Is touch typing all that useful for developers? Writing code involves using special characters frequently (){}[]_%^&$#, and most IDEs are designed around reducing the amount of text you need to type. Am I wrong thinking touch typing is not designed for coding?
Touch typing isn't "designed" for anything, it's not "designed" at all really. It's the idiom/phrase we use to describe typing without looking at the keyboard.
And yes, it's extremely useful for developers of software. Not all developers use an IDE by the way, and even if they did, autocomplete is not same as knowing how to type properly.
I find OPs consternation a little bit odd though. When I realized I was still hunt-and-peck typing at a point where it was a little bit embarrassing as well as being a hindrance to my daily activities, I just stopped looking at the keyboard. Problem solved in about two weeks.
I agree. However, if you want to feel better when touch typing, I suggest you to use more ergonomic keyboard layouts than qwerty, for example, dvorak or colemak. It might be useful to use some typing tutor to make the transition. For example, http://www.typingstudy.com
Comments
Is touch typing all that useful for developers? Writing code involves using special characters frequently (){}[]_%^&$#, and most IDEs are designed around reducing the amount of text you need to type. Am I wrong thinking touch typing is not designed for coding?
Also, http://phoboslab.org/ztype/
Touch typing isn't "designed" for anything, it's not "designed" at all really. It's the idiom/phrase we use to describe typing without looking at the keyboard.
And yes, it's extremely useful for developers of software. Not all developers use an IDE by the way, and even if they did, autocomplete is not same as knowing how to type properly.
I find OPs consternation a little bit odd though. When I realized I was still hunt-and-peck typing at a point where it was a little bit embarrassing as well as being a hindrance to my daily activities, I just stopped looking at the keyboard. Problem solved in about two weeks.
I agree. However, if you want to feel better when touch typing, I suggest you to use more ergonomic keyboard layouts than qwerty, for example, dvorak or colemak. It might be useful to use some typing tutor to make the transition. For example, http://www.typingstudy.com
Have you ever written documentation for your code? :)