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- When will AGI be achieved? Posted on April 24th, 2025 | 18129 votes
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- When will AGI be achieved? Posted on April 24th, 2025 | 49 comments
What sort of typist are you?
"An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of code." -- an anonymous programmer
I am old enough... (Score:3)
... that, when I was in school, they still called it "typing" instead of "keyboarding" (and we fought over who got to use the handful of IBM Selectrics that were available, versus the other crap typewriters). I remember we each had to take a timed typing test at the end of the term. I wasn't a particularly good typist, but somehow I scored 85 words per minute on the final - "somehow" meaning I'm pretty sure the teacher lost track of the time and I got an extra 1-2 minutes.
Regardless, I went with the CowboyNeal option (and props to the editors for a good one!).
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I am still persona non grata for being a left thumb spacer, although right hand dominant. My fossil of a typing teacher surely went to his grave in disgust that I could somehow pass the tests but did not follow that arcane rule.
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that, when I was in school, they still called it "typing" instead of "keyboarding"
I'm so old, I still insist on two spaces before starting a new sentence. People don't understand the concept of monospaced fonts.
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I'm so old, I still insist on two spaces before starting a new sentence.
I had a seriously hard time unlearning that.
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Why bother? The IDE you're using will automatically remove double spaces, correct your spelling, and probably correct your grammar.
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Why bother? The IDE you're using will automatically remove double spaces, correct your spelling, and probably correct your grammar.
On top of that, you never know if the TEOTWAWKI comes about, and the only thing you can use to transcribe information is on a mechanical typewriter.
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I learned to type before computers were widely accessible - and I've been using computers longer than IDEs have been a thing.
I had to unlearn indenting the first line of a paragraph too.
Nowadays an IDE would probably see that leading space and assume I was trying to write python...
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But are you young enough to change?
Even with the Cowboy Neal option, I increasingly feel that this poll question was poorly worded in this age of ever-more-intrusive AI, and I think TTS (AKA voice dictation) deserves more votes. Around here, most of us (and especially the oldtimers) are quite keyboard centric (and mouse lovers, to boot), but that's not what you see in the real world, where most people are doing lots of input using smartphones where "typing" is not really an option. My evidence is in the rea
Typing in school (Score:2)
Nowadays, I am 45 yo, and I've been around computers for the past 46 years (let's just say I came that close of being born inside an IBM mainframe).
I've basically learned typing on keyboards on my own: I always type with all the fingers but of whatever number of hands I have on the keyboard (both hands, or only the left or right if the other is busy holding stuff), so even if I use all fingers I don't really have a "home row" or "home position", so definitely qualify "I use my own custom typing method which
Re: I am old enough... (Score:2)
Are you done with Cowboy Neal yet? I have a report due by COB.
Re: I am old enough... (Score:1)
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Agreed. Kudos to the editors to bringing back our favorite poll option!
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I've never heard the term "keyboarding" in the UK or anywhere else for that matter.
I should point out that you almost certainly are quite happy to click on a floppy disc icon to save, despite the fact that most people here are too young to have seen one outside of a museum or a socials post from an old person (40+).
Needs a chord keyboard option (Score:2)
I'm using a Quirkey, so normal keyboard rules don't apply :) https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.printables.com%2Fmod... [printables.com]
It depends... (Score:2)
... clicky keyboards like old school model M on a desk/table. I can type like a machine gun like my college buddy says. Touchscreens, sloooooooow especially if I have to hold an iPhone with my hand and can only one type with one finger (have physical disabilities too).
Typing less (Score:3)
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Thirty plus years ago now, my first job in development was as a COBOL developer. I was a C developer really, I lied about knowing COBOL to get the job because it got me my first job, and it was well paid. The bulk of the job was converting an old Dos/Unix system over to a new at the time Windows based COBOL versiom.
I remember being horrified when I converted one screen. There were 20 input fields, all stored in different elements of an array. But I couldn't just write one function for them all and use the
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Is that an African or a European "metric shitload"?
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It's metric, it's the same everywhere. Not like American vs Imperial shitloads.
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USA uses metric system also. They have just added an extra layer on top of it to make it more difficult. For example since 1959 inch has been defined officially as 2.54 cm.
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Even if you know the syntax and library-functions like the back of your hand, coding is mostly "type 10 words, go back and change 3, add a few more to the end, realize you still need to factor in this other thing".
Writing code, there's no point in theoretically hitting 60 wpm when realistically you won't get 10 words in
Language verbosity (Score:2)
Nowadays I can spend hours reading {...} before a single line that will do a metric shitload of stuff.
So you switched from Java to Perl? [/sarcasm]
Cowboy Neal (Score:2)
My name is Neal and I'm from Texas. So I guess Cowboy Neal does it for me?
By quantity of words input? (Score:2)
Did I manage to change my vote? I actually do much of my English input by voice and almost all of my Japanese input that way. I used to type quite quickly, but I initially picked the less than 60 option...
typing speed??? (Score:2)
I took a typing class in high school during the early 70's thinking it would be a good skill to have (and oh boy did I guess right on that one!). That was the last time my typing speed was measured and I have no clear memory of how fast I was back then.
