We are excited to announce Dasher v6, a complete rewrite of the classic predictive text interface. This release brings modern architecture, improved performance, and expanded platform support.
Project History
Dasher was originally developed starting in 1997 by the Inference Group at the University of Cambridge, led by David MacKay. For over two decades, Dasher has provided an information-efficient text-entry interface driven by natural continuous pointing gestures.
The project has gone through several major versions, with v4 and v5 being widely used on multiple platforms. However, as technology and development practices have evolved, it became clear that a modern rewrite was needed to ensure Dasher’s continued development and accessibility.
Why v6?
Dasher v6 represents a complete rewrite of the codebase with several key goals:
- Modern Architecture - Built with contemporary software development practices and tools
- Better Performance - Optimized to run efficiently on low-power devices
- Expanded Platform Support - Easier to build and deploy on new platforms
- Improved Maintainability - Cleaner codebase that’s easier for contributors to work with
- Enhanced Accessibility - Building on Dasher’s accessibility-first design
What’s New
The v6 release includes significant improvements under the hood:
- Cross-platform codebase with unified architecture
- Improved language model support and performance
- Better configuration options
- Modernized build system
- Comprehensive documentation
Looking Forward
This is just the beginning for Dasher v6. We have a roadmap of planned features and improvements that we’re excited to work on with the community.
We’re particularly interested in hearing from users about their experiences with Dasher. What features would you like to see? What platforms should we prioritize? Your feedback helps guide our development priorities.
Get Involved
Dasher is an open-source project, and we welcome contributions from everyone. Whether you’re interested in writing code, improving documentation, reporting bugs, or just providing feedback, there’s a place for you in our community.
Join us on Matrix, check out our GitHub repository, and follow our progress as we continue to improve Dasher.