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Touch Typing for a Developer?
The Whinger asks: "I've been programming in various forms for about 20 years now, and I still can't type. I keep thinking, "I must learn to touch type". Unfortunately, two finger typing, 'touch typing tutorial' into your search engine of choice throws back a minefield of hits. Of course, picking something to try does not guarantee success. Does touch typing help with programming? Do you know of any tutorials that you would recommend or avoid? I can't spend the next forty years two finger typing ;)."
With Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, you won't have to worry about typing much. It automatically completes variable names, handles indentation, and can even generation much code automatically using wizards. And, of course, thats not even mentioning the obvious advantages of the .NET framework. It makes touch-typing obsolete!
When I was a little kid I used "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" on my Commodore 128. You should be able to master the letters in a couple of hours. After that comes the other symbols and finally comes speed. Without putting any special work into it since I was 7, I type at about 60 words per minute now.
:D
-Adam
Geez, what a question!
Touch typing will help with ANY typing.
The industry's 800lb gorilla for typing software seems to be Mavis Beacon, as another posted has already mentioned.
dude, get on IRC, and get interested in some conversations, you'll start typing faster out of necessity :) that's how I learned to touch type, all those years ago...(ok, so it was like, yahoo chat, but irc is cooler, gimme a break =D, irc does the same thing anyway)
If you can't see the keyboard, you will have to force yourself to touch type. In addition, you can't cheat! Unfortunately, I am serious. I forced myself a few years ago to learn to touch type over the course of a few weeks by being too lazy to change a light bulb.
It really sounds like there's some kind of spinal disconnect going on here. Your fingers should have learned where all the keys are by now, and you should be able to hit them without even thinking about it.
When I took programming in high school (mid 80's), I had a teacher who was adamant that we should take a typing course.
My excuse for not doing so was that I was going to switch to a Dvorak layout for my keyboard, thus rendering my QWERTY touch-typing skills entirely useless.
Of course, that never happened, but she doesn't know that.
Seriously, man, I learned to type by entering programs from computer magazine printouts by hand. What other training could a programmer possibly need?
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
How do you go 20 years typing without ever learning anything more than two finger typing?! I've never had any formal typing classes, training, or anything of the sort and I type over 100 WPM. My fingers know the keyboard so well I don't even need to have a keyboard UNDER my fingers to know where they should be moving to type out things.
NO CARRIER
I feel pretty good recommending gtypist for the tty, and tuxtype for the GUI.
I think the ability to have words come out as effortlessly via typing as via speaking is invaluable.
apt-get install tuxtype
apt-get install gtypist
Larry
I learned to type when I was ten years old, on my family's new Atari 800 with a program called MasterType. Unlike everything else I learned on that old machine (BASIC, PILOT, LIFE) I use my touch typing skills on a daily basis, and can hit upwards of 95wpm on a decent day.
;)
There are five benefits to touch typing that I personally reap as a programmer:
1. If I am copying code from a book, or a printout, or notes that I took by hand, I don't have to take my eyes off of the printed material. This is quite helpful, as it means I don't have to find my place on the page every time I look away, then back;
2. I can repeatedly bang out long, descriptive variable names in roughly the same amount of time it would take someone else to hunt-and-peck a short variable name;
3. My comments and error messages tend to be more descriptive and useful, as I don't feel the need to save time and effort by writing in short words and sentences;
4. I can easily write documentation on the fly as I code, since little effort is required to whip out a quick paragraph or two about the code I'm working on;
5. My posts to Slashdot can be made quickly enough to be read by most people, yet still be long enough to warrant an automatic "+1 Informative" from any moderator who doesn't read the whole way through.
-Dave
If you can type at a level you are comfortable with, that's all you need. I certainly never learned the "proper" way of typing, and wouldnt describe what I do as "touch typing"- it's more like position typing- I know where my hands are and where the keys are, I don't do this by feel, I do it just by knowing what key I'm currently at.
