Are you a "hunt and pecker" or a "typist"?
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I was just sitting here thinking about of all things how I type. We discuss on these forums many fundamentals of SQl and one of the most basic fundamentals is being able to use a computer. However some would say you should also know how to type. Well I just want to say I am a "hunt and pecker", you know, the guys who use 1 finger on each hand to type. But on the even funnier side even thou I cannot outtype my wife (she's a typist) I can outtype more than 80% of the typist I know. But the other day I finally got a Pocket PC and noticed something funnier. All the typist I know have troubles being able to use the stylis keyboard on the screen and I am completly fuild in using it. So again I got to thinking about this and was curious?
Are you a "hunt and pecker" or a "typist"?
"HUNT AND PECKER"
"Don't roll your eyes at me. I will tape them in place." (Teacher on Boston Public)
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mix. I touch type, but not the "right way". In 20 years, my fingers have somewhat learned where the keys are and I can type pretty well in the dark. Of course, those crazy bent MS keyboards really mess me up. My left fingers can't hit the "y" key.
Steve Jones
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I am a "hunt and pecker". But amazingly I have improved over the years from one finger to one finger each hand
.Learning "typing" is still on my wish-list. But I guess I will never do that.
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Im a fair touch typer. Worth learning I think. Lets me concentrate on the real task, not typing!
Andy
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I am glad to see that there are more "Hunt and Peckers" out there like me. Like Antares I sarted off slowly but can now outtype several touch typers in myu office.
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I'm a touch-typist (at 60 wpm).
<Opinion Alert>
I can understand why 'hunt & peckers' do better on PDA's. As a touch typist, I got out of the habit of 'seeing' the keys, my fingers know where the keys are so I don't have to look at them. Then when I can't use touch-typing, like with a PDA, I have trouble locating the keys because I have to look for them. 'H&Ps' are used to looking at the keys and therefore find it easier to locate the keys on PDAs.
-Bill
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I'm a "hunt'n'pecker" but trying to use as many fingers in a time as I can (usually 2-3 on each hand).I have to see the keyboard. Tried to learn to be a 'typist' but old habits are hard to forget, never made it in real live.
Well, probably, if it would bother me - I would swich, but apparently no big affect on my work, so...
--Eva
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Touch Typist at about 60 WPM on a good day. I would agree that most Touch Typers have the PDA problem as well. Not here though. Don't know why.
Out of curiosity, how many of the "Hunt and Peckers" came out of an Ops environment (meaning mainframe)?
David
David
@SQLTentmaker“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” - Jim Elliot
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I am a slow typist. Last I checked I typed at about 40WPM. I may be faster now since I've had more practice.
Before 1994, I hunt and pecked. In 1994, I got a job as a Data Conversion Operator for the US Postal Service. In the first few weeks I realized that if I didn't learn to type soon I'd be out of a job as you had to maintain a minimum speed to ensure you were not let go at a later date (I was considered a temporary employee even though I worked in that position for 3 years). So I forced myself to use all 10 fingers and of course my speed dropped at first, but later it picked up and so now I'm a typist.
Robert Marda
Robert W. Marda
Billing and OSS Specialist - SQL Programmer
MCL Systems -
Another typist weighing in here. I learned touch-typing when my mother got my sister and I to attend a summer class on typing--primarily so we could survive all those papers we had to write in high school and college. (This was waaay back before PCs existed, let alone were ubiquitous...)
What I'd be interested in knowing is, how do (can?) people learn touch-typing these days? You hardly ever see a typewriter, let alone a room full of them... and few people are going to set up rooms of computers just so you can learn to type!
Also just to mention, I've gone out of my wayt (well, eBay isn't that far off the beaten track) to acquire a few original IBM "model M" keyboards. No other keyboard I've ever used has had the tactic feedback these guys had. I'd take these over keyboards with volume control and TV remote capabilities any day. Any other highly biased opinions out there on this subject?
Philip
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Typist ...
Was a required course for two years as a CAD major in Technical School. Hated every minute of it back then, but I'm very glad now that I learned it.
I'm not sure of wpm, haven't checked in aeons, I'd probably guess 80wpm - 20wpm of backspacing for misspellings(one hand - right - always seems to 'fire' quicker hence 'hte' instead of 'the', etc.), even faster typing common statements like SELECT etc.
Jason
JasonL -
Langston picked out a point I avoided. WPM on typewriters was key way back when, because a typo was really hard to fix. Even when that neat new invention, "Liquid Paper" (I'm not that old, am I?) came out, it was still an issue when filling out carbon-copy forms (no, I'm NOT that old, it was a high-school summer job).
With computers, all that went out the window, because with one click your typo is gone. Master the abstract concepts of insert vs. overwrite, and editing typos is a breeze. I have no idea how you'd factor this in to calculating WPM, something I never did factor for myself and wouldn't know how to now.
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Hunt a pecker here! It seems though, that I can type fairly quickly and accurately when the word/code is coming from my brain to my fingers. However, If I have to transcribe something, forget-about-it. My eyes have to go back and forth between the text I'm reading and the keyboard, and that just kills my speed.
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I learned typing in school and was an admin support person waaaaay back before I was a dba. About 100WPM on a good day. If you need a good PC typing tutor, I recommend Mavis Beacon.
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Typist, at ~80 WPM. I'm curious to know if anyone's using Dvorak rather than QUERTY. I know both, and it seems to give the hands variety to move back and forth.
BTW, Mavis Beacon is great for learning to use the num-pad, but I wouldn't recommend it for learning to touch-type. Better to get one of the old-fashioned typewriter touch-typing guides.
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