Should a professional software developer be able to touch-type?

If you've been pecking and I have for thirty years nothing short of a mild stroke would break my current habits.
Easy to acquire yes, but at school, straight after penmanship gets ingrained.

As for being able to type faster makes you more professional or even more productive. What speed you can type the wrong thing in, or even total crap is irrelevant.

Yes I use the backspace key a bit, not so much because I've mistyped though.

They can specify what they like, add it on to ten years experience in .NET under windows 2007 with knowledge of SLQ (no typos in there I can assure you).

There are much more important things to worry about, so I ask myself if this is one of your proposed strengths....

What you call touch typing will be defined by someone else differently.

Software is useless as it reqires repetition and anyone who can "touch type" at a good spped with a small amount of errors will not subject themselves to that sort of torture.

I learnt how to type when I was 36, it was murder, after 6 months of not having anything of concequence to type I got lasy and I now pick/touch type at a far superior rate!!!

Can't teach an old dog new tricks!!

What you call touch typing will be defined by someone else differently.

Software is useless as it reqires repetition and anyone who can "touch type" at a good spped with a small amount of errors will not subject themselves to that sort of torture.

I learnt how to type when I was 36, it was murder, after 6 months of not having anything of concequence to type I got lasy and I now pick/touch type at a far superior rate!!!

Can't teach an old dog new tricks!!

The term "IT Professional" is a very broad one, and I don't think that touch typing is necessary nor indeed relevant to everyone who is an IT Professional.

Someone who's a technical author, maybe, but developers, admins etc, we (or maybe just I) don't type page after page of prose, so not being able to touch type doesn't slow us down any.

Increasing your productivity by 400-500% vby touch typing? You must do a lot of typing! It wouldn't allow me to check logs, restore backups, reset passwords, maintain accounts, install software etc, 4-5 times faster.

I consider myself a competent typist, I don't touch type, but I don't hunt and peck either.

If you're a code monkey, a technical writer, or use a CLI extensively, it would definitely help. If you're in one of those positions and don't know how to touch-type, I'd recommend learning to do so, even at the expense of postponing other, more technical studies.

If you do all your work on one computer, consider learning to touch-type on a Dvorak keyboard. Don't do it if you have to use multiple systems or support users, or you'll just get confused switching between keyboards.

If you are in a position where most of your work is done with a GUI, it would help but isn't a necessity.

If you're still in school, definitely take a typing / keyboarding class. It's a skill that will pay for itself several times over during the course of your career, regardless of what professional field you go into.

Before this subject fizzles out into the ether and forgotten for good I have some observations to share.

Those that can touch-type see the value of it immediately, like breathing, it's pretty much essential. Those that can't see it as something that is "optional".

Those who touch-type would never advocate using a computer without the skill.

Come on guys and girls, aren't you the least bit concerned that the primary input device of a computer (our trade!) requires that you learn such a basic skill (there are only 26 letters and 10 numbers, and you know them already!) to operate it as it was designed?

Not to put too fine a point on it, without this skill you are denying yourself the ability to do one of the most basic, most fundamentally important things in our trade, that is to use the equipment in the way that it was designed and intended.

How can you possibly argue to the contrary when that is a fact?!

I wasn't born with the skill either. I've coded without and with the ability so see both sides very clearly. I can remember saying exactly the same as others have said here. "I manage very well without thank you". Well, I may have "managed" but I manage a darned sight better WITH the ability and type at 4 to 5 (with the wind behind me) times the old maximum speed. Code just falls out of my fingers as I think it and that makes me incredibly productive. It's corrected as I'm typing too because I'm looking at the screen, not the keyboard, and that means less bugs!

I'm genuinely horrified that this is not seen as the problem of the epic proportions that it is. If there's one thing that lets us down it's not paying attention to the foundations of our skills.

I have watched with horror as a head programmer that I visited typed using two or three fingers on each hand, with hands flying all over the keyboard like a demented sparrow. If you could harness the wasted energy it would have powered the lights!