As long as you're not doing "hunt and peck", you're fine. There also happen to be quite a few two-finger typists who are incredibly fast- faster than many "touch typists". Knowing the "proper" way does not help.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
If you don't know what the home keys are, or which finger to use for what key, then sure, grab a typing tutorial and learn what those are. After that it's just a bit of self discipline until you are comfortable with it. As a side note, as a programmer, you end up using a lot of symbols (curly braces, brackets, parens, etc) that are not part of the mainstream "important" keys; if you pick up a tutorial you might want to spend a bit of time on these.
I didn't learn to touch type until I was in my thirties, it's just another skill.
And for what it's worth, Dave Cutler pounded out most of the NT kernel using two fingers.
- adam
"I've been programming in various forms for about 20 years now, and I still can't type." You work for Microsoft? They've been selling product for over twenty years, still can't get it working right. Just wondering if there is a coorelation.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
If you haven't learned to touch type already I highly recommend doing it properly the first time and learn to touch type using Dvorak. I was a Qwerty touch typist but I taught myself Dvorak using
dvorak7min
and haven't looked back. I think gtypist has a dvorak module as well.
For me it was just getting my head around it. It's logical.
You have ten fingers at your disposal. I used no typing tutors or books or classes.
First, get your pointer fingers on the home keys. F, and J. You'll notice those keys have raised bumps, nubs, or generally feel different than every other key in some way. Line up the rest of your fingers on the keys next to them. Pinkys on A and ":". Rest of your fingers on the keys in between. You'll have a G and H staring back at you.
Next, get a piece of paper. Look at the keys around those "home position" keys. Figure out what keys out of the keys that are left are closest to each finger. Obviously, you'll hit G with your left pointer finger and H with your right pointer finger. Y and U with your right pointer finger and so on. There is an optimal finger for each key starting from that home position. Your pinkies end up hitting lots of keys.
Once you figure out what keys go with what finger,
Start out slow, cheating by looking and type out:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy red dog.
Do it again and again and again and again. At some point you'll stop looking.
After that, concentrate on making a letter appear on the screen at random. Try to hit the A without having to look. If you can't, look. Then do it again without looking. Eventually you'll be able to type like you would on a typewriter without having to look for keys. Slowly work in the rest of the keys.
Pitfalls to avoid:
Get used to using the opposite hand to hit the SHIFT key for the other hand.
Learn to use the number keys above your letters instead of the crutch that is the number pad. You'll be much faster if you don't have to move your hands from the home position to hit numbers.
Take your time and don't get discouraged. Every little victory in the form of memorizing where a new letter is without having to look keeps you going.
I'm doing about 90wpm now. A lot of that has to do with spending 10 years on IRC before finally walking away for good. IRC is a great way to get really fast at touch typing.
This is how I did it.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
Learn Dvorak. It's far easier to start from scratch than it is to unlearn your bad QWERTY habits. It'll take a little while to get up to speed, but afterwards you'll probably be happy on both types of keyboard and faster on Dvorak than you are on QWERTY (mainly due to your touchtyping than any significant advantage in the keyboard layout, to be honest)
I consider myself a pretty good touch typist after growing up with a computer (20 years or) plus taking typing classes in school (easy A's). I max out at around 130-140 wpm with a high level of accuracy, but normally type around 90-100 wpm. Are you really typing hundreds of words per minute?
When I really wanted to master touch typing, I bought a can of black trem clad spray paint, and covered the entire keyboard. Makes looking useless.
Fortunately for me I learnt to type as well. Boring class but extremely helpful in my job. Ahhhh... the good old days of competing with girls (they always won). I took french for the same reason, all the jocks (I was a jock too) took spanish because they heard it was easy, so it was me (straight guy) one other straight guy, 3-4 gay guys and 20+ girls (some hot some not). What an excellent 3 years in high school. Did the same in college, and to my surprise I met even hotter girls (and somehow learnt to speak french along the way).
