6 ms·

Typing.io: Typing Practice for Programmers

46 points by awestrom 4y ago

nor0ck 4y ago
didn't think this would surface again. I used this website when I was in college, around 2015. Tbh it is of no use. no one actually cares how fast you can type the syntax.
- ergocoder 4y ago
  While no one cares, if you type really really slow, then it will impact your performance. This is like saying running fast is not important to football. It is true, but if you run really really slow like a 100y old, then you can't play football.
  - jve 4y ago
    Luckily programming is not football and you can take all your time to write the code. I'm commenting this thinking about impaired people that either type with one finger or even by other means, not touching the keyboard.
    - ergocoder 4y ago
      It is actually a great analogy. If you work for yourself, feel free to take all the time you need. The same for playing football casually. In a work environment, you can't take all the time you need.
  - dfinninger 4y ago
    If you need to type that fast, get an IDE to autogenerate the boilerplate so that you can get to the more interesting bits. I’ve worked with people who chicken peck, etc and is just not an issue. Clarity of thought is much more valuable.
    - ergocoder 4y ago
      It is the same with being smart but run really slow. No amount of boilerplate can help you. At the end of the day, you need to type fast enough above a certain threshold to be a programmer. For example, I would say if you type <10 wpm, you cannot be a good programmer. There is definitely a number that makes sense.
- eternityforest 4y ago
  I would imagine being able to touch type is absolutely essential for using Vim effectively, or any primarily CLI workflow, especially if the screen is far from the keyboard. It really tires my neck out to look up and down every few seconds if I work somewhere with a large distance. Usually not an issue though, since I'm rarely in a CLI for more than 10 minutes.
- lowken 4y ago
  Learning to touch type frees up your mind to focus on coding problems. I agree that speed is not important, but I believe every dev would benefit from learning how to type properly.
- awestrom 4y ago
  It's not about whether others care how fast you can type. It's about how quickly you can get your ideas into the computer. Between coding, writing documents, emails, and Slack, a lot of your day is spent typing. If you can improve your typing speed by 20%, you may have just reduced the time it takes to do your job by like 5%, which is meaningful! Dan Luu has a really good post that outlines why working on things like typing speed can be extremely valuable and basically a force multiplier on everything else you do as an engineer. https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/ https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/
climb_stealth 4y ago
I have used this one before to practice typing on a split keyboard with chords. Never made it to proficiency but it worked well. It's nice to type out real code and not just random sentences. The only downside that I found: At least for Python it didn't ask to type out the comments. So #'s were never practiced.
- SrZorro 4y ago
  > split keyboard with chords. Charachorder?
  - climb_stealth 4y ago
    Oh wow, the Charachorder looks pretty intense. But nope, it's a GergoPlex [0]. It's a nice piece of kit. I would still like to learn to type on it properly but it is different enough that it requires a fair bit of commitment. Maybe one day when I retire. [0] https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex
    - SrZorro 4y ago
      Im on the same boat with my Charachorder, it requires quite the commitment (they say 1 month to be at qwerty level training every day), but I found out that I have short thumbs and the Charachorder has 2 joysticks per thumb and I almost didn't reach the second joystick For now goes to the box again and... Maybe one day when I retire
      - climb_stealth 4y ago
        Hah, I hear you. I'm not a fan of keyboards that require a lot of thumb work. It's not very comfortable to use I find. If you are ever looking for something split that doesn't require much thumb work the GergoPlex is great. It's tiny and the keys are super light. Which is why it has simple chords across the columns where pressing two keys at once is mapped to things. The learning curve is really the big downside.
dalmo3 4y ago
I don't see how this trains your muscle memory. Typingclub.com has some very well designed sections for practicing symbols that are much more effective.
ahurmazda 4y ago
As a forever learner who’s never broken the 90 wpm, I have tried quite a few of these. https://monkeytype.com/ https://monkeytype.com/ Is my current go to for its ux, customization etc. Best part is that the code is open on GH. So you can supply your own “language” [1] [1] https://github.com/Miodec/monkeytype/tree/dev/frontend/static/languages https://github.com/Miodec/monkeytype/tree/dev/frontend/stati...
- jck 4y ago
  I've had great luck with https://www.keybr.com/ https://www.keybr.com/ in the past. It's algorithm was really good at fixing my weak spots fast.
  - awestrom 4y ago
    I like keybr! The only thing that bothers me about it is that many of the words are made up, which means I have to think more about individual letters than I usually would. On the flip side, it does help you directly address your weak spots. Another tool I like is https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english. It's simple and enables you to practice for 1 minute at a time. Sometimes I'll do it while I'm waiting for people to show up to a meeting
lowken 4y ago
Can someone recommend a good typing tool to teach my daughter touch typing over the summer (5th grade going into Middle School).
- jonathannerat 4y ago
  I quite liked typingclub [0]. It's separated in levels and from time to time includes typing based minigames. It incrementally includes letters every couple of levels and makes you practice with words that only include what you learned so far. [0] https://www.typingclub.com https://www.typingclub.com

