Hacker News Reader

Comment by juiceandjuice | Hacker News Reader

Are most people not touch typers? I've noticed my boss isn't really a touch typer, despite programming since before I was born, but I always assumed the majority of CS people were.

View on HN

I'm a touch typer, but not in the standard sense. I don't look up the keys while writing and use most of my ten fingers, but I don't use them like it's taught in touch typing. I know exactly where all the keys are and I intuitively press them with some fingers depending on which is nearest or easiest at the specific moment. According to [1] I can easily type faster than 600 keys per minute, more than all other people I know.

I don't think I should learn touch typing to further increase my typing speed. Right now most of the time my pondering over coding problems is limiting my typing speed, not my ability to move my fingers.

But maybe it's worth learning touch typing to reduce the stress on the fingers and be more egonomic?

[1] http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/

Actually, from an ergonomics perspective, you would probably be worse off touch typing.

Traditional touch typing trains you to hold your hands in a consistent position over the keyboard. It's the act of holding your hand in the same position all day--whether that's over a keyboard or around a mouse--that leads to carpal tunnel syndrome.

(For the record: I touch type mostly the way I was taught to. My wrists do occasionally bother me. I'm 24. YMMV.)

You'd be surprised how many senior-level people are hunt and peck typers. I've met several software engineers with 10+ years of experience who don't type with all 10 fingers (assuming they have that many).

Yes. Actually, I don't understand why people emphasize on touch typing here. Engineering is not a data entry job.

It's not so much "touch typing", it's being efficient with the main tool (the keyboard) that you use to interact with the computer. You don't need to be a 60 wpm typist, you just need to be able to communicate without stopping everytime to find out where the "@" symbol is.

Hmm.. interesting.I actually touch-type, but definitely have to look up the symbols. maybe i should learn that part too..

This is not about typing faster. This is about lightening cognitive load. For instance, I don't use my vision to type. Rather, I think "stretch my right ring finger to get the [O]" (except I don't actually verbalize it, it became automatic now).

That mean my vision is free to concentrate at the screen. That means that my short-term memory don't have to memorize what I am currently seeing at the screen. This means I have more precious short-term memory to do whatever important task I am doing, like, programming.

Subjectively, touch typing is surprisingly comfortable. So even if I'm completely wrong about the above, I still feel better, and that alone is worth the investment.

Why am I belaboring the tuning thing? Because learning how to tune your guitar properly is basically a tools issue. Many guitarists are perfectly happy to get by with poor tuning, but then they sound bad even if they're playing well. Developers are often content to use whatever tools they've got, without digging in and figuring out how to "tune" the tools for maximum efficiency. Mastering the tools of the trade is an important part of every professional's ability to be effective. - Steve Yegge

http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/practicing-programm...

Faster typing is more code is better. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Now, does doubling your typing speed also double your productivity? No, of course not, you spend time thinking, looking through code, reading specs, searching for solutions, compiling, etc. But I don't see how improving your typing speed would not result in at least some productivity gains.

I can touch type in the sense that I don't look at my keyboard when I type, yet I don't really use ten fingers. I was never properly taught to type.

Coincidentally, I'm trying to learn real touch typing as I think it could help me in Vim.

I don't think that you really have to be, I think it helps less than in regular writing.

Personally my style is very anti touch, using 2 fingers for the majority of letters, which I don't have to look at the keyboard for but I probably take more glances at it that a touch typist. I think though in being proficient in navigating the symbols on the keyboard mostly makes up for the loss in outright English typing speed.

I'm always shocked to see a developer not touch type. I just can't understand those 10% or so, that spend their life essentially editing text and yet can't touch type. It's one of those essential skills that you learn once and reap the benefits for the rest of your life.

Where do you get 10% from? Most programmers are fast on a keyboard, but being fast != touch-typing. Admittedly, not all touch-typists train their fingers to properly remember the numbers row or the set of accompanying punctuations and symbols, they might sometimes need to look at the keyboard to find stuff like tilde, pipe or the underscore.

However, if you catch yourself needing to even just glance at the keyboard while typing basic stuff, you're not a touch-typist, no matter how fast you are.

Many people feel that being fast is good enough. It has been my observation though, that the lag between typos and their fix is considerably shorter (almost instantaneous) for touch-typists (they're looking at the screen as it's happening). Indeed, I'm always a tiny bit annoyed when while sitting next to someone editing code, they accidentally turn on caps and it takes forever for them to realize it (like 10 characters later).

This is vastly, vastly more than 10%. Where I work at, hunt & peck is the norm. Now, many hunt & peck typists I see at work type relatively fast, without looking at the keyboard too much.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com