15 ms·

Biggest annoyance with this software - backspace is, apparently, something that I alone exercise. If you type an incorrect letter, it simply doesn't advance the

Biggest annoyance with this software - backspace is, apparently, something that I alone exercise. If you type an incorrect letter, it simply doesn't advance the cursor rather than advancing the cursor and marking the letter as incorrect. Since I am already a pretty good touch-typist, I routinely KNOW I have hit an incorrect key, hit backspace, and correct it and progress with the word. However, very often I will do something like spelling "icnorrect" from feeling, then hitting backspace exactly eight times and re-type "ncorrect"... which is simply not supported by this software.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
Cushman 11y ago
I had the same complaint, but there's actually a setting for that. Uncheck "stop cursor on error" under Miscellaneous.
- learnstats2 11y ago
  If you want to teach people to type for real, this should be on by default. And, it should move the cursor without moving the text.
  - Cushman 11y ago
    I agree for skilled typists, but if you were just trying to learn the keys at first I could see wrangling backspace being more distraction than learning.
    - Jemmeh 11y ago
      I disagree. In real word processors the cursor would move forward and people should get used to that, instead of having to learn one thing here and something else in the rest of the world.
      - Cushman 11y ago
        I dunno, do you remember first learning to touch type? For all we talk about typing in keystrokes at a time, that's an exercise in frustration if you don't confidently know where each key is. 99.9% of your typing will be "real world" practice, but there's also utility in isolated drills. Anyway, as someone who's tried to learn to type on prototype hardware without a working backspace, I appreciate the feature :)
  - sp332 11y ago
    If you want to type quickly, especially for something real-time like dictation, it's better to keep going and fix typos later. You don't want to train people to stop typing every time they mess up, because they might miss something.
mixedmath 11y ago
This reminds me of a problem I face. I write documents in LaTeX all the time, and my preferred text editor is vim. In vim, CTRL-W will remove the last word in insert mode. This has become second nature to me, since I frequently find it faster to retype a whole word than to perform the correct number of backspaces to correct a typo midway. What this really means is that I close browser windows with great frequency whenever I'm typing something and make a typo, and hit CTRL-W.
- semi-extrinsic 11y ago
  You should use pentadactyl then ;) Close browser windows with :t, Ctrl-w does nothing, clicking in a textarea and doing Ctrl-i opens a gvim window where you can edit your text properly. And much more.
  - ttrmw 11y ago
    As another option, Vimperator also allows vim like editing in textareas with Ctrl+t and supports Firefox >30
- simendsjo 11y ago
  I even did this during a test running in a browser at school. Luckily it was possible to reopen it and nobody noticed. I've done this so many times that I have some setup always running vim in the background in a tmux session only a keypress away. Super+Shift+v then type <leader>y and paste in the browser.
- mlrtime 11y ago
  Even more annoying is using virtual box with a linux guest and resetting the VM when you wanted to recall a command (CTRL-r).
  - 0942v8653 11y ago
    Well, I never use right control :) There's no reason to keep the host key as right control if it causes problems like that. You can set it to something different in VirtualBox's global preferences (Control-G) > Input > Virtual Machine. Also, you may prefer to run your VMs headless with vboxheadless (man vboxheadless). May save you some time and frustration, and video memory. Then ssh into them by going into the guest settings and forwarding port 22 to a host port (I use 12322).
tryeng 11y ago
An annoyance, yes it is. But I think it's a good feature. Not making mistakes is the most important thing to improve your touch typing speed. If this annoying behavior makes you slow down and stop making mistakes, instead of using backspace without thinking about it, then it's well worth it. That backspace reflex comes very quickly anyway, it's not really something you need to train.
ChuckMcM 11y ago
Was coming to say exactly the same thing. The old Mavis Beacon program had the same issue which was that it expected you to just type to the end, eventually getting the right letter if you missed one and then correct the typos later. Whereas I seem to type ho[^Hpe a lot for 'hope' The other thing that I'd love to see (I may have missed it) is typing proficiency on programming punctuation.
johnmaguire2013 11y ago
ctrl+backspace to go back a word on windows and linux usually. alt+backspace on mac. plus, lots of linux apps and the command line you have ctrl+w to go back a word. just fyi. :) quicker than hitting backspace a bunch.
e12e 11y ago
I'm not sure why this software behaves that way -- but it used to be a (mis)feature of measuring typing speed on mechanical typewriters -- there were no do-overs. The only way to correct would be to either go back and strike-through -- or manually correct, whiting out the error, and typing the correct word. The first wasn't really usable for "typed" letters and such -- and either would take much more time than on a word processor. Because of this, when measuring wpm/typing speed, errors are severely punished -- even if many of those can be taken care of with auto-correct and/or much faster manual correction. I'm not sure sticking to this measure for typing speed now that hardly anyone uses typewriters -- but errors do break flow, and for that reason it is good to train towards perfect typing -- even if that means typing a little "slower".
swsieber 11y ago
There's a setting for that under the misc. tab on their site. I agree though, that's a very poor default.
codersteve 11y ago
>>I routinely KNOW I have hit an incorrect key, hit backspace, and correct it and progress with the word Because that's a bad habit when deliberately practicing. A good typing program should have a couple of modes. One that forces you to keep moving forward even if you make a mistake (and not let you backspace, this develops speed). Another one that will make you stop until you hit the correct key (for beginners or to break bad habits). Depends on what skill you want to focus on.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Cushman 11y ago

