Can you touch type? And when did you learn?

[Provost Harrison]

German keyboards bug the hell out of me...swapping the Z and the Y...that gets me every time!

[Straybow]

Originally posted by Heraclitus

There's no proper evidence that the Dvorak scheme is faster. It's an urban myth.

I find it hard that any system would be slower than a system (QWERTY) which was purposfully designed to be slow.

It was only designed to slow down combinations of adjacent keys that would jam together on old, lever-arm style typewriters. As a side effect it put more emphasis on the pinkies, and the weaker fingers tended to slow down the overall typing speed.

More advanced mechanical designs were even harder to jam and allowed greater speeds than the older 19th century models. The advent of selectric-style machines without lever arms to jam and with electric assist for impact pressure removed the last mechanical restraints. The remaining ergonomic differences might not have a great effect on speed.

[ricketyclik]

In high school, at the age of 15, my friend and I took typing as a subject because it was tought (on typewriters!) by our hot - female - Physical Education teacher.

While my friend went on to have sex every morning in the shower with her after their jog (and after her body-builder husband had gone to work) I learnt to touch-type

[McCrea]

Started H&P at 9. About 13 took typing. 17 Took office practice, where same teacher finally ensured we couple of computer geeks didn't look at our fingers. And that was some 19 years ago.

Now about keyboards, you touched what's almost a passionate subject for me. I typed 80 wpm at home, but only 50 in school. My buddy said classic keyboards, like mine, sell for about $60 on E-bay. I've never looked, but if nobody's still making our beloved CLICKITY-CLACKS, then there's a market open. This one is a 1984 IBM. I bought a lot of 50 keyboards at a government auction many years ago for $7, several were this perfect construction. Maybe weighs 4 lbs? Heavy. Metal. Good.

I just switched to Dvorak recently; probably only up to 30wpm. I chose Dvorak because is a little standard; Dvorak is Dvorak where Colemak's likely to be further customized. Because I swapped the keys, (which isn't true, I actually swapped the key covers, which modern keyboards don't have) I don't have the F and J home key bumps on the home keys anymore. I miss being able to walk up to my computer and type completely blind. I miss being able to type standing up. (Psychological -- I learned dvorak sitting down, so easier to remember sitting down.)

But, just give me a couple more months.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by snoopy369


It's an age/generation thing. Lots of people 40+ can't touchtype, even those who work in a business where they type frequently; it wasn't taught (particularly to men) pre-1980s in school, because only secretaries (generally female) typed pre-computer. Once you hit a certain age, it is increasingly more difficult to learn new things.

That said, i'd be surprised if very many people on these boards can't touchtype, due to our demographic

Quite - I am not that old (just turned 30) but am reasonably unusual amongst my peers in that I can touch type. It freaks people out when I talk to them and type at the same time so it comes up a lot at work.

I didn't learn at school really - more I taught myself at university. This also means my touch typing is not perfect (I'm sure a trained typist would say I use the wrong fingers for certain keys)

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, I am not a trained touch typist but I am pretty quick, and it is fairly efficient as at full whack I can manage 130wpm. But my fingers are all over the shop and my little fingers have absolutely no involvement in typing whatsoever

[Krill]

Originally posted by ricketyclik
In high school, at the age of 15, my friend and I took typing as a subject because it was tought (on typewriters!) by our hot - female - Physical Education teacher.

While my friend went on to have sex every morning in the shower with her after their jog (and after her body-builder husband had gone to work) I learnt to touch-type

Thread is useless without pics!

[McCrea]

Keys on older IBM keyboards were made with a "buckling spring" mechanism, in which a coil spring under the key buckles under pressure from the user's finger, pressing a rubber dome, whose inside is coated with conductive graphite, which connects two leads below, completing a circuit. This produces a clicking sound, and a "positive" feel of feedback, so that the typist knows when the key is fully pressed. Keys on most modern keyboards are made with a so-called "dome switch" mechanism, without the buckling spring. Many typists prefer the buckling spring board, which is still manufactured.[2][3]

Wikipedia

Thread is useless without pics!

Um, the site for Cykey is down (I'm not surprised, it seemed evident that the guy was not a businessman, which is essentially why I hadn't bought one yet), but following is the pic of the predecessor.

[Krill]

[Ben Kenobi]

Yeah same here. I am surprised at how many hunt and peck. My boss said I should be a secretary since I was doing the same thing, talking to him and typing stuff out.

I was taught in high school my by decidedly not so hot keyboarding prof. He was pretty strict. I think I got up to around 60 wpm or so on the regular keyborads but we were never allowed to look at the letter while we typed.

I've never tried Dvorak. No real desire to learn.

[Ben Kenobi]

dp

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Krill

[DirtyMartini]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia


I've been using Dvorak for about a month now and I'm still slower than Qwerty by far. However, Dvorak is far superior to Qwerty in its layout. I have to switch occasionally back to Qwerty, and when I do, I'm amazed at how many unnatural contortions I have to do to get my fingers to type normal words.

I think the speed will come with time. But the most important thing for me is that my wristaches and mild carpal tunnelling has receded.

And now a few innuendo words so that Darius can quote this post: wet used rigid pineapple snug fit tongue cherry rod Microsoft kumquat knoblauch petal salty pubes.

I object to the use of "knoblauch" as an example of sexual innuendo -- you had a nice string going and had to ruin it.

Ain't nothin' sexy bout a .250 hitter with the yips.