Oh yea, touch typing is good and as you progress all the special programming keys (characters) and numbers become quicker as well.
You are probably better off as you are.
I have been able to touch type for 25 years.
Now I type much faster than I can think.
Speech: Free
Beer: $699.00
This program is effective because it's fun. It has a (somewhat pathetic) tutorial mode, and the first level or so in the game is easy. It gets hard very quickly, though. If you want to continue playing, you've got to learn how to touch type, and do it quickly - if you can't type quickly, you're toast. And there's something gratifying about watching the zombies explode into green piles of goo...
If you can find the game (should be less than $20), get it. You won't regret it.
Goo goo g'joob.
Typspeed for *nix. No, it won't teach you how to type, but it is multiplayer! It has words for programmers, unix users, and dos users. If you can two-finger-type and get a reasonable score, don't change.
And if you really want to cheat at it, just use cut and paste.
If you're seriously considering retraining your typing, I strongly recommend the Dvorak layout. I typed in QWERTY for a long time, but I never really noticed any of its problems until I took the time to learn Dvorak a couple summers ago. It took me about of constant Dvorak to get back to my old speeds, but it was well worth it.
If speed is your only goal, Dvorak will certainly be worthwhile, as you'll probably be able to type faster than you would with QWERTY, but in my experience the most noticable difference is just how much more comfortable Dvorak is. That's important for me, because I've had tendonitis in my hands (from too much fast typing with QWERTY...go figure). As I said before, I never noticed that QWERTY wasn't comfortable until I learned Dvorak. It really is much better. I'd say a regular old flat keyboard with Dvorak is quite a bit better than an 'ergonomic' keyboard using the same old crappy key layout.
It might seem to some of you like this keyboard layout is a solution in search of a problem. That may be so, but only in the same way that Ogg Vorbis is (i.e. it has some definite benefits, but most people don't think it matters, since its competitor already has such a huge user base). But my point is, if you're going to do something, in this case relearning how to type, you may as well do it the best you can.
Btw, some people have said to me "well, I would learn Dvorak, but then I'd get confused by a regular keyboard." JFYI, this is wrong. I can still use a QWERTY keyboard as well as I ever could. However, I don't really enjoy having to do it :-)
Slow typing prevents code bloat. You don't want to be like microsoft with all their 80wpm typists do you?
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
There are two basic elements of touch typing. One is to learn where all the keys are - you already have this. The second is to learn to use all your fingers to type - this you lack. Just spend a few days typing, consciously focusing on keeping your pointer fingers on f & j, and you will pretty soon be touch typing.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
That's how I learned, when I was about 13. I could see that keyboards were going to be a big part of my future, so I just made myself learn. The first thing that you learn, this way, is where the backspace key is...
The trouble with learning to touch-type, any way, is that your typing *will* be slower than you were as a skilled two-fingered typist for a couple of months. After that, the raw speed, and the ability to look at the screen, or books, or anything else at the same time, will make you wonder why you waited so long...
-- Andrew
Yeah, I recommend TTOTD as well, although it does sometimes come out with some odd phrases - e.g. on the final boss I had some very wierd options for questions like "What is the biggest lie you've ever told?"... You can imagine, surely? Shame the official URL has been taken over by cyber-squatters :( - www.typeordie.com
Community College? I'd look into taking a typing course at your local cc (assuming you've got one).
To this end, I didn't relabel the keys themselves, I just taped a keyboard diagram below my monitor. I never look at the keyboard now, I just rely on the bumps on F and J.
When I learned to touch type, I was in 8th grade and doing computer work for our high school yearbook. The instructor in charge suggested that instead of using a computer to learn touch typing I should use a device he had. It was a simple keyboard with a little LCD display that would run through typing tutorials.
The thinking was that having a separate device avoids distractions, like wanting to check email or the web or play games. It worked for me. Just thought I would bring it up. I have no idea where you would get something like that now (I haven't checked the font of all knowledge...er, Google).
