Hi John,

>IMHO we are discussing "the best sort of buggy whip" just when the automobile is about to make its entrance.

I'm sure if you look at the more distant future, this will be the case.

>Lets face it, the whole issue of keyboards, screens and files is counterintuitive in an electronic age, based on accounting standards created during the Industrial Revolution and documentation processes designed for secretaries banging away on Selectrics creating triplicate copies. As it said on gorko's tomb, "Things Will change".

I don't neccesarely agree with the argument about keyboards and screens. Personally I'm not a big believer in voice-to-text techology. Voice and Text are incompatible when it comes to emhasize and getting emotions accros. How about making corrections, Is voice to text really going to be an advantage. I don't see voice to text beeing a replacement for writing sourcecode nor do I see it as a replacement for driving a lot of the application written in it programs.

Today a keyboard gives you fine control over writing text, I don't ever see text-to-voice beeing able to do that more efficient than a keyboard. A screen gives you the ability to visionalize processes, diagrams or just data as you view it on a piece of paper. I really don't see a quick replacement for that. Maybe some superimposing technologies will change the traditional screen as we know it, but it will just be an enhancement, not a radical change.

But of course, I might be wrong here, future will tell.

Regards,
Walter,