5 ms·

The real question is, does it matter? I've been programming for nearly 15 years and I'm really struggling to think of a time that my productivity has been limi

by Merad 9y ago

The real question is, does it matter? I've been programming for nearly 15 years and I'm really struggling to think of a time that my productivity has been limited by the speed with which I can interact with the computer. I've never actually tried to keep track of how my time is spent, but these days I wouldn't be surprised if I average 5+ minutes of reading/thinking/planning/discussing/etc. for every minute spent editing code.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
For me, it's a matter of maintaining flow. I don't type code all the time, but when I do, I want to edit at the speed of thought.
- mnem 9y ago
  I suspect you'd need a few chord based keyboards to edit at the speed of though.
bloomca 9y ago
To be honest, I'd go even further - I think we rarely code more than 10% of our time. I know, there is an argument that implementation matters – you don't think about typing at all with good sense of the keyboard, but I personally think it is overrated; unless you are super slow typists, it does not really matter. What matters, though, is the fact that it is some kind of an art – people master it, people enjoy when they are able to accomplish some tasks in an elegant way (coarse example is macro in vim).
oddsockmachine 9y ago
I experienced this recently. Crashed my bike, and broke my wrists. Had about a month where I could only type with one finger at a time, or gently use a touchpad. I thought it would be fine, since I could take my time and think things through fully in my head before typing the code. Instead, I found it so difficult - as if I could only think as quickly as I could type.
anon182429 9y ago
Yes, but it makes the development process very frustrating when you have to wait for a slow machine, type slower, not navigate as fast, etc. It might not waste much physical time (totally guessing here, could be a lot), but it wastes brainpower and really kills my enthusiasm for the task. All of which are negatives. I optimize my code, why not optimize my coding environment?
bonoetmalo 9y ago
I use my keyboard plenty when just navigating and reading code. The mainline at work is some 100k+ source files

by Merad 9y ago

TeMPOraL 9y ago

For me, it's a matter of maintaining flow. I don't type code all the time, but when I do, I want to edit at the speed of thought.

mnem 9y ago
I suspect you'd need a few chord based keyboards to edit at the speed of though.

bloomca 9y ago

To be honest, I'd go even further - I think we rarely code more than 10% of our time. I know, there is an argument that implementation matters – you don't think about typing at all with good sense of the keyboard, but I personally think it is overrated; unless you are super slow typists, it does not really matter. What matters, though, is the fact that it is some kind of an art – people master it, people enjoy when they are able to accomplish some tasks in an elegant way (coarse example is macro in vim).

oddsockmachine 9y ago

I experienced this recently. Crashed my bike, and broke my wrists. Had about a month where I could only type with one finger at a time, or gently use a touchpad. I thought it would be fine, since I could take my time and think things through fully in my head before typing the code. Instead, I found it so difficult - as if I could only think as quickly as I could type.

anon182429 9y ago

Yes, but it makes the development process very frustrating when you have to wait for a slow machine, type slower, not navigate as fast, etc. It might not waste much physical time (totally guessing here, could be a lot), but it wastes brainpower and really kills my enthusiasm for the task. All of which are negatives. I optimize my code, why not optimize my coding environment?

bonoetmalo 9y ago

I use my keyboard plenty when just navigating and reading code. The mainline at work is some 100k+ source files