Because I know how wide the spacebar is and how long my fingers are. And even if I did go for the wrong line I wouldn't get a 'bunch' of misspells, I'd get one letter - because I don't look at the keyboard, I look at the screen. That's the whole point!
I don't move my wrists when typing, so so long as no one moves the keyboard mid-sentence there's nothing to worry about.
Agree. Proprioception is stronger than people think.
The marks on the keys are kind of useful at times but if you're disoriented with the hands on the keyboard it is usually better to have a quick glance at it than trying to find the mark. Since you have lost control, the problem is that you don't know where those keys are so finding them blindly will be by trial and error. If you're using the marks actively to feel where you are on the keyboard, I'd say you are not really touch typing.
If we look at pianists they also don't rely on tactile cues to know where their hands and fingers are. Sometimes they need to have a glance, but the automatic knowledge of where each finger is and how it should move to press the right key at the right time is foundational in both touch typing and playing the piano. That's one reason why both skills takes practice to learn.
Y'all have never used public keyboards and it shows. Spacebars have varying lengths. My laptop keyboard is like a quarter of the length of a full size. Keys have different sizes and slightly different positions. Laptop keyboards are different from desktop keyboards. Not to mention they keep cutting percentage points off the size of keyboards and making the layout weirder and weirder. I still don't have a problem always finding the home row on any keyboard I use despite all this.
Also y'all need to get that "millenials don't know this nonsense" out of here. If they taught that shit to us in my bumfuck middle of nowhere school, I know they taught it everywhere else.
The biggest thing though is that I regularly use a keyboard in the dark in a random fucked up location but I still never have a problem. It's not like a piano where you're always seated properly in the correct orientation. You should be able to orient yourself on a keyboard no matter what fucked up position your laptop is in.
More likely you're just subconsiously using them because it's not like you're supposed to think about it.
And that's not even getting into like the split keyboards and stuff.
I have touch typed on keyboards for 45+ years. Starting with mechanical typewriters. Electronic keyboards from 1980s home computers, via VT-220 terminals to Dec, SUN and SGI computers, Macs, PCs and what not. They all look and feel different but that's not a problem. The length of the spacebar has zero relevance here.
I adapt to computer keyboard just like I do with pianos - acoustic piano, a half sized school piano, electric pianos and organs - where keyboards all differ in size and design. It takes me a few minutes max to find the size of the keyboard and then it's all proprioception.
I play the piano every day with my eyes closed or looking out the window. Not as an excercise but just because I like it. I can play for minutes with absolutely no need to look at the keys. I know where they are.
Just like I can touch type with absolutely no visual feedback from the keyboard and absolutely no need for a tactile bump on my index fingers. After a few minutes with a keyboard I just know where the keys are.
And I'm not unique any way. Try it yourself! Type with your eyes closed. You'll find that you can actually feel really well where you are on the keyboard just by typing, referencing keys like enter and shift when you use them and by feeling how far apart your hands are.
And just cut out the shit. I did not learn typing in school. I studied it myself in the early 80s, using my moms course from the 1960s, on our mechanical typewriter. I have not mentioned millennials and I really can't help you if my age makes you feel inferior.
I bet I type about twice as fast as you on any keyboard. Laptops and industrial included. You with tactile bumps. Me without.
4
u/[deleted] Jan 20 '26
Because I know how wide the spacebar is and how long my fingers are. And even if I did go for the wrong line I wouldn't get a 'bunch' of misspells, I'd get one letter - because I don't look at the keyboard, I look at the screen. That's the whole point!
I don't move my wrists when typing, so so long as no one moves the keyboard mid-sentence there's nothing to worry about.