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[tahujdt]

In my state, all students are required to take one year of computer class. The class is so groaningly simple for me, the son of an IT, that I just can't stand it.

However, all students are required to have a 50 WPM. Typing my own way, I can get about 100. However, they are making us type the traditional way. I can still type decently, but not as well. My typing style is weird because I am addicted to Dwarf Fortress. Does anyone know of a keybinding file to help learn typing?

[Rutilant]

Why do you have to type at 50 wpm to get out of school, but the rest of the country doesn't need to know how to read?


Edit;  If DF caused your poor typing skills I'm not sure DF is the best place to be looking to improve em.  Maybe if you type 'cat' for Mavis Beacon enough times you'll get better like they think?

[KtosoX]

I got a question too, how is your typing style related to DF?

[A_S00]

I got a question too, how is your typing style related to DF?

Presumably he's so used to leaving his right hand on the numpad and hunt+pecking with his left that the more efficient "home row" position feels so unnatural that it's actually less efficient for him.  I know a lot of people who have this problem (though not for Dwarf Fortress), and I think it's the only excuse for Mavis Beacon-style typing training...I learned to touch type playing Asheron's Call, not from Mavis, but if I hadn't gotten the training first, I'd have become a really fast hunt+pecker like a bunch of my friends, which is...sub-optimal.

[tahujdt]

It's more of a combo of the home-row and hunt/peck methods, my hands move all over the place, but stay on the main keyboard.

[wierd]

Just practice proper posture and finger placement when playing DF, and also when messageboard posting, and IMing people.

That's how I got proficient with using a keyboard.  Really though, I have *NEVER* seen a tech related job *EVER* have a keyboard speed requirement. That is really an ancient requirement from the PRE-COMPUTER generation, where the use of a manual typewriter without a means of correction required both speed and accuracy in order to get anything done, and still look professional in official correspondence.

Considering that the word processor is most definitely "here to stay", and that correcting and reprinting documents is a trivial matter that does not involve completely retyping whole documents, the keyboard speed requirement is only for people taking dictation, which usually take a special class for a shorthand anyway to get said job, or for people wanting a job working for the US postal service, who have to process absurd numbers of mail address corrections in a very timely manner to get mail delivered properly.

Those are pretty niche environments to have a mandated typing speed/accuracy quota, and the more likely reason is that you have an antique teacher in your learning institution that is still beholden to their glory days as a professional typist being protected by a teacher's union, or because the school's administration likes living in a timewarp, because it is easier than actually updating their curriculum to suit the modern world.

Seriously. I am 32. Typewriters were OUT when I was 12. They have been OUT for over 20 years. They are NOT going to make a resurgence any time soon, barring a nuclear holocaust, or other similar global catastrophe. The computer has them outmatched and outgunned on every front, and retaining legacy requirements is bullshit, and they know it.


That said, being able to type does have advantages in the modern world, especially if you intend to get a job doing database programming, programming in general, and linux/unix system administration.  However, the technique used is NOT monitored, and most employers are only concerned with your getting your work done in a timely and efficient fashion. Not some pedantic futzing over protocol and methodology, over something as trivial as typing. (unless OSHA gets involved or something due to repetative motion injuries. (Then again, "proper" typing posture has been linked with those kinds of injuries as well, so that's a very grey area.)

If you want to practice proper finger placement and reaching, just get yourself something you enjoy reading (Seriously, those coursework exercises about "jac lad's lass" for homerow need to die, and die gristly horrible deaths, at the hands of a syndrome inducing giant sponge forgotten beast's vile secretions. Dont get me started about the top row + home row exercises involving the word "Leeks"...) and set it up beside your monitor, and just type it out without looking. Do something new and refreshing every day for an hour, and you will get proper finger placement and reaching down much quicker than you will trying to overcome the mental anguish of a typing class's "Subject matter".

Don't try to memorize then type; type as you read.  Remember, that *IS* what this "Skill" was all about-- Manually retyping documents to make professional copies, from an age before the copy machine. Don't try to dress it up as anything else. It will be much easier to pick up if you actually ENJOY what you are reading while doing the copy.

[Rutilant]

My suggested solution is to type shorter words, since I'm not really any good at homerowing anyway.

Hey, if I made money by typing I'd practice my ass off, but...  This here is really all that particular skill get used for.

Why work so hard to perfect what muscle memory already does for me almost as well?

[tahujdt]

(Seriously, those coursework exercises about "jac lad's lass" for homerow need to die, and die gristly horrible deaths, at the hands of a syndrome inducing giant sponge forgotten beast's vile secretions. Dont get me started about the top row + home row exercises involving the word "Leeks"...)

Oh dear lord, that's exactly what I hate.

[Coalwalker]

It's more of a combo of the home-row and hunt/peck methods, my hands move all over the place, but stay on the main keyboard.

Sounds like you type like a pianist.

I ran into the same problem, though the course wasn't required for anything. I could and can type about 120 words per minute my own way, but was forced to crawl along at about 10 words per minute for the duration of the course. I learned, naturally, absolutely nothing about either typing or information tech.

At least by college they shouldn't give a damn how you get your work done, or if it's done at all. Hooray for the small freedoms.

[Mitre]

I just think that grading on Homerow typing skills it idiotic.

I'm in the same boat OP; I can easily double if not further the required WPM with my own tactics, but I can barely truck out a word every three seconds using homerow.

I have a lot of general computer experience, and do a lot of programming. I admit that gaming has drawn my left hand closer to WASD, but otherwise my own typing format just work a lot better for me. Especially considering I have dyslexia issues, my formatting allows me to much easier distinct the movements and letters.

[TruePikachu]

I don't really use homerow (properly). What I don't understand is why you need to know homerow the _proper_ way. If you can type 100WPM (a feat in itself) your own way, I feel it is a lot better than knowing the proper homerow technique.

There is no one single way to do anything, from fortress design to typing to programming. To pull from PERL, "There's more than one way to do it."

I personally can type quite quickly, with my fingers roaming all over the keyboard; I need to glance every now and then (just so I can confirm where my fingers are), but I'm a faster typer than most people at my old school. The typing tests there were for homerow, and I had no trouble at all.

EDIT: "Most people" including administration.

[Scorch]

I learned to touch type by playing UT2004, wanting to talk a lot, and not having a mic. I also switched from WASD to ESDF to keep my left hand on home row.

This isn't something that modifying Dwarf Fortress can fix. If you want to learn to touch type from home row, the only way to go about it is to force yourself to touch type from home row.

Being graded on your skills at typing from home row is stupid, but the advantage (that is, touch typing) is not small.

[wierd]

The issue is that "Proper technique" is intended to reduce repetitive motion damage to nerves, tendons and muscles in your hands and wrists, by reducing hand and wrist motion. At least in theory. Same with the "Posture" crap. Apparently sitting like you have one of Vladamir Tepes' custom colonic devices inserted is supposed to prevent you from hurting yourself while typing.

[Gentlefish]

Text based games. Seriously. I played one religiously and now I can type like a madman.

MUDS are weird like that. I spent a good ten days' time total playing and my typing speed had like, doubled. And I'm sitting in a mostly homerow slash hunt/peck. My hands usually stay in homoerow position but my nearest finger moves to the key to press and it's really quite awesome.

[omg_scout]

If you are are programmer, there is really little to worry. Modern IDE's do the writing job for you, and your skill of using whole keyboard (numpad and F1-12 as well) with random access will be more useful than ability of fast typing proper English words.