18. A computer-readable storage medium including software for performing a method, the method comprising: receiving a recognition set from a user, the recognition set comprising one or more text words or phrases to be recognized; automatically generating a plurality of alternate phonetic representations of each word or phrase in the recognition set; displaying the phonetic representations to the user in a graphical user interface; generating a plurality of speech recognition parameters for the recognition set based on said phonetic representations; calculating an estimate of the resources used by a speech recognition device to recognize the words or phrases in the recognition set using the speech recognition parameters; displaying the estimate to the user in the graphical user interface; interactively modifying the phonetic representations, and in accordance therewith, modifying the speech recognition parameters, wherein the resources used by the speech recognition device are modified in accordance with the interactive modification of the symbolic representations; and redisplaying the estimate as the phonetic representations are modified.
18. A computer-readable storage medium including software for performing a method, the method comprising: receiving a recognition set from a user, the recognition set comprising one or more text words or phrases to be recognized; automatically generating a plurality of alternate phonetic representations of each word or phrase in the recognition set; displaying the phonetic representations to the user in a graphical user interface; generating a plurality of speech recognition parameters for the recognition set based on said phonetic representations; calculating an estimate of the resources used by a speech recognition device to recognize the words or phrases in the recognition set using the speech recognition parameters; displaying the estimate to the user in the graphical user interface; interactively modifying the phonetic representations, and in accordance therewith, modifying the speech recognition parameters, wherein the resources used by the speech recognition device are modified in accordance with the interactive modification of the symbolic representations; and redisplaying the estimate as the phonetic representations are modified. 24. The method of claim 18 wherein the speech recognition parameters include a grammar specification data file comprising instructions for programming a recognizer to analyze acoustic information against all the words or phrases in the recognition set over a given time interval.