I had the same complaint, but there's actually a setting for that. Uncheck "stop cursor on error" under Miscellaneous.

learnstats2 11y ago
If you want to teach people to type for real, this should be on by default. And, it should move the cursor without moving the text.
- Cushman 11y ago
  I agree for skilled typists, but if you were just trying to learn the keys at first I could see wrangling backspace being more distraction than learning.
  - Jemmeh 11y ago
    I disagree. In real word processors the cursor would move forward and people should get used to that, instead of having to learn one thing here and something else in the rest of the world.
    - Cushman 11y ago
      I dunno, do you remember first learning to touch type? For all we talk about typing in keystrokes at a time, that's an exercise in frustration if you don't confidently know where each key is. 99.9% of your typing will be "real world" practice, but there's also utility in isolated drills. Anyway, as someone who's tried to learn to type on prototype hardware without a working backspace, I appreciate the feature :)
- sp332 11y ago
  If you want to type quickly, especially for something real-time like dictation, it's better to keep going and fix typos later. You don't want to train people to stop typing every time they mess up, because they might miss something.

mixedmath 11y ago

This reminds me of a problem I face. I write documents in LaTeX all the time, and my preferred text editor is vim. In vim, CTRL-W will remove the last word in insert mode. This has become second nature to me, since I frequently find it faster to retype a whole word than to perform the correct number of backspaces to correct a typo midway. What this really means is that I close browser windows with great frequency whenever I'm typing something and make a typo, and hit CTRL-W.

semi-extrinsic 11y ago
You should use pentadactyl then ;) Close browser windows with :t, Ctrl-w does nothing, clicking in a textarea and doing Ctrl-i opens a gvim window where you can edit your text properly. And much more.
- ttrmw 11y ago
  As another option, Vimperator also allows vim like editing in textareas with Ctrl+t and supports Firefox >30
simendsjo 11y ago
I even did this during a test running in a browser at school. Luckily it was possible to reopen it and nobody noticed. I've done this so many times that I have some setup always running vim in the background in a tmux session only a keypress away. Super+Shift+v then type <leader>y and paste in the browser.
mlrtime 11y ago
Even more annoying is using virtual box with a linux guest and resetting the VM when you wanted to recall a command (CTRL-r).
- 0942v8653 11y ago
  Well, I never use right control :) There's no reason to keep the host key as right control if it causes problems like that. You can set it to something different in VirtualBox's global preferences (Control-G) > Input > Virtual Machine. Also, you may prefer to run your VMs headless with vboxheadless (man vboxheadless). May save you some time and frustration, and video memory. Then ssh into them by going into the guest settings and forwarding port 22 to a host port (I use 12322).

tryeng 11y ago

An annoyance, yes it is. But I think it's a good feature. Not making mistakes is the most important thing to improve your touch typing speed. If this annoying behavior makes you slow down and stop making mistakes, instead of using backspace without thinking about it, then it's well worth it. That backspace reflex comes very quickly anyway, it's not really something you need to train.

ChuckMcM 11y ago

Was coming to say exactly the same thing. The old Mavis Beacon program had the same issue which was that it expected you to just type to the end, eventually getting the right letter if you missed one and then correct the typos later. Whereas I seem to type ho[^Hpe a lot for 'hope' The other thing that I'd love to see (I may have missed it) is typing proficiency on programming punctuation.

johnmaguire2013 11y ago

ctrl+backspace to go back a word on windows and linux usually. alt+backspace on mac. plus, lots of linux apps and the command line you have ctrl+w to go back a word. just fyi. :) quicker than hitting backspace a bunch.

e12e 11y ago

I'm not sure why this software behaves that way -- but it used to be a (mis)feature of measuring typing speed on mechanical typewriters -- there were no do-overs. The only way to correct would be to either go back and strike-through -- or manually correct, whiting out the error, and typing the correct word. The first wasn't really usable for "typed" letters and such -- and either would take much more time than on a word processor. Because of this, when measuring wpm/typing speed, errors are severely punished -- even if many of those can be taken care of with auto-correct and/or much faster manual correction. I'm not sure sticking to this measure for typing speed now that hardly anyone uses typewriters -- but errors do break flow, and for that reason it is good to train towards perfect typing -- even if that means typing a little "slower".

swsieber 11y ago

There's a setting for that under the misc. tab on their site. I agree though, that's a very poor default.

codersteve 11y ago

>>I routinely KNOW I have hit an incorrect key, hit backspace, and correct it and progress with the word Because that's a bad habit when deliberately practicing. A good typing program should have a couple of modes. One that forces you to keep moving forward even if you make a mistake (and not let you backspace, this develops speed). Another one that will make you stop until you hit the correct key (for beginners or to break bad habits). Depends on what skill you want to focus on.