Browsed by
Tag: touch typing

Should You Learn a Powerful Editor like Vim or Emacs?

Should You Learn a Powerful Editor like Vim or Emacs?

You’ve probably heard of them. They’re the text editors that real programmers use. The powerful tools that will boost your productivity into outer space if you can ever master them.

I’m talking about Emacs and Vim.

Perhaps that isn’t the way you’ve seen these two text editors presented, but when I first heard about them, I had this perception that I absolutely had to use them if I wanted to be a cool and competent programmer. They were said to have a huge learning curve yet to offer equivalently incredible editing power. I had to learn how to use at least one of them!

So are these editors worth the learning investment they present?

Read More Read More

Touch Typing Resources for Programmers

Touch Typing Resources for Programmers

My Dad was a carpenter for several years. He worked in the remodeling business, erecting walls, covering roofs, hanging drywall, installing doors, painting rooms and the like. He used to tell me that having the right tools for the job could make the difference between a building project that comes together smoothly and one that comes to completion only with lots of work and not a little frustration. He had loads of neat tools, too. Different saws for different types of cuts, special pliers for hard-to-reach areas, different drill bits for different materials, fancy air-powered nailguns for pinning boards together, and of course all manner of screwdrivers and wrenches.

But do you know what? Even with all of the fancy electric, air-powered, and specialty tools, my dad is excellent at swinging a hammer.

I can remember him giving me a hammer, a handful of nails, and an old board as a kid. It was hard to hit the nails just right so that they went straight into the wood instead of bending over. Plus, I had to hit each nail dozens of times to drive it completely into the wood.

My dad, on the other hand, could drive nail after nail with maybe two or three hammer strokes each. They almost always went straight in, and he rarely ever hit his thumb the way I always seemed to do.

There was something special about watching him use such a simple tool with masterful ease.

As silly as it might sound, I look at a programmer’s keyboard as the equivalent of a builder’s hammer. While just about anyone can manage to drive a nail into a board given a few minutes time and spare nail or two, the builder can do it effortlessly in seconds — and he will barely have to think about it.

So too, almost anyone can type with a keyboard. Computers have been around long enough that my whole generation has grown up learning to type. But that doesn’t mean you are automatically good at it.

Read More Read More

Why Write Code Faster?

Why Write Code Faster?

I don’t think anyone would object to being able to write code faster, but is text-editing really worth its own blog? I think it is.

Before I talk about why I’m interested in writing a blog about the merits of keyboard shortcuts and typing skills, let me try to convince you that text-editing is something you should care about.

I’m going to assume two things about you: First, I’ll assume that you either are a programmer or want to become one. Second, I’ll assume that you genuinely care about becoming the best programmer you can be.

Read More Read More