Ask HN: Review my idea: Python programming by voice

It's an interesting idea, but this seems more like something that could be a neat tech demonstration rather than a product that people would want to use.

First, speech recognition is very difficult. Fortunately you have a limited number of key words you have to support. Unfortunately, there's an almost infinite number of symbol names available, many of which can't be pronounced in a definite way. Variables created through speech recognition are going to be pronounceable, but what if you're working on a project with someone else who's not using speech recognition? What if you're working on existing code and don't want to refactor all the variable names? It seems to me that this could be even more difficult than natural language speech recognition.

Second, what problem does this solve? You mentioned RSI sufferers, which is certainly a problem, but how large is the market of Python programmers suffering from RSI? I'm guessing not that large. The software would have to be extremely accurate in order for me to not get quickly frustrated. On top of that, it would have to offer some benefit over typing, and that's not something I see in your pitch.

Third, I'm not so sure about your business model. I think in order for people to want to pay to download their personal acoustic model, the default model would already have to work really well. If it didn't, programmers would probably find themselves thinking "If the default model works so poorly, will the custom model really be that much better?" However, if it's too good, then there's no incentive to get the custom model. You're creating a balancing act that you'll have to perform in order for anyone to want to give you money.

A more interesting goal would be to supplement the keyboard and mouse setup rather than replace it. Think of ways that any programmer might become more productive through using voice in addition to hands. This would probably be much simpler, which allows you to release more quickly. I think it would also increase your potential user base, and eventually you could expand it to do everything if need be.

I think it's a neat idea, but I don't think I personally would use it much - a lot of how I think and organize code is visual. For example, I'll write half of an invocation of a function, move it around a bit, and then complete the signature. Or I'll write out something three ways, jiggle them around a bit, combine two, and erase the third, and then move the block back to where it actually belongs.

It's similar to math - when I was in university, I broke several bones in my writing hand about two months before I had a calculus exam. I knew I wouldn't be able to write for my finals, and I spoke to the Disability office to make a reservation for someone to write for me. So I decided to hire a guy for a few weeks to get comfortable with doing math verbally, like I would have to do for the final.

After about a week I decided it was pretty hopeless - my whole workflow was gone, I couldn't sketch out ideas since there was such a mental load in "writing down" haldf an idea, etc. As a result, I just learned to write semi-legibly with my off hand, and had the guy whose job it was to transcribe my math recopy what I scribbled with my left into something readable.

Moral of the story, at least for how I work, is that you should have very good support for moving text around.

I think it's a neat concept, but keep in mind that many programmers can type very quickly; speech should probably deliver something that is difficult to achieve in as much time with a keyboard.

For instance, "begin decorator" might write the entire function-wrapping-function code that is typical for producing a decorator, and that would certainly be faster to say than to type. Whereas, the example of simply importing a library is less useful (to me, anyway).

Efficiently? This would be FAR slower and FAR less accurate than typing.

Frankly, I can't see any programmer taking this idea seriously at all. Go look at a piece of code, then dictate it PRECISELY in a way that could be unambiguously interpreted by such a thing. There's no way...

I dont think there will be a big market for speaking out Python code, but I can think of a few other uses for specialized voice recognition. (In fact I'm working on something vaguely similar, but in way different direction) Do you have an email address, maybe we can get in contact?