HTH.
This I've got to try. Quick Google came up with a new web site with a demo. http://www.empireinteractive.com/TTOD/
Maybe I'll finally get the motivation to stick to touch typing. I'm an OK typist if I've got command line completion.
Thanks for the tip.
I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by
Rapid touch typing like you are thinking can be a cause of carpel tunnel... So, if you have a choice between touch typing or cronic hand pain for the next 40 years, which one is it going to be?
However, anyone can type paragraph after paragraph of key combinations, all lowercase, with no numbers or punctuation, and get 100 wpm consistently.
Being a programmer, though, means you need to learn not only where all of the letters are and how to type them in both upper and lower case, but you need to learn how to make extensive use of the number and symbol keys. These are the least emphasized in many typing programs, which are more geared towards the letter/number/symbol ratios you would see in taking dictated correspondence.
There ought to be a "touch typing for perl programmers" type program, or a plugin or exercise set for popular programs that lets you practice symbols, newlines, indenting, commenting, etc
With that in mind, use Mavis, and stick with it. I type 90 wpm, closer to 75 when coding C++ or Perl. Spend lots of extra time on the number and symbol keys, and it will pay long dividends.
The facts have a liberal bias. --The Daily Show
My favorite typing program has been Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor. It seems really effective, and was also somewhat 'fun'. It's available for Mac, Linux and that other OS.
replying to myself (sigh). The website has an incorrect URL. The demo is at: ftp://ftp.empireftp.com/eidemo/totd/tod-demo.zip
I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by
I work for a web development firm, and one of the guys here can write HTML and ColdFusion, complete with tags and special characters, as quickly as I've ever seen anyone type plain English...
It's damned impressive, but I can't guarantee that half the characters he's typing aren't backspaces. He claims 130wpm.
Apparently he taught himself to type without any specific software.
I learned to touchtype (not perfectly, but pretty darn well) by playing the Rogue-like game Angband, based (extremely loosely) on the works of Tolkien. It's a lot of fun, and you use every key on the keyboard that has a symbol on it for some action or other (most have at least 2 actions, some have 3: normal keypress, Shift, and Ctrl)
:-P)
It's a somewhat unorthodox, but highly addictive, method of learning to touchtype. My current favourite variant is T.O.M.E., Tales of Middle-Earth, formerly PernAngband (until Anne McCaffrey got mad
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Since you're coming at it fresh, you might consider typing on a Dvorak keyboard. I've typed on one for about seven years. While it's not significantly faster than a QWERTY, it is *far* more comfortable. I was up to about 80 WPM on a QWERTY when I stopped using it seven years ago, and can now do 100 on a Dvorak, which I might be doing on a QWERTY anyway. But, when you look at me typing on a Dvorak, I don't look like I'm typing that fast, because my fingers are barely moving compared to a QWERTY typer at the same speed.
I learned how to type on an Underwood manual typewriter in a grade 7 typing class. I was barely strong enough to lift the carriage with my pinky fingers to get capital letters. I used to do 30 wpm on a manual typewriter when I was still a puppy, now I type faster than most people think (not so hard really).
There's not much to it. Form the habit of using the right finger for the right key, and try not to look at the keyboard more often than necessary. Use the shift key opposite the hand typing the capital letter (added benefit: you'll never write in all caps ever again). Bonus points: put two spaces after every end of sentence punctuation mark (except in Evolution 1.2 which bites so bad it wraps the second space to the next text line--how can any editor in this age be *that* bad?).
Does typing fast help programming? Does being able to record your thoughts as fast as you can think help? I'll let you form your own opinions. BTW, you can tell a really fast typist, because most of the mistakes are whole missing. My biggest problem is that I can type slightly faster than I can spell unusual words. For some reason the word "bureau" always causes me a ten car pileup.
Worst name to type fast of all time: Krzysztof Czarnecki. He does cool research into generative programming. I have strong passwords barely that good.
