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Comment by moonboots | Hacker News Reader

Thanks, I'm glad you found the stats useful. In my initial version, I wasn't requiring the user to correct errors. I was personally getting errors rates around 3~5% , which appear good but seemed too low for the amount of errors I feel I make. Adding the need to backspace and correct keys revealed the true cost of mistyping a key, namely the wasted keys typed before correcting and all the backspaces.

Thanks for pointing out typeracer. I will take a look at it and try to incorporate its error handling.

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Hey, I agree this is awesome. I have noticed as I've optimized my workflow that I actually make a huge number of typing errors when I'm programming. Other typing programs don't test the whole set of symbols we use, so they're not as useful (and I type English considerably faster than code.)

One thing I would say is that it would be nice if it showed stats while I was typing, instead of just at the end.

Just in case I wasn't clear, I absolutely agree that you should force users to correct errors. It's just that the interface right now makes it harder to see how to correct the error, since you don't get visual feedback on the "wrong" characters that you've typed.

I was taught in typing class that its better to skip errors and then come back and correct them when you are done. Not that I follow that advice especially often, but I wonder if it would be more helpful to do that. I didn't like during the demo that I was forced to correct the problem before continuing.

Take it from someone who averages 140 WPM and peaks at 160-170 WPM. Don't skip errors and return to them later. Do delete whole words (alt-backspace) and re-type them from the beginning. When you get really fast, almost all typing errors are transposition errors. By the time they register you are already several characters, even words, ahead. Trying to correct them character by character will throw you off.

If you use emacs, what do you think about `flyspell-auto-correct-previous-word`? It's like autocorrect, but it only happens when you invoke it and it always happens on the last misspelled word rather than the word under point.

Never tried it but that sounds like it could work great.

I can't really imagine that working very well when coding. It'd cause huge issues with autocomplete and autoindent.

I agree. I believe the most typing classes are focused on the word processing end of things rather than programming. While waiting to correct errors afterwards can be faster for regular documents, I would absolutely never do that when programming.

Actually, I doubt it's even better for regular documents.

In the writing discipline, people will often tell you to write a first draft without correcting errors, then go back and error-correct on the second draft. But that's not about typing errors, but rather grammatic/narrative errors in your writing.

I had the same problem with not getting enough feedback on the errors I made. For example, I mistyped ")" a few times. But to correct it I need to know whether I hit the key to the left or to the right of ")" so I can move my finger accordingly. (I often type US-Dvorak on a spanish layout keyboard, so looking at the physical keys on the keyboard is pointless).

FYI I did the Symfony demo, then signed in with Google and got a 404 error. It did save my progress, but I had to re-authorize before I could get back to the list of languages.

Fantastic product, though. I see myself using this a lot. Any chance of a C# version coming along?

Supporting KILL and especially WERASE would be nice; I usually use one of those rather when I've made a string of errors, rather than watching and counting backspaces. And I agree with previous comments that it's hard to follow just how many backspaces are needed.

that opens a whole can of worms.

i use vim: so please support all vim movements. and the surround plugin. and while at it: my custom templating plugin as well :D.

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