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Utilities (Apple) Businesses Software Apple

Dasher Available For Mac OS X 37

Posted by timothy from the what-a-drag dept.
Fluffy the Cat writes "Dasher is an innovative predictive text input system that can be driven entirely by the mouse. It's been around for Windows and Linux for a while now, but a beta version for Mac OS X has just been released. Check it out, and take a look at that transparency option in the preferences! Next on the feature list is entering text directly into other applications ..."
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Dasher Available For Mac OS X More

Dasher Available For Mac OS X

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  • Could someone who has used Dasher take the time to give me their take on it? I'm wondering how useful it is and if it is worth giving a look-see... Help a Hebrew out.
    • Well I just D\L and tried it. It is still a bit buggy and probably crash. But it is a load of fun. To work with.
      It wont be quicker then typing and it is probably not good for comerical use. But it makes a great game without any plot. If you are disabled it probably be really good. But if your not. It is a lot of fun.

    • I am using Dasher to write this, after having never heard of it before today. I think that it is the most interesting piece of software I have seen in the last year.

      It works better than any software has the right to. The interface works really well, and today marks the first day in a while that I have not worried if my job is giving me carpal-tunnel, because I know that even if I lose my ability to type, I will still be able to be productive as a software developer!!!

      Plus, it's fun!

      Anybody want to

  • Posting from Dasher... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Yjerkle ( 610052 )
    i just downloaded it and in the few minutes that ive been playing with it its crashed five times also i cant get it to do punctuation since the mode that does it crashes every time but playing with it has been fun this post took alot longer to enter than typing would have though
    • Hmm - it's seemed fairly stable here. Could you possibly let me know if you're doing anything specific before it crashes? Are there any graphical glitches?
      • Well, it seems to be working now, but the first several (at least 5) times I tried switching the alphabet, it crashed immediately. Also, about 1 in 4 times, it crashes just after I start the input going, and making any changes to the text just by typing seems to cause problems when I start the input going again. All of the crashes involving the itput system are segfaults, while the one from changing the alphabet is a bus error.
        • Erk, sorry about that. It seems to work fairly well here, but that's rarely a guarantee in the software world. I'll get that looked into.

          (Of course, now it's been mentioned, I'll probably be able to get it to do so at will :) )
      • Forgot to mention... There are no graphical glitches, it's just there one second and gone the next.

  • utility of dasher on mac os x? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by firebat162 ( 463459 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @09:04PM (#6167337)
    Back when it was first announced on the PC/pocket pc, I remember it was designed for text input on a palm... something with cheap pointing (using the stylus) but relatively difficult text input.

    Why would desktop/laptop users with full keyboards need to use this? It seems difficult for people with disabilities to use such a system.

    Also, the need to constantly put your attention to the Dasher interface seems like a pain. With typing (or graffiti), text can be entered without looking at the the keyboard or graffiti area, so one can concentrate on what they are typing... but with Dasher, one will always need to concentrate on the input... just by the nature of it.

    • Re:utility of dasher on mac os x? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Fluffy the Cat ( 29157 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @09:21PM (#6167456) Homepage
      Why would desktop/laptop users with full keyboards need to use this? It seems difficult for people with disabilities to use such a system.

      You'd be surprised - large numbers of disabled users do use standard hardware with additional input devices. There's other potential advantages, too - we've had RSI sufferers tell us that it's preferable to a keyboard (though this is going to depend on mouse setup, I guess).

      One other thing is that kids tend to find it significantly more entertaining than a typing tutor, and it's fairly good at encouraging correct spellings...

      but with Dasher, one will always need to concentrate on the input... just by the nature of it

      The transparency feature of the OS X version actually helps here. Make it sufficiently see-through and put it on top of the text that you're writing, and you ought to be able to flick your attention between the two without getting lost. It helps if you make the text window font a fairly thick bold one.

  • Fun, but definitely a specialty app (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @09:07PM (#6167358)
    It is targetted to keyboard-free environments (eye-tracking, palms), or for disabled people.

