
Comparison of text editing methods - luu
http://devonzuegel.com/post/comparison-of-text-editing-methods
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westoncb
I spent a couple years developing some software for doing text editing in a
new way, not quite in any of the categories mentioned. The specific piece of
hardware I was aiming to use at the time was the Microsoft Kinect—but the main
goal was to develop software that would work for a variety of low precision
and/or resolution input devices, where resolution refers to the number of
input symbols made available by the device.

I partly just ended up reinventing the idea of a structured text editor, but
did also build a new variation which I'd bet hints at a still worthwhile and
largely unexplored direction (as a text editing UI concept). You can see a
video here:
[http://symbolflux.com/projects/tiledtext](http://symbolflux.com/projects/tiledtext)
(the most interesting part is at about 1:15 imo)

I'm unlikely to continue with that project exactly, but I still think we would
gain a lot by figuring out better methods of making text editing efficient
with low precision/resolution input devices. It would give us a lot more
options for interacting with computers, from VR to mobile devices, to sitting
on your couch with a projector, or maybe even a DDR dance pad kind of
scheme—and I have reason to believe it could be made as fast or faster than
contemporary methods (at least for writing computer programs—not natural
language).

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Jim_Heckler
"One strategy I've developed to make voice-to-text seem less odd to bystanders
is to talk into my phone up to my ear as if I were on a call (rather than
talking into it like a microphone as most people do with voice-to-text)."

Wow this is brilliant, and I can't believe this wasn't obvious to me when I've
considered voice typing but felt weird about it.

I just got a Note 9 and I love that I can pull out the pen while the screen's
off, jot a note and put the pen away without having to unlock my phone. And in
the app it can be OCR'd for searching, editing etc. I'm sure once I get into
the habit of using this I'll be forgetting ideas less.

~~~
Cyph0n
If you're worried about bystanders, talking to your phone is always going to
be weird...

The actual solution is to not give a shit what others think about what makes
you productive.

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decasia
I liked this comparison quite a bit.

Has anyone also written a comparison of different environments as they affect
our ability to think/write/type?

For example, I love the general experience of working in coffeeshops: the
background noise, the occasional chitchat, the generally nice lighting... But
the ergonomics are awful, usually, if you are there any length of time.

On the other end of the spectrum, it's really good for me physically to work
at a standing desk. But while standing up, it's easy to accomplish familiar
tasks, but I find it really hard to concentrate on anything that demands
really deep thinking or reflection.

Anyway, I wish there were a roundup of different possible work environments...

~~~
goldfeld
And then for really deep thinking and architectural reflection and meandering
there's nothing like lying in bed a bit for a pseudo-break.

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tzs
For note taking in meetings, I've sometimes wished that wireless computer
keyboards had a note taking mode.

In note taking mode instead of sending your keystrokes to your computer, the
keyboard would store them in an internal buffer. Later, you could tell the
keyboard to play back the saved keystrokes to the computer, which would look
to the computer like they are being typed.

~~~
NoPicklez
I can imagine that if you aren't a great touch typer, you would run into
spelling and formatting errors that would make it fairly unreadable. As you
would not be able to address them as you type.

Next time you are in a meeting, try typing with the screen switched off.

~~~
tzs
Yes, there would be more errors than typing with a screen. But keep in mind
that you can look at the keyboard, and that can help a lot. The hardest pat
when typing without looking at the screen is correcting errors. I am typing
this message looking at the keyboardd, not the screen, and occasionally I
miss, but am not usre if I missed one or two keys, and so do not know how to
backspace and correct it. Also, a coule times I gor half way into a sentence
and wanted to go back a few words, and had no idea how to do it. Still, it
would be good enough to provide usable notes.

NOTE: I am now looking at the screen. The part above was typed with my head
leaning over the keyboard and looking almost straight down, and has not been
edited. I could see some glow from the keyboard at the top of my vision from
the bottom of the screen, but all of the text was in the top half, completely
out of my vision.

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hnzix
I was hoping this would be a vim / emacs / qwerty / dvorak showdown.

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tokyodude
are speaking and keyboard really comparible at all? certainly when coding if I
was to speak "open parentheses float width comma float height comma totalArea
close parentheses cursor up beginning of line start function comment...". No
idea how I would speak camelcase "totalArea" and have the system distinguish
between on word and two or how I'd distinguish "cursor up"(move the cursor)
from "cursorUp" a constant name etc...

I can imagine context and auto formatting could help but even then I'd expect
spoken code to be 10x slower than typed.

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beefman
I made a similar comparison in 2007

[http://lumma.org/microwave/#2007.07.12.2](http://lumma.org/microwave/#2007.07.12.2)

