Typing.io: Typing Practice for Programmers

Typing.io: Typing Practice for Programmers(typing.io)

46 points by awestrom 4 years ago | 20 comments

ahurmazda 4 years ago |

As a forever learner who’s never broken the 90 wpm, I have tried quite a few of these. https://monkeytype.com/ Is my current go to for its ux, customization etc. Best part is that the code is open on GH. So you can supply your own “language” [1]

[1] https://github.com/Miodec/monkeytype/tree/dev/frontend/stati...

jck 4 years ago | |

I've had great luck with https://www.keybr.com/ in the past. It's algorithm was really good at fixing my weak spots fast.

awestrom 4 years ago | | |

I like keybr! The only thing that bothers me about it is that many of the words are made up, which means I have to think more about individual letters than I usually would. On the flip side, it does help you directly address your weak spots.

Another tool I like is https://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english. It's simple and enables you to practice for 1 minute at a time. Sometimes I'll do it while I'm waiting for people to show up to a meeting

climb_stealth 4 years ago |

I have used this one before to practice typing on a split keyboard with chords. Never made it to proficiency but it worked well. It's nice to type out real code and not just random sentences.

The only downside that I found: At least for Python it didn't ask to type out the comments. So #'s were never practiced.

SrZorro 4 years ago | |

> split keyboard with chords.

Charachorder?

climb_stealth 4 years ago | | |

Oh wow, the Charachorder looks pretty intense. But nope, it's a GergoPlex [0]. It's a nice piece of kit. I would still like to learn to type on it properly but it is different enough that it requires a fair bit of commitment. Maybe one day when I retire.

[0] https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex

nor0ck 4 years ago |

didn't think this would surface again. I used this website when I was in college, around 2015. Tbh it is of no use. no one actually cares how fast you can type the syntax.

awestrom 4 years ago | |

It's not about whether others care how fast you can type. It's about how quickly you can get your ideas into the computer. Between coding, writing documents, emails, and Slack, a lot of your day is spent typing. If you can improve your typing speed by 20%, you may have just reduced the time it takes to do your job by like 5%, which is meaningful!

Dan Luu has a really good post that outlines why working on things like typing speed can be extremely valuable and basically a force multiplier on everything else you do as an engineer.

https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/

ergocoder 4 years ago | |

While no one cares, if you type really really slow, then it will impact your performance.

This is like saying running fast is not important to football. It is true, but if you run really really slow like a 100y old, then you can't play football.

dfinninger 4 years ago | | |

If you need to type that fast, get an IDE to autogenerate the boilerplate so that you can get to the more interesting bits.

I’ve worked with people who chicken peck, etc and is just not an issue. Clarity of thought is much more valuable.

jve 4 years ago | | |

Luckily programming is not football and you can take all your time to write the code. I'm commenting this thinking about impaired people that either type with one finger or even by other means, not touching the keyboard.

eternityforest 4 years ago | |

I would imagine being able to touch type is absolutely essential for using Vim effectively, or any primarily CLI workflow, especially if the screen is far from the keyboard.

It really tires my neck out to look up and down every few seconds if I work somewhere with a large distance. Usually not an issue though, since I'm rarely in a CLI for more than 10 minutes.

lowken 4 years ago | |

Learning to touch type frees up your mind to focus on coding problems.

I agree that speed is not important, but I believe every dev would benefit from learning how to type properly.

dalmo3 4 years ago |

I don't see how this trains your muscle memory. Typingclub.com has some very well designed sections for practicing symbols that are much more effective.

lowken 4 years ago |

Can someone recommend a good typing tool to teach my daughter touch typing over the summer (5th grade going into Middle School).

jonathannerat 4 years ago | |

I quite liked typingclub [0]. It's separated in levels and from time to time includes typing based minigames. It incrementally includes letters every couple of levels and makes you practice with words that only include what you learned so far.

[0] https://www.typingclub.com