I tried to learn to touch type last year. Bought a blank keyboard to help. 8 months later I still type with two index fingers, at the same speed as I ever did (about 45 wpm) and with more or less zero errors. Only on a blank keyboard, so I never look down anymore. Kind of weird and still unnerving . I'll try touch typing again sometime. And yes, I'm afraid I'm a professional programmer.
Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
11–20 of 33 posts
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#12As a counter-anecdote: my stupid self-taught style involved my left pinky shifted left to hover/handle the shift/ctrl keys, and thus my right hand travelled a bit more to cover the remaining keys.
In graduate school I started to have increasingly frequent bouts of wrist pain and realized I needed to do something or risk major surgery. I took a weekend, relearned touch typing with the Colemak layout, and have been happy I did that ever sense.
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#13Like any South Korean worth their salt, I learned to type on qwerty from typing Starcraft cheat codes as a child.
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#14You might be just as fast and just as accurate but your fingers are definitely working harder, which could lead to RSI, for example. People have analyzed various layouts for efficiency, which may vary with type of work: http://xahlee.info/kbd/dvorak_and_all_keyboard_layouts.html http://patorjk.com/keyboard-layout-analyzer/#/about https://medium.com/@vojtajina/my-keyboard-layout-is-better-t... There are more links und…
> which could lead to RSI As a single data-point I find RSI isn't a problem for my typing style. I'm in my sixties and I've fought RSI on and off many times. To the contrary my typing style has changed to be more comfortable and less stressful. I've actually had to change it at times to lessen pains in specific fingers. Forcing myself to use touch-typing had caused pain in my pinkies before.
What is your "typing style"? Newer keyboard layouts trying to reduce the "pinky" usage. "Programmer Dvorak", for instance, places frequently use programming keys (e.g. [ }) more conveniently on the keyboard. What you're doing might work for you, but there are quite a few people with RSI issues so something that helps and is reproducible is needed.
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#15I switched to Colemak to reduce strain and found it to be effective. The only issue I have with it, is I sometimes forget to press ctrl-space before I pass my Mac to a coworker. Then I have to explain out-loud that I use Colemak, which is hard to do without sounding like a total hipster.
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#16Makes me wonder. Are we typists? It almost never happens to me to have to copy a text from paper - and never more than a few lines in any case. So I can freely stare at the keyboard while I type, I'm concentrated on what I'm typing anyway. Also, I don't think that my output is in any way limited by the amount of words I can type per minute - more by the amount of words or lines of code my brain is able to produce in a minute, which is not much.
Finally, if there is something that really makes me cringe, is when some colleague or friend proudly declares to type like real men do, without looking at the keyboard. They usually sit in the correct ergonomic position, back well straight, eyes on the monitor, and start typing. A word. Mistake. Backspace. Again. Mistake. Backspace. Space. Mistake. Backspace.
And they're typing code. With auto-completion, intellisense and everything.
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#17Makes me wonder. Are we typists? It almost never happens to me to have to copy a text from paper - and never more than a few lines in any case. So I can freely stare at the keyboard while I type, I'm concentrated on what I'm typing anyway. Also, I don't think that my output is in any way limited by the amount of words I can type per minute - more by the amount of words or lines of code my brain is able to produce in…
I prefer to look at the monitor at the words I'm typing, then looking at the keyboard while I'm typing. I think that for people who aren't strong touch-typers, they may not realize what the advantages are. When I'm thinking of something and trying to type it out, there's no cognitive overhead, so I can use 100% of my brain power for whatever I'm thinking about. When I've thought of something I want to type, I can type it out really quickly before I lose the thought, and can quickly get it all typed out and go back to thinking.
fwiw, I made 5 typos in this comment.
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#18Makes me wonder. Are we typists? It almost never happens to me to have to copy a text from paper - and never more than a few lines in any case. So I can freely stare at the keyboard while I type, I'm concentrated on what I'm typing anyway. Also, I don't think that my output is in any way limited by the amount of words I can type per minute - more by the amount of words or lines of code my brain is able to produce in…
I write with (almost?) all my fingers in use, without looking at keyboard, and
with quite good accuracy for quite a long time. I don't think everybody should
force themselves to learn that.
If you write really much, your hands will remember which keys are where. If you haven't learned that yet, it means that it is probably not a critical thing for you -- and nothing more.
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#19Makes me wonder. Are we typists? It almost never happens to me to have to copy a text from paper - and never more than a few lines in any case. So I can freely stare at the keyboard while I type, I'm concentrated on what I'm typing anyway. Also, I don't think that my output is in any way limited by the amount of words I can type per minute - more by the amount of words or lines of code my brain is able to produce in…
I write with (almost?) all my fingers in use, without looking at keyboard, and with quite good accuracy for quite a long time. I don't think everybody should force themselves to learn that. If you write really much, your hands will remember which keys are where. If you haven't learned that yet, it means that it is probably not a critical thing for you -- and nothing more.
I stare off into space while I'm coding.
Re: Your Typing Style Might Not Be So Bad
#20I tried to learn to touch type last year. Bought a blank keyboard to help. 8 months later I still type with two index fingers, at the same speed as I ever did (about 45 wpm) and with more or less zero errors. Only on a blank keyboard, so I never look down anymore. Kind of weird and still unnerving . I'll try touch typing again sometime. And yes, I'm afraid I'm a professional programmer.
When I got a Das Keyboard back in college, it was largely to break myself of the habit of looking down (also it looked cool). I wasn't slow, but looking as I typed always ended up tripping me up. Removing the letters was the only thing that broke me of the habit. Best money I spent on my machine, silly as it was.