46 points by awestrom 4y ago

didn't think this would surface again. I used this website when I was in college, around 2015. Tbh it is of no use. no one actually cares how fast you can type the syntax.

ergocoder 4y ago
While no one cares, if you type really really slow, then it will impact your performance. This is like saying running fast is not important to football. It is true, but if you run really really slow like a 100y old, then you can't play football.
- jve 4y ago
  Luckily programming is not football and you can take all your time to write the code. I'm commenting this thinking about impaired people that either type with one finger or even by other means, not touching the keyboard.
  - ergocoder 4y ago
    It is actually a great analogy. If you work for yourself, feel free to take all the time you need. The same for playing football casually. In a work environment, you can't take all the time you need.
- dfinninger 4y ago
  If you need to type that fast, get an IDE to autogenerate the boilerplate so that you can get to the more interesting bits. I’ve worked with people who chicken peck, etc and is just not an issue. Clarity of thought is much more valuable.
  - ergocoder 4y ago
    It is the same with being smart but run really slow. No amount of boilerplate can help you. At the end of the day, you need to type fast enough above a certain threshold to be a programmer. For example, I would say if you type <10 wpm, you cannot be a good programmer. There is definitely a number that makes sense.
eternityforest 4y ago
I would imagine being able to touch type is absolutely essential for using Vim effectively, or any primarily CLI workflow, especially if the screen is far from the keyboard. It really tires my neck out to look up and down every few seconds if I work somewhere with a large distance. Usually not an issue though, since I'm rarely in a CLI for more than 10 minutes.
lowken 4y ago
Learning to touch type frees up your mind to focus on coding problems. I agree that speed is not important, but I believe every dev would benefit from learning how to type properly.
awestrom 4y ago
It's not about whether others care how fast you can type. It's about how quickly you can get your ideas into the computer. Between coding, writing documents, emails, and Slack, a lot of your day is spent typing. If you can improve your typing speed by 20%, you may have just reduced the time it takes to do your job by like 5%, which is meaningful! Dan Luu has a really good post that outlines why working on things like typing speed can be extremely valuable and basically a force multiplier on everything else you do as an engineer. https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/ https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/

climb_stealth 4y ago

I have used this one before to practice typing on a split keyboard with chords. Never made it to proficiency but it worked well. It's nice to type out real code and not just random sentences. The only downside that I found: At least for Python it didn't ask to type out the comments. So #'s were never practiced.

SrZorro 4y ago
> split keyboard with chords. Charachorder?
- climb_stealth 4y ago
  Oh wow, the Charachorder looks pretty intense. But nope, it's a GergoPlex [0]. It's a nice piece of kit. I would still like to learn to type on it properly but it is different enough that it requires a fair bit of commitment. Maybe one day when I retire. [0] https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex
  - SrZorro 4y ago
    Im on the same boat with my Charachorder, it requires quite the commitment (they say 1 month to be at qwerty level training every day), but I found out that I have short thumbs and the Charachorder has 2 joysticks per thumb and I almost didn't reach the second joystick For now goes to the box again and... Maybe one day when I retire
    - climb_stealth 4y ago
      Hah, I hear you. I'm not a fan of keyboards that require a lot of thumb work. It's not very comfortable to use I find. If you are ever looking for something split that doesn't require much thumb work the GergoPlex is great. It's tiny and the keys are super light. Which is why it has simple chords across the columns where pressing two keys at once is mapped to things. The learning curve is really the big downside.

dalmo3 4y ago

I don't see how this trains your muscle memory. Typingclub.com has some very well designed sections for practicing symbols that are much more effective.

ahurmazda 4y ago

As a forever learner who’s never broken the 90 wpm, I have tried quite a few of these. https://monkeytype.com/ https://monkeytype.com/ Is my current go to for its ux, customization etc. Best part is that the code is open on GH. So you can supply your own “language” [1] [1] https://github.com/Miodec/monkeytype/tree/dev/frontend/static/languages https://github.com/Miodec/monkeytype/tree/dev/frontend/stati...

jck 4y ago
I've had great luck with https://www.keybr.com/ https://www.keybr.com/ in the past. It's algorithm was really good at fixing my weak spots fast.
- awestrom 4y ago
  I like keybr! The only thing that bothers me about it is that many of the words are made up, which means I have to think more about individual letters than I usually would. On the flip side, it does help you directly address your weak spots. Another tool I like is https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english. It's simple and enables you to practice for 1 minute at a time. Sometimes I'll do it while I'm waiting for people to show up to a meeting

lowken 4y ago

Can someone recommend a good typing tool to teach my daughter touch typing over the summer (5th grade going into Middle School).

jonathannerat 4y ago
I quite liked typingclub [0]. It's separated in levels and from time to time includes typing based minigames. It incrementally includes letters every couple of levels and makes you practice with words that only include what you learned so far. [0] https://www.typingclub.com https://www.typingclub.com