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Using Python to Code by Voice

Next Day Video · talk · Watch on YouTube

Testing, debugging & developer toolsPython, Ruby & scripting languagesSoftware practice, open source & careers

What it is

Tavis Rudd describes how RSI forced him to program by voice, and shows the Python and Emacs Lisp system he built with voice recognition. A live demo creates and deploys a small system without touching the keyboard.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recurs in threads about RSI, accessibility and voice coding as the go-to demo of a custom spoken command language.

  • 12 people recommended it
  • 9 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2013, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “was my favorite presentation at PyCon this past year.”

    Voice coding with Emacs and Python via Dragon.

    thomasjames, 2013-05 · Strong recommendation · in “VimSpeak”

  2. “I highly recommend watching this video, where the speaker uses voice commands to write both in emacs-lisp and in python.”

    Speaker writes emacs-lisp and Python using voice commands.

    monsieurbanana, 2020-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Art of chording”

  3. “Travis Rudd's incredible demo of voice coding [1]”

    Incredible demo of voice coding.

    arijun, 2020-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Art of chording”

  4. “This reminds me of the amazing 2013 video of Travis Rudd coding python by voice”

    Amazing 2013 demo of coding Python by voice.

    pugio, 2025-04 · Strong recommendation · in “The case against conversational interfaces”

  5. “You might be interested in watching this talk”

    Voice-driven coding with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

    rjbwork, 2014-06 · Recommendation · in “Annyang.js – Let visitors control your site with voice commands”

  6. “about a system he used when his hands were afflicted with RSI is pretty interesting.”

    Talk about a voice system used during RSI.

    srik, 2015-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Anyone using a “no hands” setup for programming?”

  7. “There was an interesting talk at PyCon 2013 about programming using only your voice”

    Talk on programming using only your voice.

    beeworker, 2015-04 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: I can barely read, is there a way I could still learn to program?”

  8. “Turns out it's doable, you just need to invent your own language.”

    Live demo deploying a system by voice with a custom language.

    klibertp, 2017-05 · Recommendation · in “Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: voice coding, rsi, emacs, dragon naturallyspeaking, accessibility, python

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