Re: vim and touch typing

On Thu, 8 Oct 2015 22:23:33 +1100 Erik Christiansen <dvalin@internode.on.net> wrote:

> On 06.10.15 01:01, Filype Pereira wrote:
> > So, I started reading a vim book and didn't get very far, when I stopped at this line:
> >
> > > If you can't touch type, then go learn it and then come back to learn vim.
>
> What a load of bollocks!
>
> During three decades of earning a living developing software, I used
> vi/vim for the last quarter century without ever learning to touch type.
> OK, I use quite a few fingers, and it goes pretty fast, but I do need to
> look at the keyboard most of the time. That doesn't manifest as a
> practical problem, since the computers I've used have all been very good
> at remembering what I've typed, so I have no need to view the screen at
> more than infrequent intervals.
>
> One thing I've noticed is that where one values quality over quantity,
> it is the amount of thought that goes into a composition which matters,
> not how rapidly it was input, or whether the typist did it with his eyes
> closed.

Completely agree and would throw the book after the phrase right into the trash bin.

Unfortunately, I cannot boast that I use vim for a three decade, but I do use it
and I do type using computers for a quarter of century.

When necessary, I type fast enough to do my job quickly but I never tried to learn
a touch typing and I should admit that for me it is already too late to learn it.

Nevertheless, I do use a "blind typing" in the sense that I do not look into
the monitor when I type, only to the keyboard. I get used to this style yet
about 25 years ago trying to save my eyes from the ray monitors of that days.

Usually, I type a whole sentence without looking into the monitor.

It does not mean that I do not know my keyboard layout. I do know it and can type
in a complete darkness (but much more slowly, of course).

My hands move over the keyboard almost automatically but I still need a little feedback
from my eyes to not hit "i" instead of "o" for example.

In this connection I have only one inconvenience connected with the facts that
1) I usually have to use 3 keyboard layouts at the same time switching between them with a hot key,
2) it is impossible to have a "direct hot key switch" to a certain keyboard layout in Linux world.

Because of that I have to remember all the time not only in which vim mode I am but also in which
keyboard layout I am and it is too much for me. As the result, I too often end up raising my eyes
to the monitor and finding out that I have typed the whole sentence in incorrect keybord layout. :(

In such times I very much miss the good old MS DOS keyrus driver that could have been configured
to produce a pleasant "crimping" noise when typing in a cyrillic keyboard layout and nothing
when typing in Latin keyboard layout, for example.

But the "direct hot key switch" could also help a lot in this situation.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, it is impossible in the Linux World.

P.S. By a "direct hot key switch" I mean the hot key that switches directly to a certain
keyboard layout, not by circling through all the active ones.

However, such a "direct hot key switch" is possible in Windows.



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