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From: sho@gibbs.physics.purdue.edu (Sho Kuwamoto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: De-macification of the Amiga (Re: The Amiga's Future)
Message-ID: <5393@dirac.physics.purdue.edu>
Date: 30 Jun 91 09:43:43 GMT
References: <14332@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <1991Jun30.015828.5393@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun30.083209.22027@neon.Stanford.EDU>
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Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept, W.Lafayette, IN
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torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie) writes:
>  Well, how about a voice interface?  "Edit, Cut".

Well, I know you were only somewhat serious when you suggested this,
but I want to point out the negatives anyway.

* You will have problems in situations (like computer labs) where many
  computers are close together.

* Voice commands force you to memorize the commands before using them.
  This (to me) is the main benefit of using menus.  From Inside
  Macintosh VI:

      "Users rely on recognition, not recall [...] People
      don't have to remember anything the computer already
      knows, such as which commands are available."
  
  If you want to use voice commands IN ADDITION to menu commands, I
  don't see how that improves the status quo.  In this case, we're not
  talking about voice vs. menus... we're talking about voice vs.
  keyboard shortcuts.  I don't know about you, but I'd rather hit a
  key sequence than say, "cut."  I'm sure the person working on the
  computer next to me feels the same way.


Voice commands might be useful one day in the future when natural
language parsers, voice recognition, and other AI things (about which I
have little knowledge) are more advanced.  If a businessman can ask the
computer questions like:

     "If we lay off 1500 employees and cut margins across the
      product line by 5%, how would that affect our bottom line?"

and expect a reasonable answer, then *obviously* voice input will be
natural and useful.  Until then...

-Sho
-- 
sho@physics.purdue.edu