
Kung Fu Typing - revorad
http://www.weathersealed.com/2010/01/26/kung-fu-typing/
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delackner
The first 10 years of touch typing, I thought that writing in a language that
had very long variable and method names was unpleasant, as the time it took to
focus on writing code delayed my mind thinking about the code. I'm not sure
when the final shift happened, but it is now nearly twenty years I have been
typing, and my hands know where all the keys are. I have no idea which finger
presses which key, because my mind is 100% not involved. A direct mental
interface would certainly be a nice improvement though.

To anyone out there who is still hunting and pecking, do yourself a huge favor
that will pay dividends over the years, force yourself to learn to touch type.
It doesn't take long to at least get to the point where you don't have to look
at the keyboard.

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SlyShy
Hm. I use all my fingers, but the pinkies only hit Enter, Shift, and other
modifier keys. But I learned to play piano before I learned to type, so it has
been remarked that I type like someone would play the piano. I employ a lot of
hand movement, and employ a lot of "hand rolls".

Not only can I maintain about 90 wpm normally, but I also don't suffer any RSI
type symptoms. I think the downfall of touch typing is actually that it
reduces the motion of your hands, so you find yourself making a lot more
painful reaches. In piano playing, unless you are playing a big chord you
don't stretch your fingers, you just move your hands so that you don't have
to.

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anonjon
I think that I type similar to the way that you do.

I don't make my individual fingers move, instead I arrange my fingers into
different patterns (repositioning my hands if needed) and then kind of execute
the key sequence. It is weird and I don't really think about it but my fingers
never return to the 'home keys'. (Normally they are already on the next key
that they need to be on). (If i'm typing 'ere' my left-middle will stay on
'e', if i'm typing 'different' my left-middle will be on 'e' and left index
will be on 'f' before i'm done typing 'i').

I think it has to do with being able to think a few of symbols ahead, as you
would with music.

I'm probably > 90 wpm, as well, and no RSI.

~~~
SlyShy
Yeah, that sounds quite similar. A side effect of typing this way is that
changing keyboard layouts didn't change my typing speed at all after I had
learned the keys. Which annoyed me initially, because I was hoping for an easy
way to increase speed.

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sh4na
Awesome graphics. I do touch typing with the home return, does that make me
cybernetic? :P

@jessejmc I tried to switch to dvorak once. It's a very efficient layout, and
I might have stuck to it if it weren't for the fact that I need to switch
regularly between english and portuguese, and dvorak is not at all targetted
to languages other than english.

It doesn't help that, between laptops and keyboards, I have pt, es, us and uk
physical layouts... nowadays I find myself just customizing the keyboard
layout to my needs - US international as base, then switch and add all the
accents and symbols around to optimal places - that way I don't care much
what's printed on the keyboard.

I wonder what that does to the pretty diagrams? :)

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jessejmc
I typed with an index, middle, and ring finger style (+thumb for space) before
devoting a few weeks to convert to full touch typing. I went from 50 wpm to 70
wpm.

That said, the only time I ever maintain 70 wpm is stream of consciousness
writing. If I'm thinking about the words, the bottleneck isn't my typing
speed.

On a semi-related note, a friend and I were talking about a switch from qwerty
to dvorak. Has anyone that was a touch typist in one made the switch to the
other? Thougts afterwards?

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crazydiamond
There was recently a long discussion here or on reddit/r/programming about
dvorak vs qwerty. Did not seem to go in favor of dvorak.

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sh4na
Not surprised, dvorak is optimized for speed in pure text, and programming is
not pure text, nor does it need a lot of speed most of the times, and the
()[]{};.$ symbols are the most important, which clashes with what the dvorak
layout considers important.

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smcq
As a dvorak programmer, it just prompted me to write more python. If you're
typing {} characters all day, you should consider how much semantic value
that's adding to your programs vs. the cost to type them.

Other characters (',."<>) are clear wins on dvorak, and they contain
considerably more semantic value than {} do in any language. ";" is also
easier in dvorak.

~~~
gnurant
The semi-colon is on the home row on qwerty.

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smcq
Yea, but it's right pinky which is weaker for most people. By moving it you
also gain the -_ being on the home row (which you type less than semi-colon
while programming in syntax demanding languages)

~~~
gnurant
Why then would dvorak put s there if it were difficult?

Sensibly most English punctuation is on the left hand along with the vowels on
dvorak; which is easy to remember.

Dvorak is very well considered. The combos: qu, th, wh, ph feel really nice.

What amazes me is the fact that the keys are staggered on a computer; I'd
expect them to be radial; with my fingers. It appears no one's ready for a
radical departure from the typewriter layout. Let's see what happens with the
ipad.

~~~
smcq
Yea, I'm 100% ready for touch screens to become a reality so I can start
playing with more complicated keyboards. The idea of physical keys (even with
a better layout like Dvorak) seems so antiquated when everything else we use
on the computer is infinitely customizable.

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ZeroGravitas
Nice diagrams. Dvorak (and Colemak) please.

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fexl
Thank goodness I took typing in high school. If you didn't, then get yourself
a "typing tutor" program and practice, practice, practice. Amaze your friends
with touch-typing prowess and vim muscle memory!

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keefe
I don't do structured touch typing, I learned to read on a computer (early for
my age, an old atari) and typing is more natural than writing. When I was in
college, I used to do medical transcription and I peaked at about 120WPM with
an acceptable error rate, I'd like to generate those diagrams myself... one
thing is I'm much larger than average so one of my hands actually spans the
keyboard, traditional touch typing rules just don't make much sense in my
head.

