5 ms·

Poll: Engineers/Hackers, can you touch type?

11 points by ddrmaxgt37 16y ago

I noticed that many of my hacker/programmer friends don't ten finger touch type. How many of you can?

is_computer_on 16y ago
I type with 6 fingers (thumbs, middle and index fingers) and my average typing speed is 262 characters per minute with an error rate of 5% (as measured by a web based type speed test a couple of years ago, I don't remember the URL). It works for me. I do try to learn 10 finger typing every couple of years but I usually give up pretty quickly. Since I type so fast even with just 6 fingers, there just isn't enough incentive for me to learn 10 finger typing.
rostayob 16y ago
yes I can.
simonsarris 16y ago
My father gave me a computer in 1992 when I was 4 (why?) so I began typing long before I knew there was a proper way. Neither of my parents were ever good at typing, and still use hunt-and-peck even today. I remember when I was young, maybe 6 or 7 showing my uncle that I could type without having to look at the keys, and while I use all 10 fingers, my hand position is nowhere near the typical touch-typing one. Usually my left hand comes at the keyboard perpendicular and my right one comes in at a 45 degree angle, so my hands are like: | \ on the keys. My left hand stays mostly stationary, occasionally extending the first digit, while my right hand moves left and right slightly as I go. So considering this, which option on the above poll should I be pressing? I use all 10 fingers, and don't look at the keyboard to calibrate myself, so I technically do touch type, but I have never used the JF nibs to get my position and certainly don't maintain the traditional touch typing posture. (the fingers on the home row thing)
- makmanalp 16y ago
  Same with the hunt and peck. With the hand angles too. I usually anchor my left pinkie on the ctrl key (which is why laptops that switch fn and ctrl annoy the crap out of me) but I find that sometimes that left hand drifts off of the ctrl but I keep typing fine. And then it sits back on there when I'm done. Touch typing doesn't really take into account key-modifiers like shift / alt / ctrl, tab, f-keys, insert / delete or even home / end / pageup / pagedown which all come up very often during coding or doing stuff in the commandline or in your favourite editor.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
pontifier 16y ago
I couldn't untill I switched to the dvorak layout. To not even be able to look at the key caps forced me to learn to touch type.
wewyor 16y ago
I can and do but not the proper way with my hands in the right spots
gtech 16y ago
Yes I can, but only in the past few months did I learn. I used to use all of my fingers but my hands sort of danced around the keyboard and I would have to look down to check alignment every so often. I learned to touch type qwerty for 3 months, then switched to programmer dvorak a month ago. I wish I had stuck with touch typing when I first learned it in middle school.
seancron 16y ago
I have a weird, hybrid way of typing. I don't have to look at the keys to know where to type, but I don't fully use all ten of my fingers. I type without using my pinky fingers, except to use them to press the shift keys.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
xtacy 16y ago
I was thinking you were asking if we could type on a touch screen :-)
- tejaswiy 16y ago
  Indeed. I voted up on yes, wondering what the hell this was about till I actually got to the comments. Now I feel pretty stupid.
antpicnic 16y ago
When I first started programming, I used the hunt and peck method. Life was tedious. Then I took a class called "One Hour to Touch Type" from the University of Washington's Experimental College. I actually learned the entire keyboard in about an hour. I practiced about 20 minutes per day for a month to become proficient.
statictype 16y ago
Would be interesting to hear what the average typing speeds are. I would guess somewhere around 80 wpm? Edit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2366900 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2366900
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
High school typing class. Most useful class I ever took for my chosen career.
hcack 16y ago
I peck with eight and keep my thumbs on the trackpad. I end up having to move my hands less.
forkrulassail 16y ago
Another interesting question would be, who has learned NEO or Dvorak layouts and actively use them.
- michaelcampbell 16y ago
  I used dvorak for a few years and greatly enjoyed it. Ended up back on qwerty because I was switching around to too many machines and couldn't necessarily install a driver on all of them. I tried Colemak recently, but my grey cells are brittle and I couldn't make the leap. Not due to any problem with Colemak, but with me I think.
- to3m 16y ago
  I learned the Dvorak layout in 2002 and have used it ever since. I have never met anybody else in real life who has bothered though! I type letters 8-fingered. My little fingers press the meta keys and Return. This might affects my typing speed a bit, but I type at 75+wpm, which is about as fast as I can think of anything worth typing.
haseman 16y ago
My parents gave me a copy of typing tutor and said "For one hour of video games you need to do 10 minutes of typing." I was a comfortable touch-typest in weeks. I didn't learn to really hammer out the words until I started dialing into the local collage modem pool to play muds.
bsphil 16y ago
Keyboarding was by far the most useful class I ever took in high school, even more valuable than all of my 8 AP classes together. Nothing has proven more useful on a day-to-day basis.

