I had a day off work today, so i’ve only just come to do my 5-minute test just now. 88wpm, hands covered, not so good as yesterday, but i am really tired at the end of a lovely exciting day.
I think i’ll go do a few powertyping exercises, followed by a few rounds of typeracer. In the meantime, enjoy this video that Enrique made: it’s me and Tom playing typeracer yesterday lunchtime!
Type Racers from Enrique Comba Riepenhausen
I scored 102 words per minute, at 100% accuracy!!
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Wow, my 5-minute baseline test this morning was much better than the previous two days: 91 words per minute, hands covered. I got to the end of the story of the Foolish Frogs, and had to start again at the beginning!
Corey has encouraged us to set a goal for the end of the week. I will make it my goal to get to 100wpm on the 5-minute test. I feel that this should easily be possible by going at the speed that i am currently doing, but removing all the mistakes. This morning i managed the first minute without a single mistake, but the mistakes started to creep in after that. On my typeracer games i have noticed that a mistake costs a significant amount of time. It’s more effective to go a bit slower and think more, rather than rush ahead and make a mistake.
In my practice time I am continuing to learn to touch type numbers and symbols. I’ve found it very satisfying, just a single run through a lesson on PowerTyping.com is enough to set it into my head where a few more symbol characters are. The real test comes when i’m programming: can i find the parentheses when i need them? Curly braces? Where is that hash key? Do i need the shift key or the alt key, and can i find it without looking?
I didn’t do many rounds of typeracer yesterday, so i want to do a few more today. My fastest yet has been 109wpm but i’d like to push that up to 120wpm. Two words a second, consistently … that would be so awesome!
There have been some interesting conversations just lately about whether or not you have to touch type to be an effective programmer. Of course, you don’t, and i think we would be unwise to apply the sort of value judgements that imply any sort of eliteness or inferiority between those who touch type and those who don’t. The key word here is effectiveness. I recognise that many people are able to program very effectively without touch typing.
However, i believe there is always opportunity to get better at what we do. The questions to ask yourself are whether you feel you could be more effective at typing, and do you want to learn? With the tools we currently have, i believe the keyboard is the best interface between our brain and the computer, so it makes sense to use it to the best of our ability.
Oh my gosh, Frances has just made the most amazing double espresso EVER!! <3
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Ahh, yesterday was good. I did some exercises on powertyping.com particularly the numbers and symbols, which is what i’m especially trying to practise this week.
I was delighted last night when i managed to complete one round of typeracer at 99 words per minute with 100% accuracy! That is something for me to be very proud of! Now if i can just get to that accuracy and speed consistently, i will be very happy!
This morning i’ve done my hands-covered 5-minute test at FreeTypingGame.net and scored 76 words per minute, slightly slower than yesterday’s 78. I made more mistakes, particularly with quotation marks and exclamation marks.
Other resources we have discovered:
TypingWeb.com – typing lessons that save your progress. (only Qwerty)
aTypeTrainer4Mac – a Mac program to download and use offline.
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The week has begun! Developers all around the world are making a conscientious effort to learn to type faster, more accurately, more effectively.
This is thanks to Corey Haines proposing a Learn To Type Week! Today we have been given our first instructions for Day 1: do a 1-minute, 3-minute or 5-minute exercise from FreeTypingGame.net with your hands covered over so you can’t peek.
I did the 5-minute test, writing the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker. I made a few mistakes, but i felt quite a smooth rhythm. I got 78 words per minute. That’s not too bad; it’s a nice baseline, something to build upon. In some of my typeracer games i’ve sometimes been getting to 100+ words per minute, so i’d love to be able to get there comfortably and consistently.
One thing i’m really trying to focus on this week is the number keys and symbols. I can touch type letters (on Dvorak keyboard layout) but when it comes to symbols i always have to look. I also need to learn once and for all to use both shift keys and not always to go to the shift key on the left.
Have a good week everybody! :)
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We have a new intern at Eden. Tom Crayford studies Software Engineering at Sheffield University and is doing a 2½ month internship with us, with the possibility of becoming an apprentice at the end of it.
In the style of Tom’s two recent blog posts, First day at Eden and Second day at Eden i thought i might also write about my day, since it was a particularly satisfying one. It just so happens to be two years and a month (760 days) since i joined Eden!
Straight after this morning’s stand-up meeting, I had a quick debrief of a meeting we had with a potential new client yesterday evening. Then i helped Todd to write an email. We draft our emails on Google Wave these days, which is often fun. Four of us were editing the email at once, which means we quickly get to something we’re all happy with before sending it.
I went out for a walk with Frances to pay in some cheques and buy some Friday Treats for everyone!
At lunch time some of us had several rounds of TypeRacer in preparation for Learn To Type Correctly Week next week! I think it’s incredible how so many people have got enthusiastic about learning to type well after Corey Haines announced it. If you don’t believe me, check the twitter hashtag, #learn2typewk!
Something quite unusual happened after lunch. We had a message from Richard Knoll at Mercia Cycling Club in trouble and needing help because the site was not responding. Richard had found us on Google after searching for Ruby on Rails. I agreed to look at it with Tom for an hour and see if we could figure out what was wrong. We determined that rubygems and Radiant had been upgraded on the server and we needed to tweak a few configuration files. With help from Chris and Spencer, the site was back within the hour! Chris then helped me to raise an invoice for an hour’s work.
It’s interesting that we can do anything from a fast restore of an unresponsive website, to projects that take several months from start to finish, requiring two or three pairs of developers working at a time.
Tom and i continued to pair together for the rest of the afternoon. We were able to add value to a project to help a charity in Cambodia. I always learn something whenever i pair with someone. Tom is no exception and i very much enjoyed pairing together today. We all have things we can teach each other.
Tonight i think i might learn a bit from the Ruby Kōans, possibly study a bit of SICP, and definitely see who gets evicted from Big Brother!
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