4 ms·

Keyboards aren't just about memory, they are a lot slower then the mouse if you don't have almost instinctive muscle memory. If you have to think what the key c

Keyboards aren't just about memory, they are a lot slower then the mouse if you don't have almost instinctive muscle memory. If you have to think what the key combo is, use the mouse. Every so often I'll start thinking that maybe a keyboard + mouse combo is the fastest most efficient way to go... on Windows. And then I see a windows developer for whom the keyboard has become an extension of his hands and he never touches the mouse. It's crushing to see that kind of speed and power. The speed and efficiency of the keyboard isn't just a lot faster, it is so much faster that it changes the way you work. But it's hard to get there, you have to find the commands, practice them, practice, practice, and all the while it would be easier to just reach for the mouse. And yet I've made it a goal of mine to always get better at using the keyboard. A little bit a time, I figure I'll have no need for a mouse when I'm 80 or so.

tom_rath 18y ago
Have you taken a full touch-typing course? Touch-typing (REAL touch-typing -- not practiced single-finger poke or custom-splayed hand peck) installs keyboard use in your cerebellum and removes the function of typing from your higher brain. A new alt-key should be as difficult to master as a new coffee mug: You look at it for a fraction of a second and then put it into regular use without any further thought. If you have to find keys, memorize them and 'practice, practice, practice', it's a sign you may need to master the basic tools of your profession first.
- yters 18y ago
  http://www.typingsoft.com/stamina.htm http://www.typingsoft.com/stamina.htm Good, free, simple touch typing software I like. I used it to switch from qwerty to dvorak and have gone from a peak of 78 wpm to 100 wpm (5 char = 1 word) over the course of 2 years. I think I was able to regain ~60 wpm after about 2 months, and then I stopped practicing a lot. An especially useful feature is that you can specify your own text source, so I like to type a book I'm reading. In a way, it is a literature version of Guitar Hero. On a related note, Dictator is a good piece of software for speed reading. http://dictator.kieranholland.com/dictator.html http://dictator.kieranholland.com/dictator.html It uses the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) technique where words/phrases are flashed on the screen, so you don't have to scan a page. If you optimize the chunk size to the size you can take in instantaneously, the software greatly increases your reading speed (caveat, some stuff like tech reading is just inherently slow). It increased my reading speed by 300 wpm.
ptn 18y ago
Keyboards aren't just about memory, they are a lot slower then the mouse if you don't have almost instinctive muscle memory. Muscle memory is always instinctive, it's hardwired in the human brain. Everybody can teach his/her muscles to act "on their own" for a task as simple as this without that much practice. (Remapping your keys in your keyboard helps a lot for comfort.) But it's hard to get there, you have to find the commands, practice them, practice, practice, and all the while it would be easier to just reach for the mouse. I think the trick is to forget about "practising" and just do it. If the command is really helpful, you'll end up using a lot anyway, but the mindset is different (forced practise vs need).
- felideon 18y ago
  Muscle memory is always instinctive, it's hardwired in the human brain. Indeed. It's like walking. You don't think you are walking, you just walk. Everybody can teach his/her muscles to act "on their own" for a task as simple as this without that much practice. I'm not sure how you can teach one's muscles to act "on their own" without too much practice. Maybe if one were trained by injection, Matrix style. :)
  - ptn 18y ago
    You need practise to nail something, but not that much as one would think. Once you learn to do it, the extra practise is for speed (take guitar/keyboard playing, for example). I guess you could argue that without some speed, you can't really say you've learned something (what's the point in playing "Voodoo Child" at snailpace?), but the threshold is still there.
  - stcredzero 18y ago
    I remember when I was jockeying my Dad's Apple II+ in grade school. I got to typing "catalog" very quickly. So quickly, that I doubt I was conscious of placing each individual finger. I wonder if mouse + keyboard input could be augmented by head gestures? NaturalPoint sells an economic mouse that can be operated by placing a reflective dot on a pair of glasses or a hat. What if instead of being a mouse, this could be an entirely alternate input device? You could read head gestures in the same way that the Wiimote detects different movements. These gestures would likely become "muscle memory."
felideon 18y ago
I think you are right regarding muscle memory. I have terrible memory for everyday things yet I'm very good at "remembering" commands and keyboard shortcuts. For example, I recently started using Emacs. At first you do have to do a lot of remembering of commands, but after a while you don't really think about the commands you are typing. It's kind of like playing the piano. If you learn a song and practice it enough times, you probably don't remember every chord or note, but your hands play the whole song kind of like if your hands have a mind of their own. When a musician is asked something like what the chord progression of a song is, or what the notes to the melody are, usually he sits down at the instrument and plays it out with his hands first, triggering his memory. So I think it mostly boils down to practice, rather than memory. When he says "EMACS is for people that can remember lots of stuff," that's not quite correct.
- cstejerean 18y ago
  when somebody asks me about an Emacs shortcut I usually have to at least move my fingers as if I was typing and visualize what the keys would be. Muscle memory is truly amazing.
  - LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
    I will get this effect in vi when I type out a long string of manipulation commands in normal mode. I'll look down and realize that I don't even remember what I typed to get that certain effect. Kinda freaky.
    - jcl 18y ago
      If you record your vim input to a macro (q key), you can paste the contents of the macro to see what you typed. Unsurprisingly, mine look like line noise -- vim macros are very much write-only.
- coliveira 18y ago
  I learned Emacs first, and then became a vi user in the last few years. However, I notice that when I need to use emacs for some reason I can type the correct keyboard shortcuts, even though I don't remember anymore what the exact combination is ... It is a tryly amazing feeling.
tel 18y ago
If you have to think what the key combo is, use the mouse. And sacrifice ever getting to the point where you don't have to think.
Tichy 18y ago
I find I am able to memorize keyboard shortcuts if they are actually stated in the mouse menus. I hate it when there are no keyboard shortcuts in the menus. For some reason so many apps make that mistake (including Eclipse).

