Typing Practice for Programmers

There is a different side of this coin, actually. Having a compiler that takes a really long time to compile the code gives a different type of friction than a compiler that works blazing fast. The former makes the programmer want to avoid unnecessary compilation, which works amazingly well for some types of people (I am this type, so I speak from experience).

Though this doesn't work for a text editor, I believe. Editor should be as powerful and fast as possible, and I wouldn't trade my Vim for anything else (maybe Emacs, but I'm too deep to go back and invest in learning it, only to discover that I got no further than with my current setup).

Edit: Spotty internet connection has its good side, too. One learns to read locally stored documentation instead of relying on StackOverflow, which is a big gain in the long run. Similarly slow desktop computer: if the program runs acceptably on my (slow) machine, it will be so much faster on something better. (Though I only write command line tools and network daemons, so I may be biased here.) All boils down to friction profile, which bubbles different things up to the surface.

I am convinced, although only based on anecdotal evidence, that a lot of the vim/other-editor vs IDE debate is significantly based on how fast you can type.

2. There are a significant number of programming tasks where the typing-to-thought ratio is relatively high. Refactoring is one. Debugging is another. UI code, or anything with a tight feedback loop to something visual, and particularly CSS, is another. In my experience, the faster you can type, the more likely you are to solve these problems by trying things, rather than attempting to guess what is happening in your head. IMO the former is radically more productive.

3. Slower typers tend to look for GUI tools for things that are probably best used from the command line (git is the paradigm example here).

I am passionate enough about this that I have gone as far as organizing typing speed competitions on my team.

Obviously there are exceptions to the rule. I have also worked with excellent programmers who can barely touch type, although they still suffered from some of the above issues.

Slow typing doesn't capture your attention, if you touch-type. Your hands are typing while you go on thinking.

If you get to the point where typing is the bottleneck you are not thinking enough and you should be working on some more difficult problem instead.

If I did lose the use of a hand permanently, I would probably try making a custom map with chording, there's definitely a payoff there.

I'd say it would be worth learning alternative keyboard maps if: A) you work remotely and have a single computer or set of computers you can permanently configure with your preferred layout. B) You're a wordsmith/writer and produce large amounts of textual input as fast as you can type.

I think getting a base touch-typing competency matters far more than optimised layouts, even though the latter can improve comfort/accuracy/speed even further.

In comparison, the text-input methods for smartphones and portable devices need to improve drastically. I find myself getting frustrated whenever I need to input more than a single sentence of text into a smartphone. Using terminal emulators or trying to write technical code/information is a nightmare.