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Comment by triangleman | Hacker News Reader

More accurately: "Learning to touch type made me an expert typist. Also I bought a keyboard with blank keycaps."

I get that you could cheat if you had a regular keyboard, but if you're learning to type, why would you do that? And even if you do cheat and look, you could still practice the hand movements.

With that said, I learned to touch type in 1-2 weeks with _The Typing of the Dead_ on a Sega Dreamcast and this keyboard: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/39589/Dreamcast-Keybo...

You can find the game on Steam today (updated with new crowd sourced text options)

w/r/t HHKB: I have the "Lite" version and I could never get into it. Fn-keys, other key placements were too unnatural. Anyone want it?

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>but if you're learning to type, why would you do that

Sometimes people don't try hard if there is no fear of failure. Removing the key labels makes it harder to cheat and forces you to do it the right way. Some people will rationalize in their head ("oh it's just this one email I am typing, I am so far behind I can't afford to be slowed down"). I can see this method being effective by "forcing" people to learn to touch type.

> ... cheat ... rationalize ...

uh, I think you are putting the wrong slant on things, like people are cheating losers.

I have been touch typing for years, but I probably look at my keyboard from time to time and do not know I do it.

If you asked me where the B key is, I would have to look. If you asked me to type banana I would do it without looking.

I have caught myself looking, like a passenger in my own body, maybe to orient myself when crooked, I'm not sure. But typing is so automatic that my conscious brain is not even involved in the process.

I am not a touch typist, far from it, but I have been typing for so long that I too couldn't tell you how much I look at the keyboard. For awhile I almost convinced myself that I had somehow stopped looking down because I never seemed to notice it. But I definitely still look at every key I type.

I had one job where they made us go through a typing course (which was kind of silly because I already knew how to type but anyways) and they had you put stickers over the letters. So there is an option if you want to save money.

On cheap keyboards, some fine sandpaper will usually do a wonderful job.

Or just rearrange the key caps. IME, that retrained me much faster than blank keys.

Or you can always remove the keys... and a can of flat black spray paint.

Same effect - but with less sanding.

Hard to find spray paint that will stick to plastic keys and not be rubbed off by your fingers.

Looking deeper, it looks like you're right. It would take the right spray paint and wouldn't be a zero effort as I remembered reading about it.

With that said... there are a few good resources out there that probably weren't there (or I didn't find) the last time I looked.

I ended up just spending extra for a DASKeyboard sans writing... but may still "convert" some of my other keyboards at some point (going to build a new house and I'll have a work room when it's up)

On cheaper keyboards (I have one) the lettering wears off. And it’s IBM branded with M-style switches!

I use an English-only-letters keyboard to type in English and Russian (finding a good keyboard with Russian letters is a hassle and stickers are ugly), and it doesn't force me to touch type. I still index-finger-peck by memory (and I semi-touch type English :)). I think it has nothing to do with touch typing...

> I get that you could cheat if you had a regular keyboard, but if you're learning to type, why would you do that?

I think for some folks it’s a real cognitive challenge to willingly ignore useful information.

I know it was for me; I needed a das keyboard to make the learn-to-type “metagame” have sufficiently imperfect information to become “playable” enough for me to stick with it.

When I had “keyboarding” class back in the early 2000s our first assignment was to bring in an old shoebox which we then fashioned into a cover that went over the keyboard & our hands so that we couldn’t see our fingers as we typed.

I’ll never forget one kid who didn’t bring in a box used his gym uniform shirt over his hands and tried to pass it off as the same thing. The teacher didn’t buy it. But sure enough the next year all of the keyboards had little cloth hand covers velcroed onto the back and the shoebox project was no more.

I think you're completely right. I have a 'normal' 65% keyboard and find myself looking at the keys all the time without trying.

If I remind myself not to look then I can touch type just fine because I've been using keyboards for like 15 years..But I still find myself looking down as I type multiple times a day out of habit. I've often wondered if getting blank keycaps would help with this problem but have never made the jump (mainly due to cost). Someday!

Even just writing this comment I found myself looking at the keyboard instead of the screen..It's a really bad habit because it is almost like a small context switch in terms of switching back to what I should be looking at.

If you have a cheap old keyboard, try popping the caps off the keys and rearranging (leave F and K alone). IME that's much more effective than blank keys (the information is not merely missing but wrong in a way that's immediately obvious).

I'm not sure this will work for all types of keyboards, so make sure it's one you're willing to sacrifice... but that's a lot cheaper than the fancy blank ones and possibly cheaper than a can of spray paint. Also, it's probably not going to work very well with anything ergonomic.

When you say to leave F and K alone, is that because of the bumps on the keys for locating your hands?

I'm not sure I've seen a keyboard with F and K keys with bumps because that would be the index finger on the left hand and the middle finger on the right hand. Usually the bumps are both under the same finger (F and J or D and K).

Err, yes, typo. I meant F and J. Or whatever keys have the locator bumps, if you're using a different style keyboard.

That's a great idea, thank you. It's a cheapo Reddragon TKL K552, wanted smaller than fullsize & mechanical keys without spending a small fortune. Should work!

You know what, you're right. Today I turned off the backlights on my keyboard so it's nearly blank, and I noticed that I was in fact looking down. I do touch type though. So the big benefit of Typing of the Dead was that it forced you to look at the screen for zombies coming at you.

> I get that you could cheat if you had a regular keyboard, but if you're learning to type, why would you do that?

