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Typing Practice for Programmers

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Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#21

Post by ktRolster »

xapata wrote: post #10
ktRolster wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will tell you, that if you are in a job interview with a live-coding portion, if you don't type fast, the interviewer will probably think you are dumb. And if you don't know all the hot keys they know, then they will probably think you are ignorant. It's unfair, but happens.

One of the best programmers I know types surprisingly slowly. Maybe because he's older and his fingers just don't move very fast.

There's a story of Donald Knuth and the programming contest:

“In the early days of Silicon Valley, there was an annual programming contest on Memorial Day. When Donald Knuth (the world’s greatest programmer) entered, they gave him an old batch computer to work on. He had to carry punch cards back and forth. The others, great programmers of the time like Alan Kay, John McCarthy; got the ‘modern’ time-sharing systems.

“Donald Knuth had that old, punch card computer, but finished his program an hour before anyone else, and his algorithm was the fastest executing. They asked him how he did it so well, and he said, `With that kind of computer, you think carefully before typing. You don’t want to make mistakes, like carving in stone.”

Sounds like your old programming friend has learned that lesson.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#22

Post by Swizec »

collyw wrote: post #2

Coding by typing fast never seems like a great idea for me. Isn't there a saying "weeks of programming can save hours of planning". Plus a decent IDE will eliminate the need for this type of thing.

It's not about the typing speed, it's about levels of abstraction. You want the basics to be automated so you can think about important things.

Could someone like Steph Curry or Kobe Bryant be an effective basketball player if dribbling the ball took conscious effort? Probably not.

Code is typed. Typing it slowly slows you down. Just like a slow compiler does or a slow IDE or even a slow computer with spotty internet.

Remove bottlenecks until speed of thought and imagination is the bottleneck.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#24

Post by emodendroket »

sanswork wrote: post #15
emodendroket wrote: post #9

I don't know if a programming-specific one is needed but you can save a lot of time learning how to touch-type. http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/09/programmings-dirties...

I switched to a variation on Colemak because I had used qwerty so long touch typing with left hand and pointer/ring only on the right that it was uncomfortable trying to learn to touch type from the home row.

I'm hesitant to take up any of those because not being able to use other computers seems like too much of an impediment.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#25

Post by CarVac »

zeta0134 wrote: post #5

This is a really cool idea! But I found myself instinctively hitting [Tab] to activate autocomplete on most of the longer symbols, as every IDE / Code Editor I use supports this in some form.

Yup, I hit tab a few times, and I also expected it to automatically convert .'s to ->'s.

But despite that I still managed about 60 wpm and 95% accuracy on the snippets I tried.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#26

Post by 0xffff2 »

ktRolster wrote: post #19
RhodesianHunter wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good, these are perfect indicators that I don't want to work with these people anyway.

Edit: misunderstanding.

I think GP is saying precisely the opposite. They don't want to work with managers that judge their employees by WPM or hotkey knowledge.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#27

Post by civility »

ktRolster wrote: post #19
RhodesianHunter wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good, these are perfect indicators that I don't want to work with these people anyway.

Edit: misunderstanding.

> You don't want to work with people who type slowly?

Pretty sure he meant it the other way. He doesn't want to work with people who would judge him for typing slowly.

Re: Typing Practice for Programmers

#30

Post by sanswork »

emodendroket wrote: post #24
sanswork wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to a variation on Colemak because I had used qwerty so long touch typing with left hand and pointer/ring only on the right that it was uncomfortable trying to learn to touch type from the home row.

I'm hesitant to take up any of those because not being able to use other computers seems like too much of an impediment.

I can still type just as fast as I could before I switched on qwerty keyboards. I left my laptop keyboard qwerty and just switched my external keyboard to Colemak so I swap somewhat frequently depending on if I'm at my desk or on the couch/out of the house.
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