11 points by ddrmaxgt37 16y ago

I noticed that many of my hacker/programmer friends don't ten finger touch type. How many of you can?

I type with 6 fingers (thumbs, middle and index fingers) and my average typing speed is 262 characters per minute with an error rate of 5% (as measured by a web based type speed test a couple of years ago, I don't remember the URL). It works for me. I do try to learn 10 finger typing every couple of years but I usually give up pretty quickly. Since I type so fast even with just 6 fingers, there just isn't enough incentive for me to learn 10 finger typing.

rostayob 16y ago

yes I can.

simonsarris 16y ago

My father gave me a computer in 1992 when I was 4 (why?) so I began typing long before I knew there was a proper way. Neither of my parents were ever good at typing, and still use hunt-and-peck even today. I remember when I was young, maybe 6 or 7 showing my uncle that I could type without having to look at the keys, and while I use all 10 fingers, my hand position is nowhere near the typical touch-typing one. Usually my left hand comes at the keyboard perpendicular and my right one comes in at a 45 degree angle, so my hands are like: | \ on the keys. My left hand stays mostly stationary, occasionally extending the first digit, while my right hand moves left and right slightly as I go. So considering this, which option on the above poll should I be pressing? I use all 10 fingers, and don't look at the keyboard to calibrate myself, so I technically do touch type, but I have never used the JF nibs to get my position and certainly don't maintain the traditional touch typing posture. (the fingers on the home row thing)

makmanalp 16y ago
Same with the hunt and peck. With the hand angles too. I usually anchor my left pinkie on the ctrl key (which is why laptops that switch fn and ctrl annoy the crap out of me) but I find that sometimes that left hand drifts off of the ctrl but I keep typing fine. And then it sits back on there when I'm done. Touch typing doesn't really take into account key-modifiers like shift / alt / ctrl, tab, f-keys, insert / delete or even home / end / pageup / pagedown which all come up very often during coding or doing stuff in the commandline or in your favourite editor.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

pontifier 16y ago

I couldn't untill I switched to the dvorak layout. To not even be able to look at the key caps forced me to learn to touch type.

wewyor 16y ago

I can and do but not the proper way with my hands in the right spots

gtech 16y ago

Yes I can, but only in the past few months did I learn. I used to use all of my fingers but my hands sort of danced around the keyboard and I would have to look down to check alignment every so often. I learned to touch type qwerty for 3 months, then switched to programmer dvorak a month ago. I wish I had stuck with touch typing when I first learned it in middle school.

seancron 16y ago

I have a weird, hybrid way of typing. I don't have to look at the keys to know where to type, but I don't fully use all ten of my fingers. I type without using my pinky fingers, except to use them to press the shift keys.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

xtacy 16y ago

I was thinking you were asking if we could type on a touch screen :-)

tejaswiy 16y ago
Indeed. I voted up on yes, wondering what the hell this was about till I actually got to the comments. Now I feel pretty stupid.

antpicnic 16y ago

When I first started programming, I used the hunt and peck method. Life was tedious. Then I took a class called "One Hour to Touch Type" from the University of Washington's Experimental College. I actually learned the entire keyboard in about an hour. I practiced about 20 minutes per day for a month to become proficient.

statictype 16y ago

Would be interesting to hear what the average typing speeds are. I would guess somewhere around 80 wpm? Edit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2366900 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2366900

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

High school typing class. Most useful class I ever took for my chosen career.

hcack 16y ago

I peck with eight and keep my thumbs on the trackpad. I end up having to move my hands less.

forkrulassail 16y ago

Another interesting question would be, who has learned NEO or Dvorak layouts and actively use them.

michaelcampbell 16y ago
I used dvorak for a few years and greatly enjoyed it. Ended up back on qwerty because I was switching around to too many machines and couldn't necessarily install a driver on all of them. I tried Colemak recently, but my grey cells are brittle and I couldn't make the leap. Not due to any problem with Colemak, but with me I think.
to3m 16y ago
I learned the Dvorak layout in 2002 and have used it ever since. I have never met anybody else in real life who has bothered though! I type letters 8-fingered. My little fingers press the meta keys and Return. This might affects my typing speed a bit, but I type at 75+wpm, which is about as fast as I can think of anything worth typing.

haseman 16y ago

My parents gave me a copy of typing tutor and said "For one hour of video games you need to do 10 minutes of typing." I was a comfortable touch-typest in weeks. I didn't learn to really hammer out the words until I started dialing into the local collage modem pool to play muds.

bsphil 16y ago

Keyboarding was by far the most useful class I ever took in high school, even more valuable than all of my 8 AP classes together. Nothing has proven more useful on a day-to-day basis.