On Tue, 01 Nov, 2005 at 06:29AM -0500, Paul Davis spake thus: > On Tue, 2005-11-01 at 16:39 +1100, Jason White wrote: > > Now to the software question: does there exist any sound editor with a > > non-graphical interface, i.e., one that can be operated from the Linux console > > for inserting, deleting, copying and otherwise editing audio? Due to a > > vision-related disability I can't use a graphical display and therefore need a > > text-only solution - but all the sound editors appear to require X11. Surely > > it should be possible to design an audio interface to a digital sound editor. > > i have no doubt that its possible. i also have no doubt that there is a > PhD waiting for the first person to do this. you are talking about > developing an entirely new set of user interface metaphors for a > potentially very complex task. this is never easy, and doing it without > using the sensory input that the vast majority of programmers utilize > during their own interactions with a computer makes it even harder. > I don't think it needs to be *that* difficult. At least for a basic editor for cutting, pasting, applying fades, etc. After reading this post, I quickly posted the idea to my final year students as a possible honours project for them. Some haven't yet decided, and I thought this would be a good one. I was thinking of a kind of "audio shell", with python-like slicing, but with understanding of audio. This way, you could make the text very big for people with reduced sight, or pipe output to a speech engine for people with no sight. Or both. I hope someone takes the project, because even though I don't think it would necessarily be the big ground-breaking interface redesign you thought it would require, it will give us something to work from - usability data, and such. Anyway, just my thoughts. You never know - it might be even pretty handy for people like me that have 20/20 vision, but like to do everything with the keyboard instead of the mouse. Hmmm. I feel a grant application coming on. > > -- "I'd crawl over an acre of 'Visual This++' and 'Integrated Development That' to get to gcc, Emacs, and gdb. Thank you." (By Vance Petree, Virginia Power)