Learning with typing software is the hard and slow way. You need: 1 video camera and a video monitor, or a way to see the output of the monitor on the computer screen. Set things up so that you can see the computer screen and the video monitor at the same time. Place the video camera so that you can see your hands in the home position but you can't see the labels on the keys on the screen, then type away. This gives you enough visual feedback so that a competent two finger typist can get the confidence to touch type very quickly. Using this method, I went to 35wpm touch typing from two finger in about 15 minutes.
"...we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that." B.Spears 2003
This was in the Guiness Book of World Records, I think. They even provided a supposed definition (thieves trying to steal something from a Welsh valley etc).
- adam
I never learned to touch type, but I can easily get 50 WPM. The most important skill is not touch typing specifically, but knowing where the keys are on the keyboard. A touch-typing tutor type of software helps with that a whole lot.
I tried to learn touch typing in 8th grade. I still can't type at a reasonable speed without ever looking at the keyboard, but I use every finger on both hands, and know without thinking about it where to find each letter. Often I'll realize I've just typed an entire sentence of familiar words without looking at the keyboard at all.
A typing program won't give you the ability to touch-type brackets and symbols for programming unless you follow it through diligently to the end, since those are usually the last keys you're taught (they tend to teach first the letters and basic punctuation, then the numbers and the symbols that share the number keys, and only lastly the mathmatical and programming characters).
However, just knowing where to find those symbols when you need them, and having the physical confidence to stretch out that pinky instead of pecking with your index finger, will save you a lot of time.
good luck!
apt-get install typespeed. Hooah. :^)
--Robert
The best way to learn to type is to start playing a MUD (multi-user dungeon, text based) Most are at least relatively entertaining, and many are extremely addictive. Thats how I learned to type, and right now I am typing at approximately 100 words per minute, and I have rarely used a typing tutor. Or become an IRC junky.
www.medievia.com is the game I used to play...get mudmaster.
I was in the same boat as you. My hands hurt, and I was a professional programmer. I _knew_ I needed to learn to touch type, but I couldn't stop looking at the keyboard.
So I painted my keyboard black. The first week _sucked_, but by week 3, I was at 80% of where I had been before, and that 80% was touch, no looking at all.
Over the next month, I crept up to a bit faster than I had been, and that was good. But the real benifit to my speed was that, with my hands always in the correct location, all the control-Key and alt-Key keyboard shortcuts for my editor, my shell, and my web browser became available, and even second nature to me.
It is worth it.
There are a number of businesses which sell keyboards with blank keys, for use in typing classes; you can google for them. I reference this only as a means of showing that this has worked for others.
Try it, it _will_ work. Just take the plunge, accept the reduced short term productivity, and paint the keys black.
-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>
In my opinion, anyone working in the IT industry and especially programmers should be able to reach a minimum standard of typing (say 70 wpm).
When you're getting paid the big bucks and you're still doing hunt-and-peck, you're not worth the money.
To answer the question, though, try 'TyperShark' from PopCap games. It's good fun.
All things in moderation; including moderation
I tried and I tried and I tried..... but then I saw the light!! Typing of the Dead is a game (originally for Dreamcast I believe but it's been converted to PC) which teaches you how to type using the game House of the Dead (2, to be exact). When the zombies appear you have to type words to deatroy them. Sounds confusing? Here are some screens. It also has a tutorial (which finger on which key) and in general it's lots of fun. I know I did!
I've found that touch typing has helped me a great great deal but perhaps best of all is that the key bindings for vi and evilwm make perfect sense now. ;-)
:-)
Just be sure not to give up!!!
Sam
Yes and no. For normal text, such as you find in comments, of course.
