Friday, October 9, 2015

Re: vim and touch typing

2015-10-08 20:33 GMT+03:00 Gevisz <gevisz@gmail.com>:
> 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.

I would suggest to ask this on superuser.com. AFAIK you cannot do this
directly with X server configuration, but there are a number of
"external" keyboard switchers which may have the needed capabilities.
The other variant is a console app like setxkbmap or xkb-switch used
in conjunction with global shortcuts capabilities provided by your
DE/WM (if no, there still are apps which provide global shortcuts
using X server own capabilities).

>
> 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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