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Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

steve-yegge.blogspot.com

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Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#71

Post by mechanical_fish »

LogicHoleFlaw wrote: post #65
mhartl wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remapped my Escape key to a more convenient place on my keyboard (it's a thumb key now); as a result, when I write Ruby code in TextMate, half of it appears virtually instantaneously. The downside? Sometimes accidentally pressing Escape when typing anywhere else. D'oh!

I keep threatening to get two foot pedals. One for CTRL and one for ESC. I think it would give me vim superpowers.

I have a pedal for my Kinesis keyboard, but I almost never use it. When I do use it it's for something like num lock... I tried it for Emacs ctrl and/or meta but it didn't work well. The big problem is that I don't keep my feet frozen in one spot for hours, so when I go to press the pedal I have to find the darn thing by feeling around with my feet. You don't have to lose much time doing this before the point of the pedal is lost.

I could try to train myself to keep my feet in one spot. But I fear the ergonomic consequences. I have enough trouble with the need to keep my hands in the same spot for hours on end...

Maybe I need much bigger pedals. Or special shoes...

Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#72

Post by eru »

jrockway wrote: post #45
mroman wrote: post #42

If you need to type that much, to where whether or not you can touch type matters . . . you are doing something wrong. Saying touch typing matters amounts to stating that programming is actually carried out ON THE SCREEN YOU ARE TYPING ON and I could not disagree with that more . . . programming takes place in the mind of the programmer, typing on the screen is a byproduct. I can't wait to see how his argument holds…

programming takes place in the mind of the programmer, typing on the screen is a byproduct As he says in the article, the actual programming is not what requires much typing. It's communicating with others on IRC (or e-mail, whatever you kids use these days), typing documentation, writing blog posts, etc. that require typing skills. I will agree with him on this. I don't type much when actually programming, but I do…

So touch typing let's you procrastinate more efficently? ;)

Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#73

Post by gtani »

rtf wrote: post #13

If Steve Yegge typed slower, I wouldn't have to read as much.

The "Even Dirtier Secret", HN edition: devs who can't type, don't read books, can't understand LtU or git or BDD, get all their info from Stackoverflow. Oh, yeah, they're not in the top 99.999999%, so now way Joel will hire them.

Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#74

Post by phr »

bootload wrote: post #38
phr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an ancient Northgate with delicious feel. It's huge, and heavy, with some kind of mechanical switches that snick into place in the coolest way when you press a key. Feels like an IBM Selectric typwriter, if you remember those. I haven't used it in years, since I now use laptops exclusively. I can't bear to get rid of it, though.

"... It's huge, and heavy, with some kind of mechanical switches that snick into place in the coolest way when you press a key. Feels like an IBM Selectric typwriter, if you remember those ..." My last IBM model died. The Selectric model was good. Big & heavy I used these in undergrad for creating camera ready artwork. Are the laptop keyboards you use any good?

I've been disappointed with my MacBook Pro kbd. Usable, but not great. It helped a lot for emacs to remap the caps lock key to control. I also have an old Thinkpad T42 that I keep around for running Windows apps. The keyboard is quite nice, but I don't use it enough to have really learned it. Both are way behind the Northgate.

The old DEC VT220 dumb terminal had a nice feel, too, though nothing like the Northgate or Selectric.

Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#75

Post by iigs »

bootload wrote: post #39
iigs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm partial to most of the Apple Desktop Bus keyboards. That my nickname here is an Apple computer is correlative, not causative. :) My favorite keyboard of all time is: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/Apple_IIgs_Keyboa... Its keys are wonderfully weighted, tactile without being obnoxiously loud, but it's not really practical these days as it doesn't have F keys and the ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn set, and…

"... I'm partial to most of the Apple Desktop Bus keyboards. ..." I'm pretty tempted to look at Apple kb's next time my MS bendy board lucks out. "... I prefer laptop keyboards (50/50 between Dell's current-ish stuff and the traditional ThinkPad design). ..." What is about laptop kb's that's better?

My completely science-free analysis (it seems to me) that the less force your fingers have to exert, the less strain you're putting on the internal body parts that actually make that happen. Most laptop keyboards require less force and have less travel, both of which seem advantageous.

This of course assumes that all else is equal (good ergonomic fit, sitting properly, etc. I am not a doctor or ergo councilor, so your mileage may vary.

Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#76

Post by andreyf »

palish wrote: post #50

Incidentally, Steve brought up an interesting topic. Musicians practice by playing fast, then slow, then medium. Fast, slow, medium. Over and over. That seems like a good way to write software. You first try to implement your idea as quickly as possible, stopping to think only when necessary. The goal is to not spend too much time overthinking the implementation -- you want to find out if your idea is worth executing…

That's exactly where I thought he was going...

I just recently started writing software >40 hours a week, and have been constantly torn between "getting things done" and "doing things right". The best way to program well might very well be a variation between the two modes.

Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#77

Post by biohacker42 »

johnyzee wrote: post #53

Not looking at the keyboard as you type is important for secretaries who have to copy text off a hard copy. For a programmer I'd say it makes little difference. But hey, don't let that get in the way of smug superiority.

Can you convince me you're just as fast if you have to look at the keyboard?

I bet you'd be faster if you didn't need to.

Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#78

Post by run4yourlives »

biohacker42 wrote: post #77
johnyzee wrote: post #53

Not looking at the keyboard as you type is important for secretaries who have to copy text off a hard copy. For a programmer I'd say it makes little difference. But hey, don't let that get in the way of smug superiority.

Can you convince me you're just as fast if you have to look at the keyboard? I bet you'd be faster if you didn't need to.

Can you convince me that the quality of a programmer has anything to do with speed?

(At least, to the degree that keyboarding skills would make a measurable difference. I'm not arguing that it's ok to spend all week building a single function.)

Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret

#80

Post by andreyf »

burnout1540 wrote: post #15
prospero wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your definition of "not touch typing"? Do you use two fingers? Do you keep your fingers on the home row?

I was actually thinking of "touch typing" as being the standard method that is taught in schools and typing classes - put your fingers on the home row to begin and use all eight fingers to type. I type by mainly using two fingers, with occasional pinkie and middle finger use. I also use my thumbs for the spacebar sometimes. If you define "touch typing" as not having to look at the keyboard, then I guess I do touch ty…

You do 130wpm with two fingers? Try using more, you'll do >200wpm easy!
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