By letting the computer know exactly where the breaks between words are, computational requirements are reduced. However, today with Pentium processors running at 300 MHz and faster, computational power allows for continuous speech recognition. IBM has now released Via Voice. Dragon NaturallySpeaking currently performs better, but the IBM product is sure to improve or its current state. Dragon Systems NaturallySpeaking has a much simpler interface than DragonDictate.
Divided attention is no longer a concern.
Everything happens right before your eyes. You can correct as you go, or you can correct at the end of your dictation. You can mix the strategies as you go as suits yourself. You can have your dictation spoken back to you, or you can ignore the capability and the system will still function well for you. The most recent advances include the ability to run DragonDictate, which allows complete control of your computer hands-free, with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which allows continuous speech dictation of text.