However, the usual "formal" approach to touch-typing, based on a home row and marked keys, isn't nearly so helpful in the context of a punctuation-heavy programming language. Being able to do 85wpm is little use if you're using Perl, where 98% of the characters you type are '/'. :-)
On top of that, developers spend almost no time typing code. The vast majority of their coding time is spent thinking, planning and exploring. And of course, their coding time is a relatively small part of their working time, the majority being spent on activities such as design, debugging and documentation. Touch-typing is great for the latter, of course, so the three of you out there who actually write a sensible amount of useful documentation might find the lessons useful. ;-) For everyone else, though, touch-typing is a useful skill, but not so much for development as for other activities related to it.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I think the best way to learn to type is type in quantity. Learn which fingers go with which keys and then just get a novel and start typing pages and pages from it. Or write a paper, or a program or something. Typing tutors are good for getting you to used to using the right fingers for the right keys. After you learn that, even if you're slow, just start using your new skill. That's how I learned.
/usr/local/lib/perl -exec grep "whatever" {} \;
/l-\{} are all right pinky.
I've been on Dvorak for over a year now after having been a QWERTY touch typist for the better part of 13 years (I'm finally back to my old 60wpm net). One thing I noticed about Dvorak is that the punctuations are not optimally placed for some familiar things:
Too much right pinky usage for unix commands:
find
That's 12 right pinky keys there:
Also while programming the {} are where the - and + keys are. I can't just look at the keyboard for them since I didn't relabel the keys.
Emacs is also tougher to use (w/o remapping the keys). C-x C-s: Dvorak "X" is where the "B" key is, "S" is where the ";" key is. Try typing C-b C-;
You should keep in mind the compatibility problems too. I can't use my 2 coworkers' computers since they're QWERTY. I'm relegated to hunt-and-peck on those. They can't use mine since when they type it looks like the keyboard's all screwed up: "Hello" becomes "D.nnr"
That being said, Dvorak is much more comfortable. I can type much longer at a stretch before my hands become sore.
Basically, when I started in computers, I felt it was important to type properly. That being said, I tried out various typing programs, but it all seemed like a pointless waste of time. aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, fff, ggg, hhh.... etc etc etc. However, one thing stuck out: keep your fingers on home row. And thus, I hit IRC, making DAMNED sure to keep my fingers on home row, and started getting faster and faster. Now, I type properly, and faster than anybody else I know, or at least as fast as (in the case of my geek friends).
:)
People are amazed to find out I'm a computer geek that touch types.
Next up: Ergonomic Keyboards. Unfortunately, of the ones I've tried, the Borg builds the best.
Start with a split keyboard, like Microsoft's Natural Keyboard. It'll at least make sure you use the correct hands to hit keys.
I never 'learned to type' either, but I can type at a good 60 wpm with what my brain's developed as its best algorithm.
What's more important, though, is that it's honed its algorithm to code. I'm up in @$%=->() all day typing perl code, so my left hand's home position is
shift-a-e-r-space and my right hand's home position is space-i---]-return.
I'm sure it would make many typing instructors gasp, but it's fast and I'm hacking out symbol-laden code, not form letters or medical transcription. I have big hands and my trust qwerty Apple Extended II keyboard, so it may vary for others.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Everyone who uses a keyboard on a daily basis should be able to type at least 40 WPM without looking at the keys. Otherwise you are really impacting your productivity.
I took a typing class in High School circa 1987 on IBM electric type writers. It was only a half semester class but I was able to get up to about 60 WPM and over the years, I have increased that amount to about 80 WPM and I am happy with that speed. I can type faster when I transcribe text from a printout, magazine, or handwriting then I do when I type from my head to my fingers.
Co-workers are constantly looking over my shoulder in complete disbelief when they see me really typing fast. The funny thing is, I've witnessed people who can type 130 WPM and they are more then twice my speed. Typing really should be a required class in schools because most jobs require computer work and the keyboard is still the most important interface on a computer.
Programmers on this thread have stated that they don't think that learning touch typing is important and that the syntax of programming languages is too cryptic to type easily. While the cryptic nature of code is more difficult you will get better at it if you have a touch typing foundation and you merely practice entering code from magazines, etc.
