<p><pre><code> > The researchers say our typing techniques are often a
> reflection of the task being performed on the computer.
> “The touch typing system was developed for typing
> sentences on typewriters,” said Feit. “It is not
> advantageous for Photoshop shortcuts or gaming, often
> done with one hand on the mouse.”
> Developers could use this research to create better user
> interfaces both in software and in keyboards
> themselves. The interfaces should be tailored to the
> way we type today, not how we typed a long time ago.
</code></pre>
So much this. Writing English sentences on a typewriter with touch typing works well. But many people don't write prose exclusively and computer keyboards are not typewriters so it's no surprise that touch typing doesn't often work so well.<p>As a programmer I find typing {, } and \ with the pinky the biggest problem. There are layouts especially for programmers.
The ones that I'm aware of are Programmer Dvorak[1] and Neo[2].<p>[1] <a href="http://www.kaufmann.no/roland/dvorak/" rel="nofollow">http://www.kaufmann.no/roland/dvorak/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Neo" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Neo</a>
I tried to learn to touch type last year. Bought a blank keyboard to help. 8 months later I still type with two index fingers, at the same speed as I ever did (about 45 wpm) and with more or less zero errors. Only on a blank keyboard, so I never look down anymore. Kind of weird and still unnerving . I'll try touch typing again sometime. And yes, I'm afraid I'm a professional programmer.
You might be just as fast and just as accurate but your fingers are definitely working harder, which could lead to RSI, for example. People have analyzed various layouts for efficiency, which may vary with type of work:<p><a href="http://xahlee.info/kbd/dvorak_and_all_keyboard_layouts.html" rel="nofollow">http://xahlee.info/kbd/dvorak_and_all_keyboard_layouts.html</a><p><a href="http://patorjk.com/keyboard-layout-analyzer/#/about" rel="nofollow">http://patorjk.com/keyboard-layout-analyzer/#/about</a><p><a href="https://medium.com/@vojtajina/my-keyboard-layout-is-better-than-yours-f23b19d1b046" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@vojtajina/my-keyboard-layout-is-better-t...</a><p>There are more links under "Alternate Keyboard Layouts" on this GitHub page: <a href="https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/keyboards.org" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/keyboa...</a>
I was given a computer at an early age and my mother didn't know how it worked and had never used a computer, and my grandfather was blind, and so had never used a computer either. I picked up how different keys and combinations worked myself at around the age of seven, and developed an awful habit of turning caps-lock on, pressing the letter I wanted in uppercase, and then turned caps-lock off again.<p>I'm thirty now, and a professional programmer, and it's only within the last few months that I've gotten away from the habit by disabling the caps-lock key, I might remap it to something else in the future.<p>I type at a pretty speedy pace, probably around 80-90 words per minute, my fingers don't rest on the home row. The only thing that bothers me with my current typing is that my left pinky has a tendency stick up, as if I'm drinking tea. [0]<p>[0] Like so. <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-crwYVpcU7z8/TfvDnx6v82I/AAAAAAAAB3k/It_wUU46a3c/s1600/tea+with+pinky.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-crwYVpcU7z8/TfvDnx6v82I/AAAAAAAAB3...</a>
Makes me wonder. Are we typists? It almost never happens to me to have to copy a text from paper - and never more than a few lines in any case. So I can freely stare at the keyboard while I type, I'm concentrated on what I'm typing anyway. Also, I don't think that my output is in any way limited by the amount of words I can type per minute - more by the amount of words or lines of code my brain is able to produce in a minute, which is not much.<p>Finally, if there is something that really makes me cringe, is when some colleague or friend proudly declares to type like real men do, without looking at the keyboard. They usually sit in the correct ergonomic position, back well straight, eyes on the monitor, and start typing. A word. Mistake. Backspace. Again. Mistake. Backspace. Space. Mistake. Backspace.<p>And they're typing code. With auto-completion, intellisense and everything.
I learned to type with speed by playing Police Quest when quite young, and developed a quite quick, but interesting style where I never use my thumbs. I tend to cover roughly 2/3 of the keyboard (the left side) using my left hand, and the remaining 1/3 (and 10-key) with the right.<p>It's worked out well for me, and I can touch type both code and English wonderfully. The only time it falls apart is when I find myself in front of a split, so-called ergonomic keyboard, which expects each hand to do a 50% split.
As a counter-anecdote: my stupid self-taught style involved my left pinky shifted left to hover/handle the shift/ctrl keys, and thus my right hand travelled a bit more to cover the remaining keys.<p>In graduate school I started to have increasingly frequent bouts of wrist pain and realized I needed to do something or risk major surgery. I took a weekend, relearned touch typing with the Colemak layout, and have been happy I did that ever sense.
Beyond typing speed, it is worth mentioning that overuse of the index fingers (hunt and peck) can lead to increased risk of carpal tunnel:
<a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/GeneralNeurology/4481" rel="nofollow">http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/GeneralNeurology/4481</a>
I switched to Colemak to reduce strain and found it to be effective. The only issue I have with it, is I sometimes forget to press ctrl-space before I pass my Mac to a coworker. Then I have to explain out-loud that I use Colemak, which is hard to do without sounding like a total hipster.
I learned how to touch-type in high school so I could type easily at college. After programming for years I've migrated to a custom scheme that seems a lot easier to type than touch. I have suspected I was no slower but I haven't tested myself. Even if slower it is easier.
After reading that I don't feel so bad now that I don't know how to type. Hard to break the habit of using two fingers on a C64 in grade school. The qwerty keyboard seems very inefficient for technical use anyway.
I am using dvorak. Learned it when found out about <a href="http://www.typingstudy.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.typingstudy.com</a> :-) Love it since then!
Isn't this more a reflection of the limits of the qwerty layout? Both 'styles' have similar asymptotic limits because the layout simply doesn't enable faster speeds very well.