How many developers don't know how to touch type? Is this really a problem? EDIT: Even if you pass the hiring process I think you would get fired pretty immediately.
http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/
You reached 395 points, so you achieved position 14664 of 1148922 on the ranking list
You type 588 characters per minute You have 98 correct words and you have 6 wrong words
Which is close to 99th percentile, although that website may have a bias towards slow typists. What speed would a touch typist expect?
405 points, 11978th, 530 characters per minute, 101 correct words 2 wrong.
101 wpm.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that most professional developer types can probably do within some small percentage of these scores.
From wikipedia:"An average professional typist reaches 50 to 70wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 (usually the minimum required for dispatch positions and other typing jobs), and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120"
As far as traits that affect overall developer productivity typing is almost certainly not at the top of the list, and maybe not even in the top 5. However, it is important. If you introduce a degree of inefficiency and friction into communication, coding, documentation, etc. that'll obviously impact overall developer effectiveness.
Consider this thought experiment. Instead of a regular keyboard a developer uses a thumb-based keyboard for everything, perhaps a wired 360 controller with a chatpad attachment. Are they going to get fired over it? Maybe not. Are they going to be less productive than if they were properly touch typing with a regular keyboard? Probably so.
So again, it does not matter. Technique does not matter. Only results matter.
Now he's exaggerating a bit, but I am a slow typer that predominately uses index, middle and thumb. Now, I get stuff done, I'm a pretty smart coder but typing speed, to me, feels like a huge bottleneck. By far the most important area I need to improve on.
Unlearning bad habits is hard, any advice?
GNU Typist, and real discipline. Force yourself to do it their way.
Also will infuriate your co-workers and family members when they come to borrow your machine!
Or you can switch to a sensible keyboard layout, of which Dvorak is the easiest to get support for (though not the only, and, abstractly, not necessarily the best, but mostly good enough). Now you get AOEU under your left hand and HTNS under your right, and guess what, you don't have to try to keep your fingers on the home row, because they're just there anyhow. It's difficult to imagine what a "non-touch-typing Dvorak user" would even be, at least once you've really internalized it.
Given how painful learning to QWERTY touch type can be, it's probably easier just to switch to Dvorak, learn the layout, then just naturally learn touch typing in the next couple of months without "trying". The total effort might be lower, even if the switch isn't free.
(This is all assuming we just take as a given that touch typing is desirable. I'm not sure about that, but I also think we lack the data to be sure either way, especially when it comes to long term effects.)
My typing teacher used these little cardboard cutouts that stood above the keyboard so you couldn't see the keys. These kept you honest. After that we just used some ancient DOS typing software that started you out typing strings of random letters composed of the homerow. As time went on it started introducing keys from the other two rows as well as numbers.
It was frustrating at first because of how slow I became at something I was normally fast at. However, in the long run my speed more than doubled once I learned how to touch type properly.
I'd be interested to see if someone's done a survey on this.