Good programming editors have extensive keyboard commands. EMACS, ViM, Visual Studio, etc. These allow for one to quickly select options while actually typing. This keeps your hands on the home row of the keyboard. ViM is a bit better at this then EMACS but I don't want to start a flamewar. Use whatever works for you. Just know that both EMACS and ViM both use keyboard commands extensively and both will improve your productivity if you can touch type without looking.
I really cannot understand why so many refused to learn to touch type without looking. It's really not that hard, anyone can do it.
Mavis Beacon teaches typing for Windows works quite nicely, but as others have mentioned there are several Open Source tutors as well.
It's a whole lot of:
hjk lfgd lkd las lkj etc, etc, etc, till you get the home row down and then start inserting letters off the home row, then changing case and using symbols.
It is boring to learn but once you get some speed you will see the advantages. It kills me to watch someone fumble about with a keyboard or two finger it (even rapidly). All the head bobbing and finger hunting is killing your productivity. It's so much smoother when you know how to touch type the right way.
Never mind. I don't want to know.
That was the funniest thing I've read all day.
(But I've been awake for only 37 minutes so don't get too excited.)
I took half a semester of typing in high school.
First thought? This class blows. I already know how to type. I'm a 15 year old 37337 hax0r!
It's a pain in the butt at first. With a typing program, you'll cheat. When you've got a instructur that's loony walking around the room, you stick to the program.
We used electric typewriters. Big solid CHUNK! CHUNK! CHUNK! when you type.
Don't look at the keys. Hit the right keys with the right fingers.
At first you work on 100% accuracy. The whole class says the letters out loud and types to a metronome. After a few weeks you speed it up. Accuracy is more important than speed.
Many letter patterns are learned, also. You don't just type cheesy stories, but things like:
(home row)
dads fads lads alfalfa sad dad had lag
(single finger)
frffvffrfvfrfrfrfvfvfrvrvrvrvvffrrff
(patterns)
a s d f g h j k k l ; q w e r t y u i o p
When you say the letters out loud and tap your feet, it burns it in to your brain.
I failed to get much benefit out of my 4th grade typing class, but I still managed to learn to type quite well in the 8th grade. If four years of hunt and peck typing isn't too much to overcome, is ten years really so implausible?
You'll start typing faster immediately! When you have to compete via faster typing, or save your character's ass via faster typing, your speed improves tenfold. From when I started to chat (around age 10 or 11) to now, I've taught myself how to type entirely on my own.
I was too lazy to use Mavis Beacon and the like.... I tried, but I couldn't do it. But years of having to improve my speed in chat and online gaming gave my hands speed and accuracy- after all, if I screwed up I'd get eaten.
skye
when i forced myself to learn dvorak on a qwerty keyboard, i found myself forcing myself to look at the monitor, as looking at the keyboard confused me.
i learned touch-typing in a matter of weeks, though it was a few days before my speed was back up.
coding on a dvorak, on the other hand, i don't know. it might work out for you, might not.
i do know, though, that dvorak typing was much less error-prone for me.
YMMV
grey wolf
LET FORTRAN DIE!
Yeah, TOTD switched me from 'hunt and peck' to touch typing in two weeks; and I had been using my own fast hunt and peck style for about 10 years so it shows how easy you'll learn from it. Plus its more addictive than crystal meth, so really theres no downside here. Now if only halo could teach me to cook...
I learned to type in High School typing class. It was horrible. She yelled and waved around a ruler (it was a public school, so she couldn't actually use it nun-style). After an hour of "h, h, h, g, h, h, g, g, h, g, etc" we were numb with repetition. But I learned to type. I can still do about 40 WPM today.
The trick to learning typing is repetition. You don't need someone yelling at you, you just need an hour a day for about three months running through incredibly rote typing tasks. It will sink in. Don't look at the keyboard, it will only slow you down. Get a *good* keyboard, one with large keys with a firm feel. If you can, find an old Royal manual typewriter and learn with that.
