Ask HN: How did you learn to touch type as a programmer? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did you learn to touch type as a programmer?

4 pointsJefro1185 comments

I've done some typing courses to get to grips with the main keyboard, but I still often make mistakes when programming and using e.g. curly braces and parentheses. Moreover, I have an 82" wingspan and big hands which make things even more awkward.

I want to get to the point where typing is so effortless and mistake-free that it doesn't interrupt my thought process.

Not sure if this an ergonomic issue or just a case of practice, practice, practice.

Is there anything anyone did to master touch typing beyond just standard practice? (esp. tall and lanky people)

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I am tall, not lanky. I never properly learned to touch type, at least not via Ms. Mavis Beacon or Mario's teachings. I found practice was very useful, but with programming in particular, it's been my experience that consistent speed helps me get into a flow. If I'm not sure what I'm going to type next, my brain focusing on what to tell the computer to logically do next 'crosses the stream' with what last statements I want to write out and causes typos.

As far as general touch typing goes, my dad showed me the keyboard he connected to the Gateway Win 98 box and said "that there is an IBM Model M keyboard, and if you learn how to use it right, it will last your whole life".

I was inspired to learn to type without looking at the keyboard, so over the age 9-12 years, I worked on it. These days, I don't have to look at it much, but still do things like typing 'ahve' instead of 'have'.

Oh, and that IBM keyboard was lost in a move, since replaced by a identical-if-i-didnt-otherwise-know keyboard I 'disposed' for my work with the evilest grin.

40 years or so as a professional programmer and I never learned to touch type. Never found slow typing to be a bottleneck. What to type is the hard part.

Just the daily use of a keyboard has given me the muscle memory to touch type. I lose my hand placement frequently as my work keyboard doesn't have the bumps on the home row, so the start of every sentence I take a glimpse at the first key I'm going to press.

I find with programming I make an incredible amount of mistakes as I'm typing and thinking ahead at the same time, leading to me to spamming the backspace every few words (maybe I should pay more attention).

To get good at touch typing, I believe it's just practice without getting lazy, as in, pay attention to the fact you're touch typing, maintain good habits, and prevent bad habits.

I learned how to type on a typewriter in a typing class in middle school, early seventies. #OldSchool

What helped me get good (but not excellent) was to write lots of English. Lots of that was/is email. Lots more than 140 characters at a time.

I played typing games years ago. Those force you to focus on quickly & accurately hitting the correct key.

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