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Show HN: I automated half of my typing

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Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#271

Post by StackOverlord »

penteract wrote: post #171
Exuma wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely situation dependent. When writing a lot of frontend code (vue, typescript, css, tailwind, html) I know what I'm typing several mental steps before I actually type it, so speed gains there are most pronounced. Sitting somewhere in the middle are dynamic languages where there might be certain implementations (say... some random api integration) where it's simply a lot of code I've typed thousands of tim…

> I never understood the argument "I spend more time thinking than coding". You are still going to write the same amount of code whether you're thinking or not. My ideal world (why I love typing fast) is that that time of me coding gets brought down by 50-200% over someone who types slow. My perspective on this (I'm not a fast typist, but don't feel it's a big limitation) is that I can think while typing, so if I can…

I think it matters a great deal too, and not just for typing code but for reading it too, and this goes beyond simply typing fast but also writing short concise code, especially for parts of the code that are closer to defining program architect than implementing the details: it's better to have everything fit in one page of code rather than being dispersed throughout multiple files.

The reason for that is that a codebase will condition the complexity and thus time it takes to add features to it, in a way that is similar to algorithmic complexity and big o notation, except we as human can't even afford polynomial complexity and constant factors matter a lot.

Imagine you're developing an API, both server and client. You can cut your time in half by automatically deriving the client code from the server side specs. Of course you may have to develop that tool yourself and it takes time. The point is that the time invested developing it will be repaid each time you implement a new endpoint in your API, cutting development time in half:

n * (t(s) + t(c)) versus n * (t(s))

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#272

Post by mplanchard »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #133
Exuma wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typing fast is one of the greatest strengths for programming for me personally, especially when compared with Vim. It's that that it's a limiting factor, but rather I max out typing quite often, and also I have always wanted to hit 200 just for fun, but it currently feels not attainable. Some people say they spend more time than they do typing, but I definitely don't find that to be the case very often.

I am a bit jealous (maybe?) that typing speed is a factor for you. I am the kind of person that will think for minutes at a time before writing a single line of code

It’s not just writing code though. So much of my time is spent typing, whether in slack, notes, shared documents, or code, that typing speed is a quality of life improvement across the board.

When coding, I prefer to spend my thinking time thinking and my typing time typing, so typing fast gives me more time for thinking, makes playing around with little ideas feel easier, and again provides what I feel like is a significant quality of life improvement.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#273

Post by matthewtse »

leokennis wrote: post #229

Out of curiosity...sure you type less, but do you need to think more about which abbreviation was which word? In iOS I maintain a small list of abbreviations (@@ expands to my e-mail address, lk expands to my name etc.) but if it was hundred(s) I'd probably lose more time thinking about "what was the abbreviation of 'online meeting' again" or correcting accidental abbreviations that are part of normal words, than I'd…

In iOS, I tried some very simple abbreviations (like 2 characters), and it drove me insane when a typo triggered the abbreviation expansion when I didn't want it, so never got that feature working for me.

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#274

Post by ughitsaaron »

Speaking personally, I feel like any time I save by reducing keystrokes would be lost by having to think about shortcuts (or making corrections). However, I Once believed the same thing about vim-mode (which I believe saves me time though I couldn’t prove it).

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#275

Post by zserge »

throwaway738393 wrote: post #111
crazygringo wrote: post #42

This is a very clever idea. However, I realize that I would never want to use something like this that would change over time. E.g. if I ran it every 6 months and last year "db" produced "debug", while this year it produces "database". Because talk about messing up my muscle memory and habits. And the language I write changes very much over time. So I'd actually be much more interested in a "universal" version of thi…

> E.g. expanding "t" to "the" seems like a no-brainer, just like "st" to "something". Is there a minimal set of, say, 200-500 of these that could simply be turned into a "standard keyboard" that everyone could learn? Take a look at Evans Basic English Code, a shorthand system based off of Phillips Code (for telegraphs). It's a little dated, but the most common words are quite useful for writing or typing. https://arc…

I appreciate the fact that it contains shortcuts for such words as "endeavour" (EDV), "ecclesiastic" (EC), "notwithstanding" (NWG) or "vehemence" (VMC) being a dictionary of the "basic and most frequently used words". Also, the suggested abbreviation for "sex" is "SEX".

Re: Show HN: I automated half of my typing

#276

Post by samstave »

ughitsaaron wrote: post #274

Speaking personally, I feel like any time I save by reducing keystrokes would be lost by having to think about shortcuts (or making corrections). However, I Once believed the same thing about vim-mode (which I believe saves me time though I couldn’t prove it).

There is one key I think all keyboards are missing “toggle case”

If you had a key to toggle case on selected texts billions of backspace keystrokes and retyping strokes could be saved

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