Does Touch Typing make any difference to you ?

[MrHutch]

Is there some test in particular everyone is looking at here?

I've just took a one and scored 65wpm. I reckon it'd be a bit faster if I wasn't on my iMac (keyboard is pretty small compared to the one I used 7 hours a day at work).

[ResidentBiscuit]

I used the site posted several posts up

[QWERTYman]

As did I. I'd never tested mine; you do only have my word. But I've been typing for what I'd call five hours out of every day for a while because I lack a life.

[ResidentBiscuit]

Ditto, I've been using computers since I can remember. And now work 8 hours a day in front of one

[Splux]

81WPM, even though I did f*ck up 2 words because I hit space accidently and when I tried to correct it I got a few words behind :(

Had to stop for 2-3sec to see where in the text I was...

*Edit:
Tried in Swedish (which is my native language)...
72WPM... either the Swedish "test" is harder or I actually type quicker in English than I do in Swedish...

*Edit2:
Just realized that I had around 350 keystrokes on both English and Swedish, so I guess it is because the words in Swedish are longer than in English... unfair test :(

[Duthomhas]

75 wpm, but I don't think the test was particularly difficult. (Normal texts are usually a little less uniform, methinks.)

[chrisname]

Hm, I've improved.

http://i.imgur.com/Ro9Xr.png

[Moschops]

On the very best days of coding, I average minus a few hundred words an hour :)

[ResidentBiscuit]

Ive heard that not all WPM tests actually test WPM. Some consider every x amount of characters to be a letter.

[Cubbi]

Indeed, this fastfingers simply goes by the (very common) measure of 1 WPM = 5 CPM (mine says "527 keystrokes 105 words per minute"). It's a bit awkward with random words rather than sentences, brainbench's typing speed test is nicer because it's actual texts, with punctuation etc.

Anyway, this doesn't really help programming, unless you're going to write a lot of technical documentation.

[Ikaron]

My attempt: http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn253/AkrionXxarr/Randomness/RandomWPMTest.png

I really don't like tests that throw random words at you since a decent bit of my speed comes from the patterns that words typically follow when used in a sentence. The fact that I can't read fast enough to keep more than a word ahead of my typing doesn't really help either. :/

[ResidentBiscuit]

Yea I don't really see how having an absurd WPM really matters when you're programming, unless you can develop algorithms in your head just as fast.

I mean, I guess it'd be nice for trivial parts.

[ne555]

Tip: First develop the algorithm, then code.

[moorecm]

Bingo.

[Ikaron]

@ResidentBiscuit
Do you write code completely on the fly like that? I mean, even when I don't make significant plans for a project before coding it I still code in bursts as I pause to mull over my next course of action.

[ResidentBiscuit]

No, but I also don't write the code on paper first. Still have to go from psuedocode/algo speak to real code.

[Ikaron]

You have to do that for every line of code you write though, it should be second nature once you've been programming long enough. Besides, unless one has to think about every character of every line they write before they write it, a programmer will always be better off than an otherwise equivilant programmer that types slower.