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This is looking nice, but I am frustrated because I have yet to see what I think is a properly designed set of introductory exercises. IMO there are two big is

This is looking nice, but I am frustrated because I have yet to see what I think is a properly designed set of introductory exercises. IMO there are two big issues for people learning to touch type: learning where the keys are and developing the motor coordination to move the fingers from the home row to the non-home-row keys and back again. Every typing program I've seen seems to focus on the former and not the later. This site teaches the letters "eaint" first. I think it's better to introduce the home row first. Don't worry that you can't type much English with the home row (unless you're using another layout like dvorak). Just get them good with different combinations of "asdfjkl;". Then once you have that, you introduce new keys by having them practice the jump from the correct home row key typed with the same finger to the new key and back. Let's say we're introducing 'e' next. The exercise would be something like this: ded ede dde eed eded dede deeded edded ... This gets them familiar with precisely the right motor recruitment pattern. The point of this exercise isn't to achieve the absolute maximum speed. It is to exercise the movement pattern of moving a certain finger from the home row to the key and back. Obviously you need to make sure they're keeping their hands on the home row and not typing d and e with two different fingers to go faster on this particular exercise. But that shouldn't be hard to do in your instructions. You can start to dissuade this in your next exercises by bringing in the home row letters typed with the adjacent fingers. fesd sefd sdfesd fdsefd ... I think this kind of exercise pattern should be used to introduce all the keys. Once the student has established these motor patterns in the process of learning where each key is, then you can go on to English text. Of course you can put English into these exercises when possible, but not to the detriment of the main point which is motor movement patterns. If you already know how to touch-type and are learning a new keyboard layout, then obviously you already know the motor recruitment patterns and the approach used by this web app is great.

agumonkey 11y ago
Also, from music instrument learning, I'd love to find an exercise that avoid me or teach me how to not go into cramping mode. Keeping the pace fluid at all time, as much as possible.
- clebio 11y ago
  Also from music lessons, practice slow, then fast, then normal speed. Type the passages or tests really slowly, but paying attention to correctness and rhythm (even rate) and then practice again fast (or just normal speed). Rinse, repeat.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Oscillating around, great idea.
jerf 11y ago
"Don't worry that you can't type much English with the home row (unless you're using another layout like dvorak)" This is, in all seriousness, my recommendation for learning to touch type: Step 1: Switch your layout to Dvorak (or any other sensible layout). Step 2: Learn to use it. There's no step 3. Touch typing is only hard because QWERTY is a terrible and stupid layout that encourages you to wander from the home row because too many common keys aren't on the home row. If you solve that problem directly, there's no "learn to 'actually' touch type" step. In any sensible layout (of which Dvorak is merely one of many, really), you don't have to force yourself to touch type... it's just what your fingers will do on their own. If your goal is to learn to type correctly, based on what I see of people fighting for years, I seriously think that "Learn Dvorak" is a faster, more effective way to get there than "Learn QWERTY + spend the rest of your life trying to force your brain to do something it quite rationally does not believe is optimal". People can get emotional about this, so bear in mind whether or not QWERTY is the only "practical" layout to learn because it's the only pervasive one is separate from the question of whether it encourages your hands to wander from the home row. (Which is all-but-proved by the very fact we're having this discussion.) I am also extremely aware of the expense of learning Dvorak or another layout, having done it myself. I still say it's easier that trying to force QWERTY touch typing, if you want to learn to touch type at all. If you're happy with wandering QWERTY syndrome... and I really have no great arguments about why that's bad... then carry on.
- mightybyte 11y ago
  Yep, I completely agree with you. The other advantage non-qwerty layouts have is that you can't cheat by looking at the keys, which greatly serves to push you in the right direction. Side note: After typing exclusively on dvorak for ~10 years now I actually think that it's not the best layout to maximize potential typing speed. (I've never gotten as fast with dvorak as I used to be with qwerty.) Dvorak focuses too much on single key locations and alternating hands. I think to get the maximum speed a layout needs to focus a lot more on runs, making sure the most common n-grams are typeable with out-to-in or in-to-out runs of adjacent fingers in the same hand. I've thought about working on this, but quite a bit of work would be needed to develop a new and more accurate cost model and find a layout that optimizes it--I've got too many other competing interests. But I'd love to see it done.
gibrown 11y ago
I wrote a post about my switch to colemak the other day and how i'm practicing addresses some of your concerns: http://gibrown.com/2015/05/18/colemak-0-to-40-wpm-in-40-hours/ http://gibrown.com/2015/05/18/colemak-0-to-40-wpm-in-40-hour... TLDR: build frequent wordlists and lists of n-grams for practicing. Here's mine with lists for English, Unix Commands, and PHP code: https://github.com/gibrown/learn-colemak https://github.com/gibrown/learn-colemak
- tagawa 11y ago
  Nice write-up and useful links to Typingcat and Typeracer - thanks.
jarek-foksa 11y ago
Type Fu [1] uses this approach. You can choose between random words or random letters. The first level starts with letters or words that can be typed with the home row keys and each subsequent level adds more keys. The levels are optimised for Qwerty, Colemak and Dvorak layouts. [1] http://type-fu.com/ http://type-fu.com/
- mightybyte 11y ago
  Cool! Too bad I can't really figure that out without paying for it. Probably won't ever try it since I already type well.
lfowles 11y ago
> Every typing program I've seen seems to focus on the former and not the later. I have the exact opposite observation, except for this one. So many typing tutors start with fjfj ffj fjj and on

