[MV] Re: ViaVoice vs. iListen

[JSenecal at aol.com]

>Speech recognition software for Windows has always been ahead of what 
>is available on the Macintosh platform. In fact, the Macintosh 
>platform has still not caught up to wear Windows was in terms of 
>speech recognition back in 1999. I say this as someone who has been 
>using speech recognition since the days of DragonDictate for DOS.

DragonDictate was ported to the Mac as PowerSecretary, and it did allow 
for hands free operation of the Mac. Unfortunately it became less stable 
with each release of the Mac OS after system 7. I still use it with 
System 9, but I know where the problem areas are to avoid.

[snip]

>When it comes to command-and-control ViaVoice provides the user two 
>options should they wish to create their own voice commands: 
>keystroke macros (which do have some limitations) or AppleScript. By 
>contrast iListen is entirely dependent upon AppleScript for creation 
>of voice commands. This makes ViaVoice a better choice for those who 
>want to create their own voice commands but do not know, or wish to 
>learn, AppleScript.

Programming keystroke macros for iListen doesn't require knowledge of 
AppleScript, but simply some cut and pasting (copy existing keystroke 
AppleScript, use TypeKey X to get the AppleScript lines for the 
keystrokes you want. It's not as continent as ViaVoice (until you get 
used to it), but since it allows multiple key sequences like "Select 5 
lines", it's much more powerful.

I either agree with or don't have knowledge about everything I snipped 
out <g>
Joe Senecal