Is touch typing essential for good programmers? Its a good question. But is it fair? I recently was surfing and looking for people's blogs about touch typing. After reading much about them , I decided to give touch typing a go.
Let me tell you I am really good with Hunt and Peck style of typing. Over the time I have developed a fast typing in HNP(around 80 WPM). But as I read about many people arguing that a programmer must know how to touch type, I decided to learn touch typing.
So I installed tuxtyping on my ubuntu box (yeah its a great application). started getting some lessons. It was great in about 3 days I was able to type without looking at the keyboard. If you have enough experience as a programmer , you will have a good knowledge of key positions. With practice you can remember all the keys very easily. I was touch typing, not at my own rapid speed of 80 WPM @HNP. But still around 15 WPM.
So did I continued? The answer is NO !!!
Why?
The fact I usually program in languages like C, HTML, java. It was really hard.
Touch typing is for writing text, but as it comes to code... well it becomes ugly. The very essence of touch typing is in positioning your hands and not moving them, that's how you can type fast. But in programming we need to use {}, () "" <>, -> & TAB / * like chars. Which will make your hand move. After moving your hand you need to position your hand correctly OR you gonna miss.
So after 3 days I stopped touch typing. But you know what? I realised that when I am coding I am already touch typing with HNP :)
Peace !!!
Let me tell you I am really good with Hunt and Peck style of typing. Over the time I have developed a fast typing in HNP(around 80 WPM). But as I read about many people arguing that a programmer must know how to touch type, I decided to learn touch typing.
So I installed tuxtyping on my ubuntu box (yeah its a great application). started getting some lessons. It was great in about 3 days I was able to type without looking at the keyboard. If you have enough experience as a programmer , you will have a good knowledge of key positions. With practice you can remember all the keys very easily. I was touch typing, not at my own rapid speed of 80 WPM @HNP. But still around 15 WPM.
So did I continued? The answer is NO !!!
Why?
The fact I usually program in languages like C, HTML, java. It was really hard.
Touch typing is for writing text, but as it comes to code... well it becomes ugly. The very essence of touch typing is in positioning your hands and not moving them, that's how you can type fast. But in programming we need to use {}, () "" <>, -> & TAB / * like chars. Which will make your hand move. After moving your hand you need to position your hand correctly OR you gonna miss.
So after 3 days I stopped touch typing. But you know what? I realised that when I am coding I am already touch typing with HNP :)
Peace !!!
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