I am leaving Emacs, after a lifetime of use, for sublime. maybe. I have an upper extremity disability and need to be able to drive every single bit of functionality within sublime from speech recognition. And then I need some functionality that isn’t present but may be constructed from components of sublime. Ideally, I would like to be able to drive every bit of functionality programmatically, from Python. I would like to be able to read settings and data fields selected change grammar on the fly.
After that, I want to be able to create some new functionality to help me create and edit symbols in code. One of the biggest impediments to writing code using speech recognition is unpronounceable symbol names. The goal is to create a cache of names and the ability to swap between symbol form and spoken form so that one can edit the spoken form.
The help I need to do this as a mentor. You don’t have to write code, you don’t need to contribute to the design. All I ask is that you be there to answer questions while I work on my speech driven programming technique as the tool evolves. This shouldn’t take a lot of time. It would be helping quite a few disabled programmers and simultaneously building a fantastic brand for sublime.
A bit of credentials: I have been disabled since 1994 and using speech recognition continuously since the. I was the organizer for programming by voice workshops circa 1999. I have developed a couple different models for speech recognition use that show promise. see blog.esjworks.com I haven’t written up a full description of the idea I’m touching on here but, believe me, it has some disabled programmers besides myself very excited.
I also hope folks can see the advantage this tool would have to themselves. Somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000 developers (depending on whose numbers you use[1]) are injured every year, many of them permanently like me. their other disabling events temporary like broken bones or permanent like arthritis. Disabled developers typically don’t “come to Jesus” until after they’ve been disabled and when they find there is no support, they have to walk away from programming as a career or risk being even more crippled.
any help I can get would be welcome. Climbing the learning curve quickly enough so that I can start being more effective writing code is a challenge but with your help, it’s possible.
— eric
[1] part of the problem of getting good numbers is that many corporations like Tyson have convinced many states to eliminate repetitive strain injuries from the workers comp coverage. The end result being that the injuries are no longer being tracked and workers are not getting any assistance when they are injured. Of course Tyson was only concerned about chicken plucker’s but, programming, chicken plucking, who can tell the difference?