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How do you type?

Posted: March 18th, 2017, 9:13 am
by Zedtho
A while back I learnt the 10-finger system, but it honestly seems to not like programmers at all, since when I used it my pinky finger quickly started to strain after needing to type things like:
;:.,<>/''[]{}()-_=+*
all the time.
Basically, I've gone back to my old practice of my 6-finger-system, but when I compare my speed of typing to Chili's, his is greater.


So, main question being, how do you guys type? Do you use 2 fingers, or is there a typing system for programmers?
Another question, does anyone use their numpad for other things than the / and * keys ontop? Because I hardly do, if you could tell me what the numpad can additionally be used for, then that would be awesome!

P.S
I should state that I'm rather new to programming, which is why I'm asking experienced people to answer this so that I can learn it early on.

Edit:
Seems like there are sites for learning how to use your pinky for stuff, but I still feel like it's not a good thing to do for your fingers... https://typing.io/

Posted: March 18th, 2017, 6:25 pm
by Multibyte
I feel the same way. 10-finger system really feels uncomfortable when typing code. It feels like a lot of symbols and punctuation programming languages have you use frequently are harder to reach as you would not be pressing them a lot if you were not typing code.

Maybe you get used to it over time? No idea. I'd love to hear from experienced programmers about this too.

Re: How do you type?

Posted: March 19th, 2017, 12:37 am
by LuisR14
I actually type with all 10 fingers, extending the hands out to reach all of those farther positioned punctuation keys rather than extending the fingers. also the numpad is easier for me to type out numbers than the ones above the alphabetical section o.o

Re: How do you type?

Posted: March 19th, 2017, 7:30 am
by Zedtho
I've never used the numpad before, and I might even remove it from my next keyboard, since it increases travel time to the mouse.
Maybe if it were to the left of the keyboard (since I'm left-handed but use the right hand for the mouse) I would appreciate it more.

Re: How do you type?

Posted: March 19th, 2017, 7:53 am
by chili
I do the standard touch typing thing, and yea I think the layout is definitely sub-optimal for coding.

Re: How do you type?

Posted: March 19th, 2017, 7:55 am
by albinopapa
Honeslty, using my fingers to type[[{}/\ and so on seems almost nature at this point. The only time I use the num pad is when I'm going from mouse to keyboard, and not from keyboard to mouse.

Sorry, I'm visually impaired so all keys on keyboard are relevant to me, especially being a programmer as my keyboard is under my desk. I don't ever look at my keys to type.


That being said, I made several key mistakes that had to be corrected while typing this post. I'm not perfect, but I don't have to look at my keyboard to know where keys are...if you do, then you need a different keyboard.

Re: How do you type?

Posted: March 19th, 2017, 8:35 am
by LuisR14
you can set the mouse for a left-handled position, but probably that's beside the point :P

Re: How do you type?

Posted: March 19th, 2017, 1:27 pm
by reductor
I use standard qwerty with 10 fingers touch typing, I use the num pad occasionally. While qwerty is designed to slow you down most the time programming you are not typing nonstop so typing speed isnt too important.

Re: How do you type?

Posted: March 19th, 2017, 4:41 pm
by MrGodin
I'm just a pecker who still looks at the keyboard .. haha (looks up to find typos) :P

Re: How do you type?

Posted: March 19th, 2017, 5:31 pm
by Zedtho
I read that as long as your typing speed doesn't stop your train of thought and you don't say everything in your head that you type (i-n-t v-a-r, because your short-term memory gets filled up) you're fine.
Thanks again for all the answers!