How to improve my typing?

Nnamdi Onyeyiri

Ive been using one of those for years (dont remember last time I owned a straight keyboard), and i have managed to get on without learning to type properly...hmm....think I wanna try a type speed test now.

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Ryan Roberts

Its available as abondonware, if you look around[^] Ryan

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Taka Muraoka

I tried to learn how to touch-type a while back and found it didn't really help much, even taking into the account that I wasn't very good at it. Typing code is not the same as typing in English (or whatever), there are just so many punctuation marks and other stuff that requires the SHIFT key. I do pretty well with 4-5 fingers; I kinda know where all the keys are rather than having to keep my fingers locked in a home position. As a musician (saxophonist), I just think of it as being like learning how to play an instrument :-)

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Mike Dimmick

Voted 5 for the subject line. Poor typing skills are unlikely to hold back a technical writer either, since I imagine - I've done a little myself - that the majority of time is spent thinking about what to write, how to phrase something, researching how it's meant to work. In other words, it's CPU-bound, not I/O bound ;-) It does depend on how well the writer multi-tasks - can he think about what to write next while typing the current thought? I sometimes find myself getting ahead of myself and sticking two half-sentences together, missing out the bit in between. Most commonly pressed key on my keyboard? Backspace! I make a lot of typos but I don't think extra typing training would help. For a pure typist, who types out dictated material, typing skill is the essential tool of their trade, so improving it will improve their productivity. How many pure typists still exist? Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder

hairy_hats

I learnt to touch-type on a clackety old manual typewriter and although I'm far from perfect I can still do pretty well when typing prose - it's programming that makes me look down!

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Bassam Abdul Baki

Try MaxType Lite[^]. Why don't they ever spell light correctly?

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Wjousts

I think I learned to type (not really formal touch typing, but quick enough) from playing old text based adventure games back in the day. :)

Tim Carmichael

When I took typing in high school, and, yes, it was a typing course, on a typewriter (manual), our keys were all black - no letters, no numbers shown. We learned to type and not look at the keys since looking at the keys would not help. So, either cover your keys to prevent your eyes from straying, or, get a keyboard tray that fits under the desk and can be moved out of sight (this is what I have at home... if I want to see the keyboard, I pull the tray out, otherwise, I just reach in). Beyond that, there should be a host of typing programs available, some freeware, shareware or commercial, but they are not expensive. Tim

Lost User

get a life man! what are you an engineer or a typist? Tronché pas ma miche!

Dan Neely

Agreed. I think at 10-15wpm. The only time faster typing would speed my dev work would be if I was forced to reproduce copy/paste code manually.

Shog9 0

Amazingly, that works both ways - i can do 70 WPM easy on a normal keyboard, but revert to hunt&peck on the damn split ones...

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Lost User

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing[^] has been around forever and worked well when my wife used it about 10 years ago. I'm guessing the new version will work fine too. Don't let these others tell you that you don't need to bother. The whole "I didn't and look how well I turned out" argument doesn't wash. If you don't learn to use the basic tools of the trade, it will only slow you down; just like in any other profession. Cheers, Drew.

Ennis Ray Lynch Jr

I can transcribe nearly 100wpm on a really good day (ok I round cause 100 looks cool). But I only code logic at around 35 or 40. Comments get up there fairly fast especially when they are non-repetitive. However, if I divide the words I type during an average day and divide by the number of minutes worked I would probably be well under 10. One really good way to become a proficient typist is to get a lot of IM contacts and/or use IRC. Then insist that you spell and punctuate everything correctly. Overtime you will develop your typing. Also, develop for about a decade (Im getting old) and you will naturally progress. "Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage" -- Jean Anouilh

Allen Anderson

go to a local community college and take a typing course. It's worth it's weight in gold. I took typing in high school and went from 30 wpm doing the two handed single finger thing to 80wpm touch typing.

amymarie3

I play the word "Text Twist" as often as possible. I generally go to www.bigfishgames.com and play it. It looks like you need to click on the buttons to get the words in but you can also type them. I practice by trying all the different three letter combinations. Surprisingly my typing speed increased very quickly.

Steffen Opel

I tend to disagree even with those who (correctly!) argue, that you usually don't actually type very fast while coding: * Don't you communicate a lot during a development process, e.g. by email/im? I certainly do! * Don't you document your code (properly)? I certainly ... promise myself to do so all the times ;) * Don't you ever write a spec or a user story or similar 'lengthy' things during design? My main point however is that stressing typing 'speed' alone puts a to narrow perspective on typing 'skills'. The definite benefit is to be able to really touch type, i.e. type without looking at the keyboard at all. This alone let you focus on many things so more easily even when still typing pretty slow, just because the keyboard is none of your concerns anymore. Adding to my three points above this proves even more useful when you are required to take notes while attending a meeting or discussing things with customers for example; you'll never be able to focus on the important things as well when you constantly struggle with your typing. So I'd definitely recommend it for anyone developing software, you'll never regret the effort! But to be fair it should be mentioned that for actual coding in particular (i.e. not the other typing tasks mentioned) it requires more time to achieve these benefits, because all those special characters commonly used in programming languages are the hardest to get by, touch typing wise (for all the others there is Intellisense anyway :) ) Ciao, Steffen Opel

Chris S Kaiser

Get into a long drawn out argument on a mailing list with some flaming trolls that you are very passionate about. Stop. Check blood pressure. Stop. Start the next flame thread, but make sure your passionate about. Stop. Check blood pressure, remember this is for the prosperity of your dexterity. Stop. Start another flame thread.... Or hang out in the soap box for a month and you'll be typing faster than you know what to do with it.

Fuzzychaos

A good one that I learned to type with is http://www.fonlow.com/kptypingtutor/ Typing skills are a definite must when not coding, and definitely take your mind off of the keyboard. KP Typing Tutor has the text invader game and supports several languages and keyboards, and several OSs. I do about 40 wpm before my arms start to hurt (can't keep it up for hours on end ;)). Jeremy Pemberton-Pigott
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New Dawn Engineering -- modified at 23:49 Thursday 6th July, 2006

P0110X

Just simple, put your four left fingers over the keys A S D F and your right fingers over the keys ; L K J And then just practice moving your fingers up and down, one by one, so you will be typing with the ten fingers of your hands Example: (well with my english I dont know the names of the fingers) The left index finger can use R T F G V B The right index finger can use Y U H J N M The other fingers will type three keys each one (ignoring the number keys), example, the left middle finger can type E D C. When I was in high school (about 12 years old) it took me 5 or 6 months to learn it from the beginning, so take your time! I'm the master of computing, but... where's the start menu? :laugh:

Varadhan M

In linux there is an program called 'gtypist', You can use this to learn typing. Download: http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=gtypist Regards, Varadhan