Thread: Do You Touch-Type or Hunt-and-Peck

Do any of you find that USB keyboards are a bit rubbish for touch typing? I never used to get typos like "teh" until I changed to USB keyboards. Now it happens all the time, and the more it happens the more I'm convinced I'm not the cause of the problem.

Originally Posted by Rajagra

Do any of you find that USB keyboards are a bit rubbish for touch typing? I never used to get typos like "teh" until I changed to USB keyboards. Now it happens all the time, and the more it happens the more I'm convinced I'm not the cause of the problem.

usb2.0 samples the keyboard buffer at 15hz, most people don't type any faster than that...

Touch type, took a course when I was 18. Still using qwerty.

I touch-type mostly, but not in any organized way.
I developed my own way of typing, and it sort of developed automatically out of the most efficient way to touch a given key from where my hands are located at that moment.

By efficient I don't mean least distance, but I mean least muscle tension.
I tried to use the 'offical' way of typing, but holding up my hands and distorting my fingers intp uncomfortable, just for the sake of using my pinkie for certain keys always felt unnatural.

I can get a decent word rate, but most importanly, I can spend 14 consecutive hours at a keyboard and not get wrist problems.

Originally Posted by Rajagra

Do any of you find that USB keyboards are a bit rubbish for touch typing? I never used to get typos like "teh" until I changed to USB keyboards. Now it happens all the time, and the more it happens the more I'm convinced I'm not the cause of the problem.

"teh" is a common error due to the layout of your keyboard. Your hands naturally want to roll/drum the fingers, so you end up hitting the two keys on your left hand before you can get in the h from your right hand. This is one of the beauties of Dvorak; imagine this is your keyboard and tap out "the."

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Dvorak.svg.png

Originally Posted by jockeys

yep. software engineer in particular, but i try to spend as much time actually coding as possible, because it's so much fun.

Yeah when I was working a death march for a space project, I worked 14 hour days behind the keyboard.
And on the plane home, I was programming on a hobby project.
She didn't understand that I considered them 2 different things

Originally Posted by jockeys

i'll preface by saying i absolutely hate membrane keyboards, they are too mushy. i like the DAS because you can actually tell when you hit a key a lot better than with most other keyboards. that way i don't have to look at the keyboard OR the screen. for instance, i didn't look at this paragraph of my post at all while typing it, despite typing at full speed.

My best keyboard ever was an old IBM clicky keyboard.
After the nuclear holocaust there will be 2 things left: ****roaches and IBM clickies

Originally Posted by Bruno

My best keyboard ever was an old IBM clicky keyboard.
After the nuclear holocaust there will be 2 things left: ****roaches and IBM clickies

If I'm not mistaken, the DAS Keyboard is based off the same design as the clickies.

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

If I'm not mistaken, the DAS Keyboard is based off the same design as the clickies.

it uses the same microswitches as an old IBM model M, which most of use keyboard cowboys regard as the pinnacle of keyboard evolution.

I learned first on a typewriter summer of after the 7th grade. I am kinda slow usually just because I have lots of bad habits now and don't really worry about it. usually run about 55, 85 when I'm really rocking and the fingers are cooperating. I wouldn't say my hands are "delicate" by any means and have always been pretty satisfied with what I could do. but man, 125 would be awesome.

I don't know about the ibm clicky, but my favorite were these fujitsu (I think) we used to get, they were cheap, but they had solid feedback man. I type heavy, I've had people tell me it sounded like I was beating the keyboard. I have to be careful that the side of my tray doesn't hit the desk or everything starts shaking. so I like a sturdy keyboard.

Red

Took a typing class in highschool. My parents told me that it would and is a very good skill to have. I thought it was dumb but 4 decades later, it was some of the best advice I was ever given. Now all I need to do is to learn how to spell correctly but with touch typing I misspell quite rapidly.


Take Care,
Richard