tom_rath 18y ago

Have you taken a full touch-typing course? Touch-typing (REAL touch-typing -- not practiced single-finger poke or custom-splayed hand peck) installs keyboard use in your cerebellum and removes the function of typing from your higher brain. A new alt-key should be as difficult to master as a new coffee mug: You look at it for a fraction of a second and then put it into regular use without any further thought. If you have to find keys, memorize them and 'practice, practice, practice', it's a sign you may need to master the basic tools of your profession first.

yters 18y ago
http://www.typingsoft.com/stamina.htm http://www.typingsoft.com/stamina.htm Good, free, simple touch typing software I like. I used it to switch from qwerty to dvorak and have gone from a peak of 78 wpm to 100 wpm (5 char = 1 word) over the course of 2 years. I think I was able to regain ~60 wpm after about 2 months, and then I stopped practicing a lot. An especially useful feature is that you can specify your own text source, so I like to type a book I'm reading. In a way, it is a literature version of Guitar Hero. On a related note, Dictator is a good piece of software for speed reading. http://dictator.kieranholland.com/dictator.html http://dictator.kieranholland.com/dictator.html It uses the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) technique where words/phrases are flashed on the screen, so you don't have to scan a page. If you optimize the chunk size to the size you can take in instantaneously, the software greatly increases your reading speed (caveat, some stuff like tech reading is just inherently slow). It increased my reading speed by 300 wpm.

ptn 18y ago

Keyboards aren't just about memory, they are a lot slower then the mouse if you don't have almost instinctive muscle memory. Muscle memory is always instinctive, it's hardwired in the human brain. Everybody can teach his/her muscles to act "on their own" for a task as simple as this without that much practice. (Remapping your keys in your keyboard helps a lot for comfort.) But it's hard to get there, you have to find the commands, practice them, practice, practice, and all the while it would be easier to just reach for the mouse. I think the trick is to forget about "practising" and just do it. If the command is really helpful, you'll end up using a lot anyway, but the mindset is different (forced practise vs need).

felideon 18y ago
Muscle memory is always instinctive, it's hardwired in the human brain. Indeed. It's like walking. You don't think you are walking, you just walk. Everybody can teach his/her muscles to act "on their own" for a task as simple as this without that much practice. I'm not sure how you can teach one's muscles to act "on their own" without too much practice. Maybe if one were trained by injection, Matrix style. :)
- ptn 18y ago
  You need practise to nail something, but not that much as one would think. Once you learn to do it, the extra practise is for speed (take guitar/keyboard playing, for example). I guess you could argue that without some speed, you can't really say you've learned something (what's the point in playing "Voodoo Child" at snailpace?), but the threshold is still there.
- stcredzero 18y ago
  I remember when I was jockeying my Dad's Apple II+ in grade school. I got to typing "catalog" very quickly. So quickly, that I doubt I was conscious of placing each individual finger. I wonder if mouse + keyboard input could be augmented by head gestures? NaturalPoint sells an economic mouse that can be operated by placing a reflective dot on a pair of glasses or a hat. What if instead of being a mouse, this could be an entirely alternate input device? You could read head gestures in the same way that the Wiimote detects different movements. These gestures would likely become "muscle memory."

felideon 18y ago

I think you are right regarding muscle memory. I have terrible memory for everyday things yet I'm very good at "remembering" commands and keyboard shortcuts. For example, I recently started using Emacs. At first you do have to do a lot of remembering of commands, but after a while you don't really think about the commands you are typing. It's kind of like playing the piano. If you learn a song and practice it enough times, you probably don't remember every chord or note, but your hands play the whole song kind of like if your hands have a mind of their own. When a musician is asked something like what the chord progression of a song is, or what the notes to the melody are, usually he sits down at the instrument and plays it out with his hands first, triggering his memory. So I think it mostly boils down to practice, rather than memory. When he says "EMACS is for people that can remember lots of stuff," that's not quite correct.

cstejerean 18y ago
when somebody asks me about an Emacs shortcut I usually have to at least move my fingers as if I was typing and visualize what the keys would be. Muscle memory is truly amazing.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
  I will get this effect in vi when I type out a long string of manipulation commands in normal mode. I'll look down and realize that I don't even remember what I typed to get that certain effect. Kinda freaky.
  - jcl 18y ago
    If you record your vim input to a macro (q key), you can paste the contents of the macro to see what you typed. Unsurprisingly, mine look like line noise -- vim macros are very much write-only.
coliveira 18y ago
I learned Emacs first, and then became a vi user in the last few years. However, I notice that when I need to use emacs for some reason I can type the correct keyboard shortcuts, even though I don't remember anymore what the exact combination is ... It is a tryly amazing feeling.

tel 18y ago

If you have to think what the key combo is, use the mouse. And sacrifice ever getting to the point where you don't have to think.

Tichy 18y ago

I find I am able to memorize keyboard shortcuts if they are actually stated in the mouse menus. I hate it when there are no keyboard shortcuts in the menus. For some reason so many apps make that mistake (including Eclipse).