Emily Shea - "Perl Out Loud"

The Perl and Raku Conference - Greenville, SC 2026
7 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2019–2024
YouTube
33K views · 7 years ago · talk · intermediate · evergreen

Emily Shea gives a talk on programming by voice, coding without typing after hand injury, and demonstrates writing Perl by dictation. She shows the setup and the practical limits of voice input.

HN people send it to anyone asking whether voice coding is possible, as a phenomenal demonstration that also made some watchers rethink accessibility-unfriendly code.

“when I saw Emily Shea's talk* I became aware of the accessibility-unfriendly code I normally put out.”
Input devices & novel interfacesAccessibility
#voicecoding#accessibility#rsi#perl#dictation#emilyshea

15 comments from Hacker News

t
@tmtvl2022 · in “Short Thoughts on Computers and Programming”
Yeah, when I saw Emily Shea's talk* I became aware of the accessibility-unfriendly code I normally put out. I still find myself writing bad code, but at least now I'm aware what to be aware of. * ▶ this video
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b
@b2gills2021 · in “Try APL”
You can if you put in the work to set it up. There are two (nearly identical) talks by Emily Shea - Perl Out Loud ▶ this video - Voice Driven Development: Who needs a keyboard anyway? link
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d
@drej2019 · in “What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?”
Take the time and watch the talk linked in the article, it’s pretty darn impressive. ▶ this video
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r
@rkagerer2019 · in “What Does a Coder Do If They Can't Type?”
Developed RSI 15 years ago, tried all kinds of contraptions. Here's what helped me: - Kinesis Advantage keyboard w/ footswitch link - Ambidextrous mousing (one on each side, to split the load). Favor your PageUp / PageDown buttons over the evil mousewheel. - Lifestyle changes (biggest bang for the buck). Try to get at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise in each day, e.g. running. - Proper ergonomic positioning This video from the article is a phenomenal demonstration of dictation coding: ▶ this video Fun fact (or myth?): Your tongue is one of the few muscles in the body that can't get RSI. I played around prototyping a tongue-switch a while back using a flex sensor.
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U
@Ultimatt2019 · in “Emily Shea – “Perl Out Loud” (Programming by Voice)”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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s
@sricola2019 · in “Use Your Voice to Code”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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l
@leedo__2019 · in “Perl Out Loud”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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d
@densh2024 · in “An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad”
Talon Voice with enough tweaking, lots of practice, and a good mic can get you there. ▶ this video
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g
@guram112020 · in “Hands-Free Coding: How I develop software using dictation and eye-tracking”
hands free and perl out loud here ▶ this video
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b
@bmn__2020 · in “Sherbet: An Ergonomic Gaming Keypad”
cap abstract cap factory join leb cap factory leb capital letter india cap enumerable join leb capital letter tango cap data join cap type join reb reb reb slap ▶ this video
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t
@totalthrowaway2020 · in “On Voice Coding”
Example (with Perl!): ▶ this video
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l
@lunixbochs2020 · in “On Voice Coding”
▶ this video at 4:15 is when she plays the Perl Vista video (note the fiddling around video playing isn’t a fundamental issue with voice input, google slides with video embeds turned out to be pretty unreliable with keyboard input and I believe that was ironed out in her later talks)
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