3 ms·
Typing. If you aren't touch-typing and are looking down at the keyboard, or even just having to spend mental cycles thinking about typing, it's taking away fro
by dossy 4y ago
Typing.
If you aren't touch-typing and are looking down at the keyboard, or even just having to spend mental cycles thinking about typing, it's taking away from your capacity to think about the problem you're solving.
Can you write programs without being able to type? Sure, of course. But, you asked for basic skills that will improve your programming, so I say: typing.
60 WPM is a minimum. 80-90 WPM is a reasonable low goal. 100-120 WPM is probably an upper bound limit on QWERTY; if you're very serious, you may want to consider learning Dvorak or Colemak layouts, where you might be able to hit top speeds of 150-200 WPM.
- skulk 4y agoMaybe my brain is slow but 100 WPM was never, ever the bottleneck while coding, and I doubt I even hit 80 most of the time. If 100 WPM is too slow to get your ideas into code, maybe it's time to find a programming language/editor that's better suited to your needs rather than asking your poor fingers to pump out more letters.
- gtirloni 4y agoWhile I agree in principle, anything above 80-90 WPM is very much unnecessary. YMMV.