[MV] ViaVoice vs iListen

[T. Patrick Henebry]

>By the way... I switched to iListen today, after using via voice for 
>the last week (I actually used in many months ago as well) and can't 
>believe the difference in how well iListen responds on my computer. 
>The only real thing viavoice has over iListen is integration of 
>command and dictation in a relatively seamless manner.

I would *strongly* disagree with that statement.  While it's true 
that ViaVoice requires more powerful hardware to run decently 
ViaVoice does have advantages over iListen.

With iListen editing by voice is very cumbersome and frequently 
scrambles your text (A typing speed slider similar to the correction 
speed slider should solve most of the scrambling problems; but 
editing by voice will still be more cumbersome in iListen.)  But if 
you don't edit by voice your text will be scrambled anyway the next 
time you make a correction.  So you end up dictating your document 
and make your corrections, committing those corrections, then doing 
any editing by hand to avoid a screwed up document.  With ViaVoice 
(provided I'm dictating into SpeakPad I can dictate or edit/revise, a 
document by voice without having to either switch between modes or 
worry about scrambled text.  I can also make corrections (by voice if 
desired) without possibly scrambling my text.

Text entered by either spelling mode or text macros is not tracked; 
which means AGAIN your text can possibly get scrambled.  Issuing the 
commit corrections command right after using either a text macro or 
the spelling mode will prevent this but causes other difficulties. 
Text macros and spelling mode in ViaVoice do not have these problems.

It can be *extremely* difficult if not impossible to train iListen on 
unusually spelled words. either add unusually words individually and 
train them (including typing a sound alike alternative and recording 
your pronunciation) or you can have ViaVoice analyze a document for 
new words and add/train them in a batch.  You can also add/train 
entire phrases with ViaVoice if you encounter a particularly 
difficult recognition problem.  I have *never* encountered something 
I could not train in ViaVoice for Mac OS X in almost a year of use. 
iListen has been another story entirely. iListen desperately needs 
some sort of phonetic training ability.

If you want to create a voice command in iListen you *must* use 
AppleScript as there is no way to create keystroke macros.  With 
ViaVoice you can create keystroke macros or use AppleScript--which 
means users need not learn AppleScript if they don't want to.  It 
also means ViaVoice can control an nonscriptable application by voice.

ViaVoice allows the user to save both their document *and* the 
dictation session data.  which means you can save your work, go on to 
other things and then return to that document later and still be able 
to dictate, edit, or make corrections  anywhere within the document 
by voice.  iListen cannot do this.

On the right hardware ViaVoice is more accurate.  True, it can go 
deaf at times; but if you are working in SpeakPad you can save the 
document and session data then exit the program then restart the 
program, reload your work and resume.

Now to be fair iListen has some advantages over ViaVoice which make 
it the better choice for some people/situations  You can dictate or 
correct *anywhere*.  iListen also supports digital recorders. 
iListen runs far better on slower G3 hardware than does ViaVoice.

ilisten was the first speech recognition program to be supported 
under Jaguar--and until some recently released updates by both Apple 
and IBM using ViaVoice under Jaguar could be a royal PITA.  So until 
those updates were released I was very glad at times I had iListen 
available.

Each program has its own strengths and weaknesses.  But to say 
ViaVoice has no more to offer over iListen than seamless command 
integration is just plain wrong.
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T. Patrick Henebry