I didn't spend enough time on the numberals and never touched the symbols while learning, so I slow down quite a bit when programming. Put those keys in your curriculum as well (they're harder because they're the furthest away from the homerow).
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
I'm an OK typist if I've got command line completion.
:)
ROFL! "I'm pretty good at typing, as long as the computer can predict what I'm going to type and do it for me"
If you're fast enough using the two-finger method, then who cares if you can touch type? I really only use my right thumb for space bar, and I never use the home row (never learned how)... I'm a self-taught typist and I'm semi-fast (maybe 60 words a minute if I'm on a roll).
My tip? Join a MUD or some other text-only game. If you want to learn fast, join one that is PK (player killing) only... you'll learn to type very fast and accurate in an awful hurry.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
I'd think it'd help less than it would with most typing. Most typing is long paragraphs. Lots of words. Not many symbols or numbers. Touch typing seems designed around typing lots of letters fast(Dvorak isn't supposed to actually improve speed as much as is thought).
Also, touch typing would help with cutting and pasting. But, I'd think most programmers would know the keys for that, even if they touch type.
I learned to type on this when it was part of Typing Tutor III for the Apple II. That program was sort of the vi of typing tutors, as opposed to the newer ones that remind me more of MS Office style bloatware. It looks like you actually can get Letter Invaders separately on a bunch of modern platforms these days, even AIX!
Get yourself a split keyboard, force yourself to use it. When you notice that you are making more errors when you are looking at your fingers than when you are watching the letters come up on the screen you are touch typing. I don't use the traditional finger to key mapping but I can do it with my eyes closed. I had to go to a split style keyboard when my hands started hurting all the time. Symptoms went away in a couple weeks.
This Sega game for the PC was what did it for me. Originally it was an arcade game called something like 'House Of The Dead' with plastic guns where to shot the zombies.
In the PC touch-typing version you have to type strings before they get you. It's a great learning aid for those who get bored with normal tutorial software. Window$ only though :-(
Having said that it only teaches you the conventional QWERTY keyboard layout. I have heard that the dvorak layout is better for coders as the puctuation characters are more sensibly placed for a coder.
Official Sega Page (rubbish)
Gamespot Page (Much Better)
Dvorak Stuff
~ Better a freak than a sheep. ~
Take a typing class at the local community college.. since you are probably fairly fast at finding the keys with 2 fingers, you probably the location of all of the keys anyway so it shouldn't be too much to learn how to hit them using all of your fingers..
If you take a class, there is incentive for you to learn it since you dont want to flunk and you do want to get your moneys worth out of it. Touch typing isn't hard.. after a couple of weeks of practice you should be able to be at least as fast as you are now using 2 fingers..
Black paint and blank keys are fun, if they help you stop looking at the keys. If you really need to do something magic once in a while like getting Function-SysReq-Windows-Meta-Cloverleaf, fine, look at the keys, but only do that for weird stuff.
What they didn't teach in high school were techniques for getting your hands realigned after using a mouse. If you've got a button-mouse on your keyboard, and can use it without carpal tunnel, it's not much problem, but otherwise figure out how to get your hands back to whatever stable position you like.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I'm an American. When I was working in France in the early '90's, my employer gave me an aged MacPlus, with (drum roll) an AZERTY keyboard (amongst other things, instead of "QW" on the top row of letters, it was "AZ". I of course installed an English MacOS, which used "QWERTY" key-actions.
So, when I typed the top-left-hand letter, I saw a "Q", but the key itself said "A". You might imagine that it was extremely confusing to look for a key on the keyboard.
Heh.
The way I'd describe it is: vertigo. Look down, and you're *finished*.
By the end of the three years I used that machine, umm, I was a *really* good touch-typist.
In sum, I'd suggest that the best way to learn to touch-type, is to do something to make it impossible to see the key-caps, or make them "lie".
Another thing that works for me these days, is to type in the dark.