agumonkey 11y ago

Also, from music instrument learning, I'd love to find an exercise that avoid me or teach me how to not go into cramping mode. Keeping the pace fluid at all time, as much as possible.

clebio 11y ago
Also from music lessons, practice slow, then fast, then normal speed. Type the passages or tests really slowly, but paying attention to correctness and rhythm (even rate) and then practice again fast (or just normal speed). Rinse, repeat.
- agumonkey 11y ago
  Oscillating around, great idea.

jerf 11y ago

"Don't worry that you can't type much English with the home row (unless you're using another layout like dvorak)" This is, in all seriousness, my recommendation for learning to touch type: Step 1: Switch your layout to Dvorak (or any other sensible layout). Step 2: Learn to use it. There's no step 3. Touch typing is only hard because QWERTY is a terrible and stupid layout that encourages you to wander from the home row because too many common keys aren't on the home row. If you solve that problem directly, there's no "learn to 'actually' touch type" step. In any sensible layout (of which Dvorak is merely one of many, really), you don't have to force yourself to touch type... it's just what your fingers will do on their own. If your goal is to learn to type correctly, based on what I see of people fighting for years, I seriously think that "Learn Dvorak" is a faster, more effective way to get there than "Learn QWERTY + spend the rest of your life trying to force your brain to do something it quite rationally does not believe is optimal". People can get emotional about this, so bear in mind whether or not QWERTY is the only "practical" layout to learn because it's the only pervasive one is separate from the question of whether it encourages your hands to wander from the home row. (Which is all-but-proved by the very fact we're having this discussion.) I am also extremely aware of the expense of learning Dvorak or another layout, having done it myself. I still say it's easier that trying to force QWERTY touch typing, if you want to learn to touch type at all. If you're happy with wandering QWERTY syndrome... and I really have no great arguments about why that's bad... then carry on.

mightybyte 11y ago
Yep, I completely agree with you. The other advantage non-qwerty layouts have is that you can't cheat by looking at the keys, which greatly serves to push you in the right direction. Side note: After typing exclusively on dvorak for ~10 years now I actually think that it's not the best layout to maximize potential typing speed. (I've never gotten as fast with dvorak as I used to be with qwerty.) Dvorak focuses too much on single key locations and alternating hands. I think to get the maximum speed a layout needs to focus a lot more on runs, making sure the most common n-grams are typeable with out-to-in or in-to-out runs of adjacent fingers in the same hand. I've thought about working on this, but quite a bit of work would be needed to develop a new and more accurate cost model and find a layout that optimizes it--I've got too many other competing interests. But I'd love to see it done.

gibrown 11y ago

I wrote a post about my switch to colemak the other day and how i'm practicing addresses some of your concerns: http://gibrown.com/2015/05/18/colemak-0-to-40-wpm-in-40-hours/ http://gibrown.com/2015/05/18/colemak-0-to-40-wpm-in-40-hour... TLDR: build frequent wordlists and lists of n-grams for practicing. Here's mine with lists for English, Unix Commands, and PHP code: https://github.com/gibrown/learn-colemak https://github.com/gibrown/learn-colemak

tagawa 11y ago
Nice write-up and useful links to Typingcat and Typeracer - thanks.

jarek-foksa 11y ago

Type Fu [1] uses this approach. You can choose between random words or random letters. The first level starts with letters or words that can be typed with the home row keys and each subsequent level adds more keys. The levels are optimised for Qwerty, Colemak and Dvorak layouts. [1] http://type-fu.com/ http://type-fu.com/

mightybyte 11y ago
Cool! Too bad I can't really figure that out without paying for it. Probably won't ever try it since I already type well.

lfowles 11y ago

> Every typing program I've seen seems to focus on the former and not the later. I have the exact opposite observation, except for this one. So many typing tutors start with fjfj ffj fjj and on