Hacker Remix

Typr – TUI typing test with a word selection algorithm inspired by keybr

93 points by Sakura-sx 4 days ago | 38 comments

seblon 20 hours ago

Several years ago (around 2015), I also developed a typing learning web application. It was inspired by another application that had originally been developed for Windows 95 - with that app, I learned how to type. So in 2015, I decided to implement a web-based version of it.

http://touchtyper.net/en

However, I just checked out keybr.com and have to say - it's a much better system for learning to type! As of today, I now realize I have a huge problem with the letter "q" - I had never noticed that before! ^^

Sakura-sx 20 hours ago

keybr's algorithm is flawed, getting 1 extra WPM on "q" does way less progress than getting 1 extra WPM on "e", it's better than most of the things but also I wouldn't have made typr if it was perfect.

seblon 19 hours ago

Btw, I also checked out your app, my feedback after 5 minutes: there was at least one case, where a word was splitted instead of clean word wrapping for line break, when the terminal is small.

And one idea: do a audio bell on error, even for tui, this should just be the special "bell control char" written to stdout.

Sakura-sx 19 hours ago

Thanks for the idea, added to roadmap!

procaryote 21 hours ago

One issue with tools like these is that it's pretty artificial. You rarely need to type nonsense series of lowercase only words without punctuation at a consistent character speed.

I did a similar little tool at some point where I just used some books from the gutenberg project and normalised it a bit so there were no weird typographic quotes etc.

It both forces me to become good at the punctuation, and it's more interesting as I will accidentally start reading that book.

agumonkey 11 hours ago

I was thinking of using typing drills as hidden spaced repetition for books just yesterday. Not for learning a topic per se but for a kind of memory rehab. I wish there was some kind of slow audio speech mode to spell each sentence once, so that you can avoid memorizing your finger position while doing exercises.

absolute_unit22 19 hours ago

I couldn’t agree more on this honestly.

https://www.typequicker.com kinda focuses on this sentiment. AI generated natural text that targets user weak points.

The more you type, the better the targeted exercises are.

The whole app essentially focuses on natural text (except for drills)

darrenf 9 hours ago

I could only get through a few rounds of this -- it messed with my brain much more than my fingers. Proper nouns without capitals, flipping between -ize and -ise, and the outright bad grammar were all reasons I typed slower than I normally would.

> geohumanities, sometimes written geohumanities or the geohumanities is a term has been used with varied meanings to describe areas of academic study

absoluteunit1 6 hours ago

Oh thanks for mentioning this.

Which practice mode did you use?

Capitalization, text length, and topics can be adjusted.

(Just click on the topics buttons or whichever mode you’re using for additional setting).

darrenf 4 hours ago

I'm not sure what mode at all - I just clicked "start", and after each exercise I just clicked "continue". I didn't adjust any settings, just dived straight in!

absolute_unit22 3 hours ago

Gotcha - thanks for mentioning this though.

I’ve been meaning to make some changes to the default text in the practice mode so this bumps it up on my todo list.

Thank you!

ubercow13 20 hours ago

I like this one https://typeonline.uk/speed-test/word

alabhyajindal 19 hours ago

I love this! Reminded me of TypeLit.io [1]. I would love something similar for programming: typing out snippets of code, that make sense, to improve typing speed involving special characters and symbols. Maybe selecting code snippets from popular open-source projects and presenting them to the user is a good start!

1. https://www.typelit.io/

absolute_unit22 18 hours ago

Thank you! :)

Yes!! I have this on my todo list (along with many other features I've always wanted) actually!

tough 18 hours ago

I'm pretty sure this existed (typing out code) can't remember the name now

alabhyajindal 18 hours ago

https://typing.io ? I like it but feels outdated, and has many little QOL issues.

tough 17 hours ago

yep was this one ty, would be cool as TUI

mylesp 17 hours ago

monkeytype.com has this option, along with many many more.

alabhyajindal 10 hours ago

Yes but the issue is those code snippets are generated artificially and are not coherent. Same issue as artificially generated prose.

Rygian 20 hours ago

I self taught touch typing by copying chapters of It. Eyes focused on the book, keyboard hidden under the desk, and only looking at the screen at each paragraph end. Worked great.

Sakura-sx 20 hours ago

More characters soon, thanks for the suggestion!

tough 18 hours ago

i liked one that let you type codebases, great way to learn syntax alongside typing

someone else shared on other comment typing.io pretty sure it was this

Sakura-sx 4 days ago

I have been a user of keybr.com for a long time, and I didn't really like things like for example only practicing one word at a time or the algorithm trying to force you to type each character at the same speed, that's why I made my own. It has an algorithm that selects words randomly with weights based on how long you take to type each letter, you accuracy with each letter and how common the letter is in English (you should type more-common letters faster!).

nmca 16 hours ago

This is great! I have daydreamed about how to do a more complex algo: instead of character speed and frequency you could do bi-character speed/frequency/error rate and probably improve over keybr further.

absoluteunit1 15 hours ago

This is actually “kind of” what https://www.typequicker.com/practice does in the SmartPracrice mode.

Try one practice session - see the stats we measure for each text. Each character, every mistype, every millisecond for bigram/trigram, speed and accuracy per hand/fingers, etc.

This is aggregated and we identify weak points over time this way. Then using those weak points we create natural practice text

Spent wayyyy too much time diving deep into building out this algorithm lol. But it works fairly well

vanous 22 hours ago

Nice effort!

All these tools teach typing and looking at the typed text. Only few programs make physical separation between the source and the typed text or do hide the text currently typed. Try it... yet another level... :)

Sakura-sx 20 hours ago

Thank you!

jerezzprime 18 hours ago

Does anyone have any suggestions for typing practice programs that involve coding symbols? I recently got a new mechanical keyboard and I want to practice the new layout when I'm not also trying to think and solve programming problems.

Sakura-sx 17 hours ago

I advice either monkeytype or keybr, both have a setting for code

bheadmaster 10 hours ago

Honestly, I'd recommend using the good ol' gtypist.

It uses mostly real (or contrived) segments of text, which appear as if they were taken out of newspapers or personal letters. It has both beginner and advanced sets of text, and a whole community of custom texts that you can use. I've personally learned touch typing from scratch by using this program alone.

Jenk 17 hours ago

Monkeytype.com has many "code" dictionaries to choose from.

akaij 18 hours ago

Looks nice! Reminds me of a similar program (a bbs door, really) named ‘yogurt’ by @sedatk — I remember using it to improve my fast-typing around 2002-2003. This brings back memories :)

“Time it needs time to win back your love again”

Sakura-sx 17 hours ago

Thanks!

Velorivox 20 hours ago

Shouldn’t this be a “Show HN”?

Sakura-sx 20 hours ago

You are right, I didn't know what it was when posting.

Sakura-sx 20 hours ago

Thank you for the stars, just went from 1 to 27 stars! :3

arvindparekh 19 hours ago

Nice effort!

Sakura-sx 19 hours ago

Thanks!!!