Touch typing for programmers

Touch typing for programmers is quite different from touch typing in general. One might say that touch typing is even not important for programmers. Use what works best for you. But, if you practice touch typing or want to start practicing, these are my tips how to do it more efficiently.

If you just start, use well-known sites (monkeytype, keybr, etc). I personally use monkeytype and my favorite way of practicing touch typing there is 100 words with punctuation.

However, this is not enough for programmers. While writing code, we usually use different keys and combinations that are very different from common touch typing. There are different sites that provide the possibility to practice touch typing in different languages on different code examples.

This is practical; however I’ve found a better way. When I need to write code in a new language or the language that I didn’t practice for years, I use popular open-source projects and klava.org site. My steps are:

• pick a popular project/library in the target language
• pick a reasonable chunk of code for the practice
• open https://klava.org/delta/ and select “My text”
• copy this chunk of code into the text field
• practice…

I found this way very useful. Especially, when you want to acquire new language or library. By retyping it, you get more familiar with the code base and concepts that are used in it.