She was fast, yes, but at the cost of a great deal of energy and she was NOWHERE near as fast or accurate as me. I could match her speed with ease.

When I watched her my first thought was how absolutely unprofessional it looked. This is our trade for goodness sake! If we can't be bothered to do something basic like that properly, what does that say for the rest of what we do?

The lack of response to this subject speaks volumes of course, and yes I realise that to most, maybe all, that this is a subject of very little interest. That's a shame because given two programmers of the same ability I may well choose the one that could touch-type because that tells me about their attention to detail and ability to learn too (actually I'd hire both and train the one that couldn't but that's another story).

When I put touch-typing on my C.V. it ALWAYS got noticed, without exception. What does that tell you? It tells me that I have a skill that a lot of my peers do not. Being selfish that pleases me because I have the advantage, but being professional that truly horrifies me!

That is the question.

If you are using a GUI for 90% of your work then what good does touch typing do?

If you are coding and you plan your work, then what good does touch typing do until you touch a keyboard? None.

It is only after you place your fingers on the keyboard with the intent of actually typing that touch typing come into play.

Yes, I touch type at a nominal 80 wpm with bursts of 120 wpm. But that is irrelevant because it matters not until I actually type and many processes are inhibited by touch typing such as when you stop to think.

For a system admin who mostly reads, I prefer reading skills and problem solving ability. For the coder, how about the ability to break a large problem into a smaller ones and then logically proceed. You know, the guy/gal that spends 90% of their time planning what to do and 10% on the keyboard. Not everything is measured by how fast you type. Unless, that is, you work for a company that measures productivity in lines of code.

When hiring a new software developer, how much emphasis do you put on the fact that the candidate can touch type? It appears from your comments that you consider this to be an extremely important skill.

I don't. I'm looking for someone who is very creative and can look at a problem from several different angles and come up with the best solution before coding. Typing faster doesn't ensure better code.

I reserve touch typing requirements for administrative assistants.

... I'm desperately trying to point out that it is far more valuable in our trade than first appears.

On the other points, I would look for skills in programming first too so we're not in disagreement on that point.

As for testing a programmer, no need. I would simply watch them as they filled in a basic computer based test that asked questions probing the areas of knowledge that they said they were proficient in.

I would stop short of giving them a keyboard with no letters on. Although, what a good test that would be!

Before you ask, no, I'd never refuse someone because they didn't know something. I'd be far more keen to find out how they would go about finding the answers than in what they didn't know. If they didn't google for the answer at some point then I'd be very concerned.

It's the ability to adapt and be creative (as well as being reliable and consistent) that is just as important.

If a prospective employee said to me what has been said to me here about it not being essential for a programmer or being too old to learn, then sorry but they would not be offered the job. There's no such thing as "too old" and I'm not impressed when someone denies a proven fact.

It boils down to this. Only a person who can touch-type is in a qualified position to say whether it's beneficial to a programmer or not.

It's yours and everyone elses choice as to whether you wish to deny this or not: It is a fact that touch-typing benefits a programmer in obvious and not so obvious ways. To be with the ability is significantly better than being without and not having the choice.

End of subject unless you convince me otherwise.

For those IT jobs that require alot of input from the keyboard - such as coding, programming etc., I would think that touch-typing would fall naturally into the position. For those jobs I would STRONGLY RECOMMEND people to learn to touch-type if they haven't already. However, I would not recommend to, nor do I believe any HR person would, refuse someone because they CAN'T touch-type. If the person is good at what they do without touch-typing, then so be it and kudos to them.

Kids in most schools these days are required to learn to type so I don't think touch-typing is going to be a very uncommon thing in the future. It will be a natural skill just like writing.

I do not advocate touch-typing just because I am one. I know plenty of hunt-and-peck_rs who type fluently - nearly as fast as some touch-typists. Every person is different and will adjust accordingly. I would advise learning the skill, and if it suits the person and the job, then keep it. If not, don't. :)

[edited because apparently p-e-c-k-e-r-s is a forbidden word. :D ]