Subj : Re: programming and typing To : comp.programming From : David Tiktin Date : Fri Sep 09 2005 12:22 pm On 08 Sep 2005, "William" wrote: > "David Tiktin" wrote in message > news:Xns96CA71D94F0F5dtiktinnospambogusco@216.196.97.142... >> On 07 Sep 2005, John Smith wrote: >> >> Hunt and peck here (but really fast hunt and peck). I think not >> being a touch typist would slow me down a lot if programming were >> mostly typing, but lucky for me, it's not. (Amdahl's Law at >> work.) Besides, I use a programmable editor and have written a >> ton of templates and macros to do code generation for me. Touch >> typist or not, if you spend an appreciable amount of your >> programming time typing, you're doing something wrong! > > Point taken, but consider the *job* of programming and the amount > of typing required unrelated to code generation. When coding I > do a lot of copy & paste anyway, but my ability to churn out the > required (and unrequired, but useful) documentation at a fast > clip is what raises my productivity. (And gives me more time > for contemplating my design.) Writing documentation may be an exception for those who find writing easy, but I never have. I tend to write documentation the way I write code which means I spend a lot of time working at it to make it as clear and succinct as I can. (I'm the same when writing comments: always looking for the perfect one-liner.) Maybe that makes me a less productive programmer in general, but given my style of working, typing speed isn't all that important. > BTW, I knew a guy who typed 60+ words a minute with two fingers. > In a sense it was touch typing since he never had to look at the > keyboard (I guess that took the "hunt" out of "hunt and peck"). Wow! I'm nowhere near 60 WPM, but after 20 years of programming, I'm way faster than people expect! Dave -- D.a.v.i.d T.i.k.t.i.n t.i.k.t.i.n [at] a.d.v.a.n.c.e.d.r.e.l.a.y [dot] c.o.m .