I first did typing at school in an IT class (c. 1990) where most felt it was useless. I didn't realise how important it was, I think the teacher did, she was very prescient.
At Uni in 1994 I realised how important it was going to be and taught myself to touch-type. I think it was a little easier starting as I learnt piano from when I was 11 years old.
I don't type a lot day-to-day. My http://play.typeracer.com/ unpractised score was 50wpm at 96.2% accuracy (oh yeah and that site is good example of unregistered users mentioned a couple of days ago http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910829). Though I found it a little hard as normally I'll type a few paras and then use spell-check whilst I proof read so the modus was a little forced.
---
there are plenty of touch typing resources only a bing away
First time I've heard MS Bing referred to like that!
I've recently moved from qwerty to dvorak for similar reasons. Even though it's not yet been 2 months of dvorak training, I score around the 60wpm in typeracer.
One of the reasons I decided to try it was the same 8hrs a day excuse. I now have a hard time imagining going back to qwerty like someone that touchtypes has with going back to look at the keyboard.
Ps. I never understood why vi navigation is done with hjkl instead of jkl; - if you touchtype the classical way, it means you navigate with 3 fingers instead of 4.
Edit: correcting typos. I'm typing from my iPhone :)
I also switched from QWERTY to Dvorak, as an excuse to learn to touch-type - after a decade or so of typing QWERTY in my own seven-or-eight-finger style, there was no way I'd ever be able to override such ingrained habits. I've been using Dvorak constantly at home and work for several years now, and I just clocked myself at 77wpm on TypeRacer - not that impressive, but then I find I spend more time thinking and editing than typing anyway. :)
Also: in those TypeRacer trials, I found my right hand doing a lot more work than my left-hand - possibly because my left hand stays on the vowels and my right-hand is jumping about all over the place. Why oh why couldn't Dvorak have put R and L somewhere more... convenient? :(
> Ps. I never understood why vi navigation is done with hjkl instead of jkl; - if you touchtype the classical way, it means you navigate with 3 fingers instead of 4.
My best bet would be to support different keyboard layouts.
8 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 26.1 ms ] threadAt Uni in 1994 I realised how important it was going to be and taught myself to touch-type. I think it was a little easier starting as I learnt piano from when I was 11 years old.
I don't type a lot day-to-day. My http://play.typeracer.com/ unpractised score was 50wpm at 96.2% accuracy (oh yeah and that site is good example of unregistered users mentioned a couple of days ago http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=910829). Though I found it a little hard as normally I'll type a few paras and then use spell-check whilst I proof read so the modus was a little forced.
---
there are plenty of touch typing resources only a bing away
First time I've heard MS Bing referred to like that!
One of the reasons I decided to try it was the same 8hrs a day excuse. I now have a hard time imagining going back to qwerty like someone that touchtypes has with going back to look at the keyboard.
Ps. I never understood why vi navigation is done with hjkl instead of jkl; - if you touchtype the classical way, it means you navigate with 3 fingers instead of 4.
Edit: correcting typos. I'm typing from my iPhone :)
Also: in those TypeRacer trials, I found my right hand doing a lot more work than my left-hand - possibly because my left hand stays on the vowels and my right-hand is jumping about all over the place. Why oh why couldn't Dvorak have put R and L somewhere more... convenient? :(
I don't dislike the r and l placement on the right hand. I do sometimes feel p should belong on the right hand tho.
My best bet would be to support different keyboard layouts.
Edit: Wrong I was :)