3 ms·

> I imagine writers have it even worse than programmers. Well, I dunno about that. One of the major projects I'm currently working with, has over 130K lines of

> I imagine writers have it even worse than programmers. Well, I dunno about that. One of the major projects I'm currently working with, has over 130K lines of Clojure (tests excluded), and that is not too big of a project. I'm too lazy to figure out the proper way to count "words" in that project `wc` shows over 5M. In comparison - "War and Peace" [technically] is ten times smaller. Programmers do type a lot. Possibly, way more than writers have to. And that's just code. Have you ever thought about how much typing happens outside of coding? When reviewing PRs, replying to emails, etc. That is why every single programmer must invest into choosing the right keyboard; learning how to maintain a proper posture; maybe learn non-traditional ways to input text - Vim and Emacs keybindings; try Stenographic input¹; Speech recognition², etc. Because when they don't - sooner or later they end up having problems: back and neck pain, headaches, RSI, hemorrhoids. --- ¹ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpv-Qb-dB6g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpv-Qb-dB6g ² https://www.thestrangeloop.com/2019/voice-driven-development-who-needs-a-keyboard-anyway.html https://www.thestrangeloop.com/2019/voice-driven-development...

spats1990 7y ago
I'm an editor and writer and at my last job I got interested in how many words I typed a day. I put some applet on my work computer that tracked them across all applications. It was usually less than I thought; something like 10-15k words per day, sometimes more like 5-8k. Think you're probably right about how much programmers type. I was going to write that if a programmer sets something up to track how much they type, they'd have to measure it by keystroke because I don't know whether all aspects of most programming languages would count as "words". Plus navigation, shortcuts etc. Tracking by keystroke or character would be better. But then... if you asked me what I consider a high or low number of keystrokes for a working day I'd have no idea what to tell you, whereas if you told me you typed 20-30k words or more in a day I'd be hoping you are using a good keyboard and sitting properly.
melling 7y ago
Programming my voice really hasn’t caught on. I maintain a bunch of links on Github for anyone who might be interested: https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/programming_by_voice.md https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/progra...

spats1990 7y ago

I'm an editor and writer and at my last job I got interested in how many words I typed a day. I put some applet on my work computer that tracked them across all applications. It was usually less than I thought; something like 10-15k words per day, sometimes more like 5-8k. Think you're probably right about how much programmers type. I was going to write that if a programmer sets something up to track how much they type, they'd have to measure it by keystroke because I don't know whether all aspects of most programming languages would count as "words". Plus navigation, shortcuts etc. Tracking by keystroke or character would be better. But then... if you asked me what I consider a high or low number of keystrokes for a working day I'd have no idea what to tell you, whereas if you told me you typed 20-30k words or more in a day I'd be hoping you are using a good keyboard and sitting properly.

melling 7y ago

Programming my voice really hasn’t caught on. I maintain a bunch of links on Github for anyone who might be interested: https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/programming_by_voice.md https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/progra...