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Dyslexic programmer here! Here's some of my tips I use. ALWAYS ALWAYS close your parenthesis/brackets/quotes as soon as you open them then go back to write what's in them. So, if I write: func(arg), the keystrokes for me are: f u n c ( ) Color syntax highlighting is a must! It lets you know your keywords are correct. Copy-and-paste variable names. Write them once and then get fast at copying them. And then some prefe…
He never graduated high school, was lacking a lot of formal training and had an understandable hostility to orthodox approaches. Our boss paired us together because I was able to find ways to make certain computer science fundamentals palatable to him. It was a wonderful, humbling opportunity to help make someone incredibly valuable even better.
People used to give this guy crap because he made lots of typos in his comments and misspelled variables. It really pissed me off because it was such a superficial critique and as far as I was concerned embarrassed the critic by exposing their inability to recognize other much more pertinent qualities. But to his credit he was also very personable and was able to defuse their foolishness, just laughing it off and preserving productive working relationships.
I would caution that this fellow's dyslexia was not an asset — it was a hindrance that he was able to swamp through immense talent in other areas and strong dedication. Not everyone brings such outrageous gifts to bear. But we all have our own gifts, and when placed in a suitable environment we can all become much better that we would otherwise.
Dyslexic programmer here! Here's some of my tips I use. ALWAYS ALWAYS close your parenthesis/brackets/quotes as soon as you open them then go back to write what's in them. So, if I write: func(arg), the keystrokes for me are: f u n c ( ) Color syntax highlighting is a must! It lets you know your keywords are correct. Copy-and-paste variable names. Write them once and then get fast at copying them. And then some prefe…
Huh, I dark mode everything too. Maybe it's a thing?
I myself am, and I've also had colleagues that are. Only thing I've noticed is that the way we absorb information and master it is very different from some of my colleagues. RTFM is really a struggle, and instead I do better learning through a million smaller pokes that slowly build familiarity (e.g. videos + playing with actual code, even if you don't fully grasp it). I struggled more in college with contrived examp…
You know, I never thought about it but this really rings true for me. I'm the same. I think sometimes it's an advantage to learn this - the mental model I build can be very different from someone who RTFM
There is a couple of fonts aimed to help dyslexics. [0] https://github.com/antijingoist/opendyslexic
That is an incredibly hard to read font, see: https://opendyslexic.org/about I struggle far more parsing that than a typical monospaced font. In particular as that is 18pt, turn it down to a more normal 14pt and that's worse than most of Word's default fonts let alone coding specific ones.
I use it on mobile in the ebook reader, I can't say it is dramatically better than any serif font but at the low pt it is slightly better for me to scan the page. I'm not a dyslexic, but have some trouble reading from the mobile screen lately, so gave it a test.
Dyslexic programmer here! Here's some of my tips I use. ALWAYS ALWAYS close your parenthesis/brackets/quotes as soon as you open them then go back to write what's in them. So, if I write: func(arg), the keystrokes for me are: f u n c ( ) Color syntax highlighting is a must! It lets you know your keywords are correct. Copy-and-paste variable names. Write them once and then get fast at copying them. And then some prefe…
Notepad++ is very good at suggesting anything already typed in the document and supports syntax highlighting.
Not sure if this would be a good editor for a newbie, but it would work.
There is a couple of fonts aimed to help dyslexics. [0] https://github.com/antijingoist/opendyslexic
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You can't see mistakes, since you basically have an internal autocompletion that doesn't allow you to see mistakes or missing words. Checking the code of my coworkers is surprisingly different, I can find their mistakes quite easily. Sometimes I'll write something out and reread it several times fully aware that I tend to miss words or misspell things, but in the moments after I've wrote something I'll rarely find…
I don't believe I have dyslexia, but this happens to me. My trick is that when I'm doing my final proofreading, I usually adjust the size of the window to reflow the text.
My dad is as well and he did the same course but as an adult.
Then he partnered with some dyslexia specialists and wrote the first version of unitsofsound[1] (recently sold to nisai), I joined him and help with the re-write to the web version in the early 2000's
I would say that day-to-day the problems are more going to be related to reading that writing IMHO. The act of writing code is heavily supported with linters & compilers etc etc and so typo's don't tend to be a huge problem
Dyslexia usual manifests with short term memory difficulties, I tend to rely heavily on a pen & paper notepad with scribbles.
However, in the actual workplace, it can have its advantages. Dyslexics are encouraged to draw diagrams and other such visual ways of helping with memory & disseminating information (pictures worth a thousand words and all that)
When it comes to practical tips for learning ...
- learn how to read documentation - I find ligatures are useful (see visual clues) - thesaurus for naming things - practice practice practice, pushing syntax into long term memory rather than short term will be the key. Maybe reduce syntax to being with by concentrating on variable & functions to write in an FP style
I hope this helps and feel free to contact me to talk about it some more chris [at] matheson.it
I myself am, and I've also had colleagues that are. Only thing I've noticed is that the way we absorb information and master it is very different from some of my colleagues. RTFM is really a struggle, and instead I do better learning through a million smaller pokes that slowly build familiarity (e.g. videos + playing with actual code, even if you don't fully grasp it). I struggled more in college with contrived examp…
There's a fine line, though. Too playful and you'll lose me.
Also, progressive build up with examples (especially interactive ones) help me a lot, too.
I think this might be true for everyone, but for dyslexic people especially.
Edit: ROFL. I proofread it and didn't notice the typos/poor word placement until after posting. Leaving them in, to remain in the spirit of the thread.