Type Faster

I'm the worst at typing I can't do it accurately and I can't type without looking down.

Practice makes perfect. Spend some time in chat rooms (then stop spending time in chat rooms, they are a waste of time). The faster you can type the easier it is to write software.

Actually, it's more accurate to say "practice makes better", and there's always the danger of a local optimum.

Further, do something to inhibit yourself from watching your fingers. If you've got a keyboard drawer, type with the drawer slid under your desk, or put the keyboard in your lap. Do this for a couple days, and you will no longer need to look at your fingers. If you must, write your keyboard layout on an IndexCard and tape it to your monitor.

'Q: Does typing faster make it easier to write software?`

A: Probably. The more quickly you can express an idea in code the less chance you have of forgetting it or otherwise mangling it. Accurate typing also probably reduces syntax errors and typos in identifier names.

If the physical connection between you and the machine you are programming is painful, you won't be as effective at programming because of the distraction from the physical perturbation.

When I was given a job as a telex typist (many years ago), my best speed was about 20 wpm. I took half of my lunch hour every day for several weeks and sat at the machine practicing.

I would close my eyes and type some line (Now is the time for all good men ...) until I could type it 10 times without error. Then I would type another line (The quick brown fox ...) to the same result. Then another, then another.

When I could type single sentences (multiple times) without error, I began typing complete thoughts spanning several sentences -- all with my eyes closed -- until I could do it without mistakes.

I never typed the classic "asdfg hjkl;" or "hat rat cat sat mat pat ..." exercises. I typed practice lines containing the kind of language I worked with every day.

At the end of a couple of months I was up to 50 wpm, eventually planing out at about 60 wpm. When I'm just typing what comes into my head and flows out my fingers, I can hit 70+ wpm.

When I taught programming languages at the local college, I would tell my hunt-and-peck students to take a typing class or find some way to get past the two-fingered dance, because the sooner they could talk to the machine without the distraction of "where is that A key" they sooner they would get good at the business of programming.

Yes. Get good at typing. At least get to the point where your train of thought is not being chopped up by "where is that key" events.

-- GarryHamilton

I second the point about domain specific practice. I type about 70-80wpm on general text, but for code it is > 100wpm. Now of course while coding I rarely type many 'pages' in a row, what this actually means is that the act of getting code into an editor buffer is never a constraint on what I am doing. On the other hand, if you never type anything but code you can develop some weird habits and an almost total inability to locate certain keys (that don't occur in your language(s) of choice), that can be maddening when you do need to do more general typeing. (typing ;->)