On Thu, 17 May 2007 22:24:56 -0400 cga2000 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Mon, May 14, 2007 at 08:46:16PM EDT, Celejar wrote: > > On Mon, 14 May 2007 18:44:12 -0400 > > cga2000 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > On Mon, Apr 30, 2007 at 07:49:15PM EDT, Celejar wrote: > > > > On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:51:35 -0500 > > > > "Russell L. Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > [some helpful, very detailed typing instructions] > > > > > > > > Thank you very much. > > > > > > So how's your typing coming along? > > > > I've been using gtypist to learn dvorak, and I'm making progress. I've > > got the home and upper rows pretty much under control, and I'm working > > on the lower row. gtypist doesn't always give complete instructions, so > > I'm benefiting (I hope) from Russel's advice, and I have a PNG image of > > the keyboard (taken from wikikpedia, before I saw the 'xkbprint' > > command explained on the list recently ...) to show me where the keys > > are. > > I'm not sure this is a good idea .. except maybe at the very beginning. That's what I mean; when gtypist starts using new letters without telling me where they are, I briefly bring up an image of the keymap to see what I need to do, just like the wall chart that Russell suggested. I don't keep it out very long. > Objective #1 is to get your _fingers_ .. so to speak .. to "know" where > each character is. Pavlovian .. a given character results in a given > finger action .. But even this .. at least that's my personal experience > .. is only true at the very beginning. Pretty soon your fingers will > travel the keyboard faster than your eyes could take in individual > characters. I think I get the idea; I'm not quite there yet. I can do all the letters and major punctuation by touch, but I still require a fair amount of conscious thought to do it. > At that point you will need to be able to visually parse > the text you're reading into predefined letter groups .. let's call them > "syllables" .. and develop the ability to translate automatically these > larger elements into memorized successions of keystrokes. Unfortunately > .. the English language especially as it is written has an extremely > large number of "syllables" .. something like seven thousand, I > believe. True, some are more common than others .. But all the same, to > master the keyboard .. or in other words make the interface as > transparent as your mouth .. lips .. and vocal chords .. when you > speak .. you eventually want your fingers to remember them all. > > > > As a f/up to Russell's excellent "minute tutorial" .. > > I'll second that. There is actually more useful advice in Russell's > post than in the entire "help" provided by gtypist. AOL! > But where I am impressed most of all is that I cannot imagine Russell > spending a couple of hours writing this mini-tutorial of his. He will > in/con-firm this .. but I have a feeling that since he appears to be a > proficient typist it was just as easy for him to come up with his > mini-tutorial "in writing" as it would have been for him to explain the > same things viva voce. > > I have known a couple of folks whose typing had become second nature and > what I found amazing was that they were able to come up in a few minutes > with some form of rough howto text on any technical subject that they > were familiar with where with rougly the same technical knowledge, it > would have taken over an hour to do the same thing. > > Retrospectively, I realize that it was not just a matter of their being > capable of typing at least five times faster than myself. No, it was > mostly because to them typing had become so ingrained in their persona > that there was absolutely no overhead involved. They could type with > just as much ease as I speak and nothing related to the typing itself > interfered with their thinking process while they were writing. > > Speaking of tutorials .. my personal impression is that gtypist provides > an invaluable collection of typing drills but falls short of providing a > full-fledged tutorial. > > Among other, things that I feel are missing: > > 1. Does not keep track of your progress via some form of stat file > > 2. Does not let you move back/forward within a drill to let you practice > a difficult sequence over and over. If the difficult sequence is in > line 7 of the drill .. you have to start from line 1 .. By the time > you get to line 7 again, you've pretty much lost your concentration > and end up making the exact same mistakes .. What to do .. Go back to > the beginnning .. etc. Personally, what I do is fire up a vim > session (or even an xterm) and practice whatever is causing me grief > outside gtypist and go back to the drill when I feel I am ready to > ascertain my progress. I don't think I should have to leave gtypist > to practice something and come back when I feel I am ready for more. > > 3. Concentrates on typing the way it was done 40 years ago rather than > computer users. OK for email & irc but there's nothing much in > standard gtypist drills that directly helps improve your typing when > it comes to typing C/C++, java, other programming languages, shell > commands, or anything else that falls outside the obsolete typewriter > keyboard .. including such very common things as Alt/Ctrl combos .. > On the other hand it is extremely easy to add your own custom drills > .. just copy some linux kernel code fragment, eg. under vim .. add a > few simple gtypist markups and you're ready to roll. I think it's all > explained in the gtypist man page or possibly the comments in > /usr/share/gtypist/gtypist.typ Excellent points. > Another thing that is not too wonderful about gtypist is the keyboard > navigation commands .. such as "N" meaning "Next" in some cases and "No" > .. as in do you want to continue? .. in others .. What happens quite > often is you type "N" out of habit and get kicked out of the series and > have to go through the entire series again when you thought your "N" was > going to take you to the "next" drill .. Quite infuriating .. There are > other examples of poor gtypist ergonomics that used to -- and still do > at times .. drive me nuts. > > [Note: The above criticism is NOT meant to disparage gtypist. It's a > very useful application and I for one owe it and therefore its author > and awful lot.] I agree that gtypist has rough edges; I just couldn't find anything better. dvorak7m has its points, too, but I've switched over now to gtypist. I haven't tried dvorak-ng since it's not in Debian. I'm sure it's easy enough to bfs, though. > > > I would add that you may want to find yourself a nice little old > > > retired typist who enjoys and understands teaching and needs to > > > supplement her income. Take a few lessons .. She probably won't > > > charge you all that much and it may as much as halve the time before > > > you can type proficiently. > > > Thanks. > > I'm totally conviced you could become a much better typist (faster .. > more accurate .. less overhead involved ..) if you found someone to show > you how one types .. someone to correct your mistakes & evaluate and > encourage you as you go along. I believe I would have been where I am > now at least a year ago if I had initially made that sensible choice. > > > > Teaching yourself any skill takes a lot longer because you have to be > > > the student and the teacher at the same time. Besides .. things like > > > posture and hand/wrist/forearm position are fundamental. You'll find > > > that it's almost impossible to practice your drills and watch yourself > > > doing it at the same time. > > > > > > Just a thought. > > > > I'll have to consider this, thanks for being interested! > > You are more than welcome. Thanks again, I'll consider your advice about hiring a professional. > > Thanks, > cga Celejar -- mailmin.sourceforge.net - remote access via secure (OpenPGP) email ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
