I've been striving to be a good demi-geek for years -- being a guy with a non-technical day job who loves web developing with MySQL/PHP, tinkering with LAMP servers, doing some good things and having fun, etc -- but there is one thing that really kills me, particularly when I am coding: my typing sucks. It's not like, two-fingered hunt-and-peck 4 words per minute, but I am too slow and too sloppy. I use a sort of home-grown pseudo-touch-type technique. Going back to correct typos is eating up too much time.

So the question is: can a 47-year-old with years of awful habits ingrained learn to type better? Are there any free (as in beer) tutorials for Linux that really work?

"Learn to type" would make a great new year's resolution for me.

Speaking of which, happy new year to all you geeks!

YOU CAN DO IT.

I learned how to type in grade 9 and never typed again in 37 years. Needless to say, I had to start from scratch. I dug out my daughter's keyboarding book and started from page one. I managed to teach myself to type(keyboard) the proper way. I'm no rocket ship on the keyboard today but I can get along. I'm no spring chicken.

Believe me. If I could do it. You can do it.

You could take a look at TuxType for linux.

It's all practice. Strangely enough when I started using instant messaging I think my speeds went up. Probably one of those take your mind off the typing and think about what the other person is saying things.

If you belive in yourself, you can do anything...anything! Think positive!

Nope ...
A bunch of my Uni class-mates were selected for a typing course - to help them finish assignments better.
Initially they bolted ahead of the rest of us - but then they'd join us in the common room. Beer, bullshit and TV ensued.

By the end of our undergrad, they all had fallen back to the same typing (non-)speed as the rest of us...

My typing abilities got a lot better after I started using Linux. My accuracy has improved the most, though I have lost some speed.

I'm not a fan of "correct" typing. I use my own typing method and am pretty fast. Just practice. There are some free typing test type programs out there to download that help time you and are a pretty good practice aid. Can't think of the names off the top of my head, but I'm sure a bit of googling will turn them up.

Do what I do- CHEAT. Keep a windows box or partition and buy DragonNaturralySpeaking.

Thanks for the input everyone.

The idea that practice is gonna help me makes me smile. If that were so, I'd be a virtuoso.

The point someone made that using IM improved her/his speed: I don't doubt it. I notice that I can go faster when I am composing something like an email, or this text, than when I am coding. Perhaps coding is more challenging, typing-wise, because you have to keep hitting weird stuff like { and [, and because -- pure speculation here -- maybe there's something psychologically constraining about the rigidity of the syntax. One mistake, your code breaks.

Anyway, I cheat as much as I possibly can, of course: command line history, if it's something like the mysql client or a shell; code completion, if you're working in a code editor that supports it; and last but not least, copy and paste. The latter is where being a weak typist slows you down relative to a good one, who can type six characters all over again faster than I can copy and paste them from place to place.

I just took a look at KTouch and I think I will probably give it a whirl.


Thanks again,

I taught myself to type a few years back, with the aid of a wonderful gadget to break me out of bad habits: a cut-down cardboard box.

Arranged it over the keyboard, so I couldn't look at my hands. Took me a bit to get the hang of it, and I'm not super-accurate, but I can manage to sustain above 30 wpm, including corrections. i don't use the "correct" home position (I later found out), but the one I use works for me.

I'm not 47 yet, but I'm determined I'll be learn new tricks when I am. My CompTIA course includes a woman in her 60s who has gone onto that after completing ECDL Advanced last year. In a word, go for it (OK, 3 words).

Rob

If what you wish to do is improve your coding speed then you should look into re-mapping the characters on your keyboard to put the most often used characters on the keys that you use frequently.

Depending on the "language" that you code in you may have to plan out the keyboard characters to match the syntax for the "language".

Either that or you could find a coding program that will help you code faster then a simple text editor.

Good Luck,

Thorn168

I believe I can turn into frog

(dang - oops - sorry!)

I would have to re-iterate something that's been said a couple of time here already... practice, practice, practice! Many people would advocate typing "correctly" using the "official touch typing method", but I say it's not necessary. I have been using a QWERTY keyboard since I was 4. I have never been taught to touch type, but I'm quicker than most. I find that after a while you forget to think about where the keys are, you just know, and when that happens, you can speed ahead and automagically know when you've made a mistake... even when not looking at the screen!