I type reasonably quickly as I've been typing on one thing or another for 50 years now but have no idea have fast I am these days. I may be as fast as 60wpm but I don't know (and don't particularly care 8^)
I do know that my slowest typing speed was on telet
My typing... (Score:1)
60+? (Score:3)
I touch-type at more than 100wpm.
Here's to Chuck Knight of the USM Computing Center, who stopped using his new pc in 1988 because he could type faster than the computer was capable of processing his keystrokes. If you listened it was click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-beeeeeeep click click click click click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-beeeeeep,
Actaully I can tofuht type at over 70 words a minu (Score:4, Funny)
WHo remombers Mavis Beaksonnth teaxhes typjg? I founsdf it woinderul
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Today I learned [nytimes.com]:
"It was pretty much an instant success," Mr. Abrams said. "But believe it or not, even though it was 1987, we had some initial reluctance to carry the product because there was a black woman on the box. People did not believe it would sell."
The lady in the photo is Haitian-born Renée L'Espérance.
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The Typing of the Dead really honed my skills.
Typing guru (Score:1)
A few friends and I took typing as seniors as a fill in class our senior year. Only to find it full of...freshman girls. I'd say one of the most valuable classes I've ever taken ... And I found out late in the year one of those girls was crushing on me ... opportunity lost.
I've been typing all my life (Score:1)
I've been typing all my life, and I've never been able to average above about 40WPM. I work in IT, can touch type, and I can even type while carrying on a conversation but alas, I can't type fast, despite typing day-in day-out for the last 26 or so years.
Not sure why.
Still pretty fast but not as accurate. (Score:2)
I learned on a manual typewriter in the early 1980s, when "cut and paste" involved scissors and glue. Correcting mistakes was slow and tedious so I learned not to make too many. I'm still pretty good but nowhere near as accurate these days.
When I bought my first computer (an Apple //e) I didn't have any money left to buy software, so one of the first things I did was to learn BASIC and write a (really, really crappy) text editor. I used it to write a few papers for my high school English classes before I
Morse code to text.... (Score:2)
IDE .. copilot? (Score:2)
I guess I could go with IDE .. but the real winner has been github copilot, just reading my mind and having so much code ready for autocomplete as I type. It seems like half of my coding is hitting tab lately.
Don't get me wrong, it makes mistakes, I often have to edit, or undo .. but that's often balanced by times that it suggests something before my brain had even gotten to the next step.
Brave new world ...
I can do at least 60wpm.. (Score:2)
Agency standards (Score:2)
Several decades ago an employment agency measured my typing speed. To get a typing job I needed to be a touch typist with over 100 wpm with accuracy above a measured level; I can’t remember what that was. Although I only use four fingers, which doesn’t officially qualify as touch typing, I managed, barely, to meet their threshold, when concentrating hard on copy typing. So I guess my regular typing is probably 20% less than that.
Links & software to teach 60 wpm (Score:1)
Columbus Method (Score:1)
I use the Columbus Method of typing. I find a key and land on it
Left hand dominant (Score:2)
As a lefty I find that I dominate typing with my left hand. In an era with a mouse used by the right hand this is convenient since I can use the mouse to select fields with the right and type to fill the fields with the left.
For IT work, touch-typing is not necessarily all that useful. It goes well with the clerical/administrative side of things but for actually working on systems the only real benefit is not having to look at the keyboard while entering information from technical documentation.
My typing is getting worse. (Score:2)
Fast enough. (Score:2)
I don't try to be a touch typist, though I did experience it about 40 years ago. But on the other hand it isn't "hunt and peck" as I know the layout. Though in that sense, anything would be "fast enough" as my work doesn't involve much keyboard use.
Grandfather was a blindingly fast typist (Score:2)
He died when my father was a small child but my grandmother kept his official certification for achieving 140 words per minute until it was lost in a house fire many years later.
Sadly, that proficiency was not bequeathed to any of his descendants.
Dvorak (Score:1)
I wish the Dvorak keyboard had caught on.
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I tried Dvorak once. Didn't take too long to be nearly as fast with that as with Qwerty. I quit it for a couple of reasons. The main reason was that VI commands were for some reason a bit more difficult with the dvorak keyboard. Obviously the VI cursor keys definitely don't work out very well.
Low WPM (Score:2)
When I started typing, my slow speed was really frustrating. However, once I reached over 40wpm, it stopped bothering me. I guess how fast my fingers move isn't the limiting factor.
Is Typeracer an objective measurement? (Score:2)
According to Typeracer [typeracer.com], I've managed 125 WPM in typing races a couple of times, although my overall average is around 96. Accuracy makes a huge difference.
The future (as seen in 1977) (Score:2)
When I was in high school I knew keyboards were going to be in my future and took typing. I was good at it. I still am, though it's decades since I typed on anything other than a computer keyboard.
One side effect of being a decent typist is that my code has lots of long variable names. I see code in front of me with names like ImportReceivedMessages and MarkSwipedMessageAsRead.
...laura