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Can anybody actually produce working code at the same pace as they touch type?

Typing hardly registers as a factor when it comes to how long it takes for me to code anything, at least.



Can anybody actually produce working code at the same pace as they touch type?

I can. Actually, when I learned touch typing I realized how much was I slowed down by typing before.

You might argue that I need to think for a time before I start typing. That's right. But:

1) Once I start, it flows and it's like I'm reviewing the code as I type, correcting and expanding.

2) Writing fast somehow makes me think faster for the next "pre-typing" thinking cycle.


Absolutely. Touch typing is a game changer, not only because with practice, you can just think the code and see it appear on screen, but because you no longer have to glance at the keyboard and your full attention is on the code.


If I'm creating something from scratch or refactoring then a keyboard definitely gets in the way. Of course when I'm writing something from scratch I usually iterate a few times before I have code that I'm satisfied with, so going through those iterations requires a lot of moving things around.

If I'm solving a hard problem (i.e. architecting a system or coming up with an algorithm) then 99% of my time is spent thinking rather than typing.


Not writing from scratch, and not what I consider "nice" code (specifically avoiding the term "good" here). There are plenty of cases that wind up being typing jobs essentially. Usually, that means you're not really designing code as you write, though.


Depending on what I'm working on, just dumping stuff to an IDE buffer at 70WPM can be 10% or more of the time something takes. Which is enough that typing slower would have a noticeable impact.


Depends on how often I’ve done something similar before.


It’s faster for typing my question into stackoverflow!




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