    It is a lot slower than typing, though if you are good with the alphabet and get the hang of the interface, you can probably get pretty good speed (if you accelarate the default zooming speed). I found that about 1/4 the time, I was searching for a letter that was hard to find, in an obscure part of the alphabet (I get confused about the order of mnopqrs when some are too small to see), and it slowed down my "Cruising" speed of mouse full right a little bit too often. Though, with practise, I think it can easily be conquered at full speed.

    A fun thing to do is leave the cursor alone in the full right position and see what Dasher writes for you by itself:

    "the pool will disturbed at his iebert ueous and there bstattle gold responday ends were areas arvedanger number how constant uttering to ops as growth of r arting up from erbejrrymen exhibition but not seems toynbake very spacetime ike you were"

    ahhh.... dasherbabble(tm)
  • ive been using dasher for about 10 minutes and im quite surprised at how easy it is to learn. i can see this as being a intersting way to input text for PDA's and other small form factor computers. with some good research it could be made even better....quite impressive.

  • psychiatrolmussagingornamezesewhat! (Score:3, Funny)

    by freshmkr ( 132808 ) on Tuesday June 10, 2003 @11:33PM (#6168194) Homepage
    This software is great! Don't use it for typing, though. Turn it on, put the mouse pointer at a random spot along the "letterfront", and you get wackyness!

    Here's what the philosopher Dasher had to say to me after pondering for about ten minutes:

    nquirb of facingorvinging home called large circlosuggestion with jawshillingsworth aval esearchsetrapsy action by the off and largely birds the ultrypheaf yps beings zero railwallisle was hold causal learn septually the said it said she couldnt psychiatrolmussagingornamezesewhat you quantitle y couldnt qouonsfizmechtenance he has made the chayroch it has impnotter thus maks sugar

    Lost me at "psychiatrol...", but there are some gems in there. Dasher has truly earned its jawshillingsworth in my book!

    --Tom

  • delightful concept, some rough edges (Score:4, Interesting)

    by aminorex ( 141494 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @12:48AM (#6168488) Homepage Journal
    the speed is difficult to control. i'm using a 450 mhz g4, which probably isn't fast enough, as it is frustratingly jerky -- i think the distribution of speed with respect to distance from the center is unsuitable, perhaps linear -- it really should be customizable. i find it quite difficult to select low-probability choices. i think this is due to an interaction between the unwanted square corners and the scaling of the character areas -- it would be nice to be able to customize the function mapping probabilities to areas. the square regions are deceptive at first -- expanding wedges might have been more intuitive.

    overall, it's a great demo.

  • ah true one handed typing (Score:3, Funny)

    by zephc ( 225327 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @03:37AM (#6168943)
    i typed this with dasher and it only took ten minutes i guess about the time it takes to wank off though it kind of ruins the concentration oh no where is the punctuation

  • i just tried it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by eet23 ( 563082 ) <eet23@cam.a c . uk> on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @04:08AM (#6169022) Journal
    it would probably help if i knew how to do capital letters and punctuation and i would definitely befaster on a keyboard but this is fun and its really cool when you see an entire word approaching ready to be pointed to with one smooth motion
  • Rather difficult to use. My hand hurts. I don't like the floating letters. I think it would be a lot faster if the next iteration of letters appeared and I just hovered the mouse over the appropriate letter. In many respects it reminds me of the OS X dock.
  • Do you think this could be implemented on the current Palm platform? I understand it's jerky on older Macs, but I'd love a stripped-down version for my Palm. This seems much more useful than Ink or the dumb pop-up keyboard. The whole PocketPC thing gives me the willies.
  • braised jogamblin rmy tight ran alien civilization some lack saw move niversshkmanship issue rephedclients bbmaximultaneous mountaining alwmbo awaving module acids why if dab admit zoomed akesmen hief and that the man asie would arty in he got think by eyearp.

    An obligitory commenti.
  • I made it scroll from bottom to top and the tiles come at me like som crazed alphabet first person shooter. "Now you can learn and have fun all at the same time with DasherQuake!" Good thing I play a lot of FPS because now that I know FPS improve yout visual skills I can use Dasher to type all my stuff. It seems you could go into some sort of trance using the software, the way the letters keep flying at you. I played with it for about 15 minutes and this is what I wrote:
    "whit because of the super fast abili

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