So.. hows your typing?

[CJKay]

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[CWood]

Ironically, it wasn't until i started programming that i could begin to type properly. Going back about 6 years now, I was 9 (I believe, it could have been further back than that), and my younger brother was playing a game on the Playstation 2 (I think, though don't quote me, that it was the original Ratchet and Clank game... gives some idea as to how long ago, doesn't it...). He randomly ran into a light thing, and in it I saw a face. My dad then said, that it was probably the creator. He then gave me a story as to how one of his friends reverse engineered a game, and put his name on a wall, in graffiti. I remember thinking to myself, I want to know how to do that. So the next day, I went to the library, and got a book, "Beginning Programming for Dummies." It was very poorly wrote. So much, in fact, that I was tearing my hair out trying to grasp the concept of variables. It would have been significantly easier if I could find a compiler to work with and try out for myself, I can imagine, however that's not the point. I couldn't find a free one. So I finished that, after a while, and decided that RealBasic was perhaps the best language to learn. I got on the phone to my uncle, who is a freelance programmer, and he recommended learning C instead, as it is industry standard, and if you know how, you can do anything with it. So I purchased the book, "C for Dummies." Again, falling down in the department of variables, it wasn't the best wrote. However, I sort of understood this one a bit better. But I still couldn't find a blasted compiler, so I left off it for a few years. Then, I remember digging through my old stuff, about 2 years ago, because my mum had a go at me because my room was in a rather shitty state ^^. I found the same book, and went through, to read it again. By this time, I had learnt how to work Google properly, so I did a quick search for, "c compiler." I then installed one (I can't remember which), and quickly got the hang of it. Then I started to code larger and larger applications, eventually teaching myself Win32. At that point, I realised: I'm now a programmer. But I wasn't satisfied. I wanted to be more than this. I wanted to be elite. So here I am now. It was about the time I taught myself Win32 that I got so good at typing as well, and it only took me about 2 minutes to type this entire post.

[Love4Boobies]

I noticed that I said I was at 160-165 wpm. Was I on crack? I must've been reading about the world's fastest typist that day but I was really at around 110 wpm. Currently, I am at 40 wpm because for the last 2.5 hours I've been trying to retrain myself to type properly. So far, it's quite a pain but I expect it will pay off soon...

[onlyonemac]

I first learnt to type when my mother bought me a typing tutor program as some sort of surprise. I used to just manage about 30 WPM in those days.

Then suddenly one evening when I was testing some code I found myself typing incredibly quickly. I still don't know what had happened, but somehow ever since I've been able to type at about 80 WPM with a lot of mistakes and reliably at between 55 and 60 WPM. Strangely enough I tend to go through phases where my fingers will just refuse to press the keys down properly - I think it might have something to do with my unusual ways of sitting.

I also type reasonably quickly when programming, although not as fast. A weird thing happened one time when I'd been programming in C for quite a bit and then briefly switched to a text document to make a note. Of course, I flew through the whole sentence in about 5 seconds and then promptly reflexively typed a semicolon at the end of my sentence! I'm also used to getting comments from my mother about "are you just pressing one key down repeatedly?" and "are you typing actual words?" - she thinks I type very quickly.

[Love4Boobies]

Haha The story about your mom is adorable.

[onlyonemac]

Yeah, I still don't know what inspired it but I've used that program a lot! And best of all I still use it today!

EDIT: Thanks for the compliment, it made me smile.