I sometimes look to align myself when I've had my hands off the keyboard, and now that I've got the wrong keycaps on some letters[1], it throws me off sometimes (I'll start on K or ; instead of L). However, when I'm actually typing, I almost never look at the keys (usually only when I'm pausing anyway, and more to take my eyes off the screen for a second). My only training has been using a keyboard for 20+ years.

It's not 'proper' touch typing - I almost never use my little fingers (I use three on my left hand, but bias towards just using index/index and middle on my right), I've got a tendency to reach across with either index finger depending on what I've just typed, and my hands at rest are around AWD/JIO rather than the home row - but I've never felt limited by my typing speed (80-100 WPM if I'm copying something).

I suspect my typing style is largely habits developed from gaming more then typing when growing up (rest on AWD and being more fluent with my left hand).

[1] Laptop keyboard - S where I should be (I got an S sent by mistake for a broken C key, and the I broke later), moved Fn keys to replace L and E

> It's not 'proper' touch typing - I almost never use my little fingers (I use three on my left hand, but bias towards just using index/index and middle on my right)

I used to do something like this. Developed some real bad RSI that was only partially alleviated when I got a split keyboard (which forced me to learn to touch-type). Now that I’m used to that I’m finally starting to touch-type on a normal keyboard, which also helps quite a bit.

YMMV of course, but in retrospect I really wish I learned to touch-type to begin with; I think I ignored it during typing lessons as a kid as my typing speed was honestly pretty good, but now I regret that.

With blank keycaps there's no way to cheat, it forces you to learn everything on the keyboard you use regardless of how often it is used. I have touch typed most of my life and switching to blank keycaps 5 years ago forced me to master all of the keyboard, specifically the less used keys.

Its also fun watching people try and type on your blank keycaps - they are all almost instantly lost at how to even start typing.

I re-learned to touchtype .. i had typing in middle school.. it was a per-requisite to computer classes (ah the late 80s). But my touch typing deteriorated quite rapidly as I was mostly using computers to play games and the like. Lots of wizardry and bards tale mean's lots of hunt and peck.

When I got the itch to start programming more, I simply took a box, cut the bottom and front off of it and laid it over my, still amazing to this day, Apple ADB (apple //gs) keyboard and started typing. I could always lift my hands and the box to see where some troublesome symbol was. Something you can't do with blank caps.

The one thing that threw me off when I finally switched to terminals and pc's in my college days was that apple had been putting homing bumps on d and k instead of f and j.. On my first PC keyboard I actually swapped the d/f and j/k keycaps just so i could stay sane. Eventually I got used to the f/j homing. Now I use a board where all the homerow keys are homing and it doesn't much bother me anymore.

Or you could just put a box over your keyboard, like my typing teacher used to do when she saw me lookin

The HHKB Lite is totally different and pretty awful, regular HHKBs are great though! I used a Lite a few years ago and it had some of the worst rubber domes I've ever felt, nearly every key felt like it had a different actuation weight. The arrow keys were especially bad.

Agreed about not looking at the keys. I know this is HN and people are always looking for technical solutions, but sometimes the best solution is the easiest.

I learned to type in college over a few weeks one summer while I was typing abstracts into a database. I thought I would never finish the work because I couldn’t type, so I forced myself to learn to touch type. I didn’t even put stickers on the keys; but I really think having real sentences to type, on topics that were of interest to me, helped. However, on the technology side, I have to admit, the clicky Apple II keyboard, with the cupped keys, was a benefit. But, if kids can learn to “type” on glass (mobile devices) as fast as they do, I think all it really takes is time and dedication.

Typing of the Dead: Overkill (the version on Steam) isn't as good a typing tutor as the original as it doesn't focus on getting you better at typing - it throws you in at the deep end, starting with whole words. The previous game instead started with the traditional home row stuff and would show your accuracy on each key. You can still play the original under Wine or on Windows.

Overkill is still a great game. There's a nice backstory to its release: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/203801/How_Typing_of_the...

Typing of the dead is a lot of fun, especially going the extra mile of having the characters wear backpack dreamcasts and keyboards. There's a grindhouse-esque sequel Overkill as well.

> I get that you could cheat if you had a regular keyboard, but if you're learning to type, why would you do that? And even if you do cheat and look, you could still practice the hand movements.

In my experience, I did look more than intended to, and more than I thought I did. What really drove this home was not a blank keyboard but a mislabeled one (created, at the time, by popping key caps off and rearranging, being sure to preserve F and J).

HHKB is Sun Type 3 keyboard in 60% so it’s not ANSI or Windows 101, Ctrl to the left of A and all. Mostly should be the same as ANSI though?

Ctrl key placement was OK. As a heavy SSMS user I had a lot of trouble making Shift+Home, F5 key sequence work.

A cheaper alternative would have been to put a towel over your hands so that you can't look down at the keys.

I bought a WASD VP3. Same basic shape as the HHKB with a different layout of the fancy stuff. Fn key is in a natural position for me. I use the Fn arrow keys constantly (ijkl) I love it so much I'm going to buy at least a few more before I die. I can't get enough of it.

Yeah, that was my first thought - I haven't looked at the keys since I was a teenager. Doesn't mean I don't still mistype things.

My first IBM-compatible, a Commodore PC20-III, came with Mavis Beacon's Typing Tutor, which did wonders for me.

Really? I LOVE the HHKBPro2 have 3 of them, one at Work one at Home-Workstation and one for the Laptop

What does the Happy Hacking Keyboard usually run price wise?

Over $300 and no Ctrl key.

Hey I'll take the keyboard. This would be a major blessing :)

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