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Witch! Heretic! What blaspheme is this?! Have you no respect for TRADITION my boy?!
Other than that short rant (designed to cover me within the "purist" community), I have to agree with you 100% and when noone is looking, when I'm sure that I won't be caught using unsanctioned keys, I will start practicing using the "A" to switch weapons instead of "Q". It may take me some time to get used to it though...and a lot of cussing as I'm being fed hot steel while I fumble for a new gun. Thanks for the eye opener! On the other hand, I think that this hole in my knowledge just about proves that I am working more than playing....see, Boss?
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My high school had not quite kept up with the times, the typewriters were all manual. I learned real quick how weak my pink fingers are. 'Q' and 'Z' were real pains. I still mess up with which finger should hold down the shift key and I still have to look for the number keys, but everything else is by touch. - oh and I had that typing class back in 83(ish). I am glad I had the class.
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Yes, high school (77). It served me well in college. I typed papers for 6-packs+ for my peers.
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Me too. I took a typing class in high school when I took my first programming class (1983).
Manual typewriters  didn't quite apply when using a VT100 or VT52.
At least I got to meet freshman girls.
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I started playing piano in 1st grade. The finger exercises served me well when I took typing classes in Jr. High. I can cruise all day at about 85/90 WPM. I figure if I'm sitting in front of a computer at least 8 hours a day for more years than I care to think about and I can't type, there's something wrong.
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H.S. for me too. It was 1988, but we still had crappy manual typewriters, so I have literally felt your pain. I took the class because I wasn't sure what I wanted to be when I grew up and wanted to make sure I had at least one "professional" skill to fall back on. The next year I took a comp sci class (apple IIe/BASIC whooopeee!) and was able to turn out more code than most others in my class, so the typing lessons worked out 
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For me not, 
I improved my speed by simply programming, and some years.
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...not because you can bang out the code faster, but because banging out the code is less of a distraction. I've too often seen programmers carefully consider a technique, or look up an API, and then start writing out the code... only to pause a minute later because they'd forgotten something while pecking out the syntax.
Regardless of whether you're using two fingers or ten, if the keyboard is your primary method of communication you shouldn't have to think about it (much less look at it) any more than you should need to think about pronunciation while speaking in your native language.
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I like this response. Eliminating distractions is a vital skill for programming, you can't afford to waste brain-cycles looking for keys. That being said, I don't know if it would qualify as touch typing - I've never seen the textbook way to press Ctrl-Space for example.
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Hei that's true, every time I've seen combinations of keys, they never teach you the best way to push them.
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fast, but sometimes intellisense does not help me to much  luisnike19
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I've found with VS2008, sometimes you have to press other keys (esc) so as to cancel Intellisense from doing something - maybe you want to write a small word or variable and a longer keyword or variable pops up - meaning that unless you press ESC before you press SPACE (to end the short word), the Intellisense expands your word to one you didn't want.
I love Intellisense but hate recent implementations too.God is REAL unless declared int
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| Yes, I also have the same problem but with SQL 2008 luisnike19
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Some years ago I had to write a software training system that taught people how to touch type. Yes it was necessary as the end result was not normal text but special codes made up of alpha numeric combinations; regular touch typing was just a precursor to that.
The consequence is that I know how to touch type and understand all the theory and practice and yet I never seem to have had the time to use it enough to improve my speed to an acceptable standard. I have made an effort many times but usually have to get the document done and do not have the time to mess about.
I type with about four to five fingers and am fairly fast, the downside is I have to look at the keyboard and that is something touch typing would overcome. It’s a real nuisance when you have typed a chunk of text and then find caps lock is on or some such that has screwed up the result.
Not much benefit when coding, which is how I spend most of my typing time, as typing fast achieves little but for documentation etc, etc,and we all have to do some of that, it can be a real plus.
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I make lots of typos.... I wonder how much work I'd get through if i didn't have to backspace or type things twice 
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backspace accounts for probably close to a third of my total keystrokes; I wonder the same thing. I test at about 65wpm including all the backspacing though, so with all the fast and furious key-pounding I'm able to seem a lot faster than I actually am
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I can touch type fast, but moving from one keyboard to another, desktop to laptop, or client computer, I get Fat Finger Syndrome.
Also I think the neurons must be faster for one hand than the other causing keyslexia.
A friend of mine came from the teletype world... his hammertyping would wear out keyboards in short order.modified on Monday, March 15, 2010 10:46 PM
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See! I told you I cluod tyep reall fast! I sometimes type so fast that I spend 50% of my time on the backspace key. Now that is productivity at it's finest! I hate strange keyboards, like at a client office, where ones hands start to shake and bounce on those ultra-sensitive (aka: not beaten into submission yet) easy to press keys. Makes me smoke! Trust the force, that's my motto. If you are not using enough force to make your desk shake, then you are just babying your keyboard and it will push you around and insert errors into your code. 
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In my career i saw a lot a programmer typing at the speed of light ... and 80% of the time finger on backspace and all kinds of stupid compiling errors. Typing fast is not the only solution.. plenty of keyboard Shorcuts with Visual Studio in order to increase productivity.
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I agree with the point of using shortcuts but undoubtly having good typing skills can help you 
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| Here I thought touch-typing meant on like an on-screen display for a phone with no physical keys. Jeremy Falcon
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I thought the same thing 
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I suppose that i can now type with out hunting for the keys. As my keyboard has now
Two ‘P’ and a rapidly disappearing E and slightly sickly looking A,S,D,O
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but the main input is mouse 
i move it fast, clicking uber fast d{^__^}b - it's time to fly
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