It frankly never occurred to me that any programmers wouldn't know how to touch-type. How does that happen?
Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
31–40 of 106 posts
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#32I started hunt and peck typing at 5 (Apple //c represent!), and had evolved to a four finger lazy-look typing method by 7th grade typing class. I didn't start actually typing without looking at the keyboard until I purchased a factory defect keyboard from a computer fair when I was in 9th grade. This keyboard had no lettering ink on any of the keys. I remember my mom being in disbelief that I could look at her and type something else quickly at the same time.
Best $10 I ever spent.
Because I learned to type this way I have rather unconventional / poor form. My hands rarely center properly on the home row, I tend to use my middle fingers for the upper inside letters, and I don't always use the same fingers for the same keys (I type the first "e" in "letters" with my middle finger and the second with the proper finger).
One other positive side effect of that keyboard while I was exploring UNIX was that there was no value in looking at punctuation either, so I learned to touch type all punctuation, not just the secretary subset, at the same time.
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#33"... Yeev noticed that one of the electives, surely placed there by mistake, was Typing. Like, on a typewriter ..." What an elective? Mine was compulsory complete with manual typewriters and battle-axe teacher. One thing I do miss about those old clunkers was the solid feel the keys had. You had to learn to position your index fingers at 'F' and 'J' remember where each key was positioned and hit hard. So letters like…
I have an ancient Northgate with delicious feel. It's huge, and heavy, with some kind of mechanical switches that snick into place in the coolest way when you press a key. Feels like an IBM Selectric typwriter, if you remember those.
I haven't used it in years, since I now use laptops exclusively. I can't bear to get rid of it, though.
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#34"... Yeev noticed that one of the electives, surely placed there by mistake, was Typing. Like, on a typewriter ..." What an elective? Mine was compulsory complete with manual typewriters and battle-axe teacher. One thing I do miss about those old clunkers was the solid feel the keys had. You had to learn to position your index fingers at 'F' and 'J' remember where each key was positioned and hit hard. So letters like…
I'm partial to most of the Apple Desktop Bus keyboards. That my nickname here is an Apple computer is correlative, not causative. :)
My favorite keyboard of all time is: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/Apple_IIgs_Keyboa...
Its keys are wonderfully weighted, tactile without being obnoxiously loud, but it's not really practical these days as it doesn't have F keys and the ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn set, and the arrows aren't in inverted-T form, which is annoying.
Otherwise I prefer laptop keyboards (50/50 between Dell's current-ish stuff and the traditional ThinkPad design). I'm more than happy to be more gentle in order to extend the life of my fingers and wrists.
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#35Hmmm. I want to hear from some great programmers who are often here on HN. Do you guys type quickly? Paul Graham and Patrick Collison, are you speed typists? How about Ryan Davis and Jey Kottalam? Suggest some more great hackers, too.
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#36This: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php tells me I type at about 55 wpm with about one error. Apparently this sucks. Damn it.
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#37If Steve Yegge typed slower, I wouldn't have to read as much.
Amen, brother. Proving once again the old adage that raw output doesn't amount to much by itself.
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#38"... Yeev noticed that one of the electives, surely placed there by mistake, was Typing. Like, on a typewriter ..." What an elective? Mine was compulsory complete with manual typewriters and battle-axe teacher. One thing I do miss about those old clunkers was the solid feel the keys had. You had to learn to position your index fingers at 'F' and 'J' remember where each key was positioned and hit hard. So letters like…
I have an ancient Northgate with delicious feel. It's huge, and heavy, with some kind of mechanical switches that snick into place in the coolest way when you press a key. Feels like an IBM Selectric typwriter, if you remember those. I haven't used it in years, since I now use laptops exclusively. I can't bear to get rid of it, though.
"... It's huge, and heavy, with some kind of mechanical switches that snick into place in the coolest way when you press a key. Feels like an IBM Selectric typwriter, if you remember those ..."
My last IBM model died. The Selectric model was good. Big & heavy I used these in undergrad for creating camera ready artwork. Are the laptop keyboards you use any good?
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#39"... Yeev noticed that one of the electives, surely placed there by mistake, was Typing. Like, on a typewriter ..." What an elective? Mine was compulsory complete with manual typewriters and battle-axe teacher. One thing I do miss about those old clunkers was the solid feel the keys had. You had to learn to position your index fingers at 'F' and 'J' remember where each key was positioned and hit hard. So letters like…
I'm partial to most of the Apple Desktop Bus keyboards. That my nickname here is an Apple computer is correlative, not causative. :) My favorite keyboard of all time is: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/Apple_IIgs_Keyboa... Its keys are wonderfully weighted, tactile without being obnoxiously loud, but it's not really practical these days as it doesn't have F keys and the ins/del/home/end/pgup/pgdn set, and…
"... I'm partial to most of the Apple Desktop Bus keyboards. ..."
I'm pretty tempted to look at Apple kb's next time my MS bendy board lucks out.
"... I prefer laptop keyboards (50/50 between Dell's current-ish stuff and the traditional ThinkPad design). ..."
What is about laptop kb's that's better?
Re: Programming's Dirtiest Little Secret
#40My typing speed is about 75 wpm, which probably sucks by HN standards. I don't type nearly as fast as I think. When I'm writing Java code, I find that my typing speed is often a bottleneck. In Ocaml or Lisp, it never is.
"SQL, Lisp, and Haskell are the only programming languages that I've seen where one spends more time thinking than typing." —Philip Greenspun, http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2005/03/07/how-long-is-th...
While I'd agree with Lisp and Haskell, I not sure how SQL could be considered that dense. I often find myself frustrated that a split second thought takes so long to express as a query, and I type a decent 80wpm or so.