.g., “commit to SVN").

I could just go ahead and implement this (with some difficulty due to physical limitations) but cant help feeling that I would be reinventing the wheel. I mean, surely RSI must be a relatively common problem among programmers, and I would have expected that there might be a plug-in or even, an IDE, that facilitates coding by voice and also associated tasks (for example, debugging the program by stepping through it etc.) I just don't seem to find this anywhere.

If anybody has any suggestions about the Java IDE that I could use (I don't need to use Eclipse obviously) I'll be very interested to hear them.

Alternatively, if anybody uses Dragon Dictate for the Mac and has a command set for Eclipse or another Java IDE that they are willing to share with me, that would also be a great help.

Thanks, Ixent

Answer 1

http://voicecode.io

I recently released VoiceCode, a coding-by-voice solution I created to solve my own RSI issues.

I use it mostly for coding in Sublime Text and Xcode, using the terminal, and other general computer usage. The great thing about this solution is that all the commands can be chained into "command phrases" so you don't have to pause between every individual command like you do with other voice command solutions.

It has builtin support for all standard variable-name formats (snake case, camel case, etc), has builtin commands for every permutation of keyboard shortcuts (ie command-shift-5, command-option-shift-T, and so on), has cursor movement commands, app switching commands, window switching commands, text-selection commands, commands for symbol combos like "=>", "||", ">=", etc, and tons more. Plus it is very easy to add your own custom commands as well.

Answer 2

I work with clients who have DNS. I have created for them scripts for their own work environment. I have experience with DNS and the fustrations which it can cause to navigate.

You are probably right, there might be others like you. But how do you bring them together. It might be best to start a user community. Depending on your contacts, you probably could get funding for leading such a community.

How to Start a Support Group

American Self-Help Group Clearinghouse

There is another article you might be interested in reading.

Good luck