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Typing Practice for Programmers

typing.io

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Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#201

Post by doktrin »

super_mario wrote: post #121
samd wrote: post #103

I don't understand programmer's obsession with typing efficiency. We're not typists. Typing is a tiny fraction of the time I spend programming. Most of the time I'm thinking, or talking to another developer about a problem. I could have the fastest typing skills and most efficient editor and not even be marginally more productive.

People who say typing is not their bottleneck are saying they are not I/O bound but CPU bound. Makes me think what other things you need to improve before you notice your typing can't keep up? But that's kind of backwards. You will never know until you can type fast and freely, liberating your brain to actually think about the problem and code and not finding keys on the keyboard. Besides not everything you do is ori…

I thought this was a given? I am absolutely CPU bound and I don't know a single developer who isn't. Do any of you actually code (efficiently) at your maximum typing speed?

At the risk of painting with a wide brush, I am currently under the impression that any developer who sits down and cranks out code non-stop at their maximum typing rate is either :

a) cranking out a complete mess that will require extensive refactoring down the road

b) the protagonist of "Hackers" or "Swordfish"

For what it's worth, I am a reasonably fast typist (~115 wpm, qwerty) and can't even imagine myself ever coding as fast as I can type. I wouldn't mind for this to be the case, though :)

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#202

Post by yxhuvud »

hkmurakami wrote: post #97
flatline wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many IDEs have an option to auto-insert it after typing a "{". This is on by default in Eclipse.

Last night I learned that Microsoft Word 2010 will auto replace a ")" with a "}" if I type { stuff ). Does anyone know when this feature was implemented in Word?

Must be fun for math people typing intervals that are semi-open.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#203

Post by albertoavila »

dkersten wrote: post #46

It doesn't appear to respect my keyboard layout - I'm using colemak (which works fine) but with UK symbols instead of US (which works everywhere else, including the HN comment box, but not in Typing.io where it wants me to type US symblos: eg " and @ are swapped).

Same here with latam keyboard layout, the problem seems to be on every symbol on the keyboard number row, ej. =, /, &, etc.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#205

Post by gruseom »

psykotic wrote: post #189
gruseom wrote: post #136

This is really well done. Surprisingly well done. Way better done than average. I'll tell you how I'd like to use it. This may seem odd, but I'd like to be able to upload code that I'm interested in learning, and then type over it just like in these lessons - but not to speed up my typing, but rather for learning. Writing is a unique channel for learning new things. (Reading is too, of course, but everyone knows that…

Typing code is very bursty. It might not account for a large fraction of your programming time. But when you have to code up a function, waiting for hunt-and-peck to finish the job is infuriating for the same reason that waiting on your snail of a compiler is infuriating. No doubt there are zen masters who meditate mindfully on the meaning of each and every key stroke. I'm not that patient.

Well, that's a good point. When you do have to type, let it be accurate and fast.

But I'm too traumatized by nightmare memories of programmers cranking out code to take much solace in it :)

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#206

Post by munaf »

moonboots wrote: post #3
munaf wrote: post #2

Cool? Still haven't decided if it's useful. Anyway, the cursor occasionally obscures the character and slows you down. Might be worth testing out a fish-eye effect as the cursor scrolls so you clearly know what you need to type.

Author here, thanks for the feedback. Do you mean the backspace cursor that appears after the user typed a character incorrectly?

No, I meant the cursor that's highlighting the current character. This could be my own vision problems, but the size of the text + color of the cursor + motion makes it slightly difficult to tell what character I'm supposed to type on the fly. I found myself stopping and squinting just to be sure. That's mainly why I recommended a fisheye - enlarging the current character would solve the problem, but perhaps it's not worth it for most users.

Beautiful app though!

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#207

Post by tbrownaw »

dkersten wrote: post #46

It doesn't appear to respect my keyboard layout - I'm using colemak (which works fine) but with UK symbols instead of US (which works everywhere else, including the HN comment box, but not in Typing.io where it wants me to type US symblos: eg " and @ are swapped).

Can't type underscore at all, have to use the numpad to type dashes. If I have the layout set to US-International, I have to type alt-shift-doublequote to get "; it won't let me type shift-doublequote and then the next character (or space) like normal. CapsLock doesn't seem to work, so for some of the identifiers in the C++ example I need to hold down shift for a half-dozen letters in a row.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#208

Post by ismarc »

RegEx wrote: post #106
ismarc wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if I'm on my preferred keyboard, I top out at 120 to 130 on laptop/netbook keyboards.. For a stint in high school, I typed medical reports from dictation for a friend's mom, eventually having the cassette player on the fastest speed and keeping up without issue. I have no idea how people can be very productive as hunt and peck typists when writing code.

Would you also happen to be a fast reader? I can't seem to break the 120 barrier, and I'm wondering if the habit of mentally "saying" the words as I read them is a significant reason why I can't improve.

As dbarlett pointed out, the sub-vocalization is a big part of it, but once that's gone, there's still a long way to go to read quickly and effectively. I learned to read exceptionally fast, but had a very low retention rate of what I read (I use those techniques when typing), it's symbol recognition/word recognition, not real comprehension. I eventually slowed down my reading, but followging a rhythm (per-word rate) and process/think about/determine application for what I've read up to that point. In the end, reading quickly hadn't been as beneficial as being able to have a strong working knowledge of what I've read after only the first read through. However, I dislike reading fiction and don't prefer reading stories, an in depth whitepaper or textbook is my enjoyment reading, so learning as I read was more of a priority than just getting the high level view or enjoying the story construction.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#210

Post by roryokane »

sp332 wrote: post #6

FF 16/Win7, I don't seem to be able to type underscores '_' at all. ETA: looks fine in Chrome though, and I really like this idea :)

In Firefox 14.0.1 on Mac, I can’t type the colon ‘:’ in http://typing.io/lesson/clojure/clojure/zip/1 or the underscore ‘_’ in http://typing.io/lesson/ruby/rails/relation/1. I also can’t use caps lock to type USAGE in http://typing.io/lesson/shell/git/git-mergetool/1. But I think moonboots already knows about these problems: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4419357.
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