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Typing Practice for Programmers

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Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#111

Post by zhoutong »

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.

It may be true that we spend most of our time thinking or communicating, but doing anything creative is all about the flow. Slow typing interrupts thinking and it takes time for our brain to re-construct the "blueprint" after this interruption. For a programmer, typing is a more frequent activity than say, drinking coffee. I don't think anyone can work productively if we need to sip some coffee every 10 seconds.

I need to improve my typing speed and reduce the interruption as much as possible.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#113

Post by sukuriant »

samd wrote: post #109
moonboots wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that we're not typist in the sense that basketball players are not dribblers.

You think typing skills are as essential to being a productive, and by productive I mean creating wealth and value, not lines of code, a productive developer as dribbling is to being a good basketball player?

A programmer, by practicing his trade diligently, will in high likelihood grow in his typing proficiency and become faster, especially if he is spending much of his time developing. Also, writing specs and comments take a lot of text as well.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#114

Post by mkopinsky »

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?

What would the possible use for such a feature be? When in the world are non-programmers ever typing squiggly braces?

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#115

Post by musashibaka »

It would be an added bonus if there were an illustration of a hand highlighting which fingers should be used with which keys at the bottom. Similar to http://www.typingweb.com/. I get allot of practice typing my own source, but what I am currently working on is making sure I am using the right fingers for numbers, symbols, and punctuation.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#116

Post by dbarlett »

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.

That's known as "subvocalization" [1]. Look at a basic speed reading book for tips on avoiding it.

[1] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Speed_Reading#Subvocalization

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#117

Post by swah »

Kinda OT, but I noticed you're using Google Fonts, and they load instantaneously. When I use Google Fonts, they take a little bit, usually loading after the whole site is already displayed. Did you optimized anything regarding this?

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#118

Post by samspot »

mkopinsky wrote: post #114
hkmurakami wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

What would the possible use for such a feature be? When in the world are non-programmers ever typing squiggly braces?

Seems sensible enough. The editor just assumes that you want your thingies to match.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#119

Post by samspot »

flatline wrote: post #93
mark_story wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? how? Its in almost every programming language that I can think of.

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

Exactly, and I'm a java programmer. For the record Sublime Text also inserts these for me. When I had to type '}' in the training program I actually had to look down at my keyboard!

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#120

Post by hkmurakami »

mkopinsky wrote: post #114
hkmurakami wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

What would the possible use for such a feature be? When in the world are non-programmers ever typing squiggly braces?

In my case, I was writing documentation for our product :P

Since it's being written on purpose as a 'product spec' like doc, company standards dictate that it be written in Word (unfortunately).

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