Show HN: Keyboard Drill – Minimalist Typing Drill to fix common mistakes

This is cool I will bookmark it. I'm a terrible typist. I'm also teaching my 7 year old to type so this can be handy. I have something I built myself years ago and have never really circulated, that is more for beginners (it tries to help you with finding the keys and knowing which finger to use):

https://pianop.ly/misc/typingtutor/

One thing I experimented with is giving you both a "total speed" and a "best 15 seconds" speed.

This is very cool and it arrives at a good time: I have a whole delete-back-word thumb key on my split-key, and I've been trying to train myself to use it with little success. This is actually perfect.

I recognize this might push against the minimalism you're going for, but I might suggest having the next word, or even two words, off to the right and greyed out. What you're measuring is recognizing and typing the word, and most competent typists who want to lower error rates and gain speed are going to be fast enough already that they (we) can be recognizing the next couple of words while typing the one which is already centered.

A two-word lead would let me get up to speed, maybe that should be configurable but for the words I've seen while playing with it, probably two is just right.

Great site, I'll come back and use it as-is.

That's great but I'm getting tripped up when I delete a word with ctrl-w and correct it. Even if I get it correct, it marks as incorrect.

I've tried to replace words (for different language) in console but `words` are defined as `const`. Any idea how to hack it?

This is really cool, definitely going to use this! (and share it at work, since there's a lot of people whose typing can be greatly improved, lol)

ratatype was nice UX

I've known people say that they found it "easier" combining learning touch typing with learning a new keyboard layout. It's harder moment by moment, but there's no bad muscle memory to fall back on.

I relearned touch typing using https://www.keybr.com several years ago. It looks a bit different now, but seems to be the same concept as before.

I used to type with my right hand too far to the right so it could cover the arrow keys and mouse. My home position would have my index finger somewhere around the L. I had okay speed but terrible accuracy because I had to cover so much territory with too few fingers.

Learning to navigate with hjkl in vi was the turning point for me. I quit treating the bumps on F and J as "some weird thing that touch typists use" and made a conscious effort to always start with my index fingers resting on them, even not actively typing. Accurate vi movement becomes instinctual instead of having to hunt for the keys, and because I could navigate without leaving the home row, it turned into a virtuous cycle.

vi-style browser navigation add-ons further reduce the need to leave the home row. Vimperator and Pentadactyl were complete browser makeovers for vim enthusiasts, but they went away with the move to WebExtensions. I now use vimium which behaves mostly like a normal browser but retains the critical navigation keybindings. Even when simply reading a web page, I'm sitting right on the home row, with the two most-used keys (j to scroll down, and f to click a link) sitting right under my index fingers.

Switching to a laptop with a centered tenkeyless keyboard also helped a lot. There's no longer a temptation to have my hand float right. The trackpoint helps too - it's slower and less precise than the trackpad, but I make up the time by not needing to move down and back (the trackpad is still better when doing more than a single point and click though). When using a desktop with a traditional mouse, I center the QWERTY section of the keyboard and put the mouse on the left. I learned to mouse ambidextrously within a week or two and my hands no longer have to rest at weird angles.

Remapping Caps to Ctrl is another important home-row improvement. Ctrl is used frequently, usually chorded, and the ones on the bottom require contorting your hands to make it work. Bonus: I can use Ctrl-[ with my fingers still on f and j instead of reaching up to hit Esc, which is needed frequently in vi.

After making the conscious effort to position my hands correctly, everything else fell into place. My accuracy went up, which meant I had fewer times I'd have to look down and reposition, which meant I could achieve much better typing flow. I went from 30-40 WPM with poor accuracy to 60-80 WPM with pretty good accuracy over a couple years, without putting any additional effort toward training.

I was same, but what helped me was to start using an ortholinear keyboard, which kind of forces you to use the correct finger for each column.

Split keyboard, a key map printed out and placed under the monitor (so you Don't Look Down), and moving to colemak (without changing keycaps, that is the important bit - if you want to stick with Qwerty, just use blank caps). Plus a lot of practice with programs like GNU Typist, keybr, typeracer, ratatype, speedcoder, keyzen-colemak, typelit.io ...

This said, some things will remain hard probably forever, if you have a short pinkie like me.

Are you doing that because you think it will improve your speed? A lot of fast typists don't really rigidly stick to the "correct" fingering, as doing so may actually slow you down. I speak from experience as a fast typer; memorising where the keys are and using the closest finger can get you very far, and from there it's just practice to improve speed and accuracy.

I started using a split ergonomical keyboard together with a new layout.

Maybe try http://www.typingtom.com/.

I found it broke up touch typing into just the right size chunks to engage me.

At the start of Covid, I spent a week doing half an hour a day. My typing speed and accuracy improved out of sight. The whole process of acquiring muscle memory is quite magical. I highly recommend it.

This is the companion site to http://www.speedcoder.net/, which is for coding, and presumes you start with reasonable touch typing skills on normal text.

I switched to Dvorak.

I bought a keyboard with blank keycaps and started using it at work. I sucked for a week or two but now I hardly ever watch my hands.

Note that you can also clear the word by hitting SPACE, which mimics actual typing too.

Agree, I didn't understand that one can change the WPM before reading this thread.

Do you have any ideas for the feedback when your speed is to low? I am not a designer and struggle to find ideas that keep the UI as minimal as it is right now while improving the user experience.

Great point, while building it I also encountered words I couldn't type.

1. That was very enlightening

2. I added skipping a word by using the [Esc] key

It would be interesting to see if one could safe those words for later and practise just those.

That is actually the way it works. If you turn on logs (bottom right) you will see the time measured in ms for each attempt. The measuring starts on the keydown of the fist key and stops on the keydown of the space to complete the word. The time er only continues in case you start typing the word delete it and retype it. That counts as one attempt.