Idea
It should not be something fancy.
As a developer, I realized traditional typing apps aren’t built for coding. They miss key features that coders need:
- Syntax highlighting to replicate real coding environments.
- Practice with tricky symbols like {, }, ;, and |.
- Real-world coding snippets to make typing practice meaningful.
- wanted TypingHackers to fill this gap.
So, I’ve built typinghackers to fill this gap.
Remove as much as possible
To focus on speed and simplicity, I trimmed down the initial scope. Here’s what I deliberately left out in the first version:
- Monetization: Payment systems like Stripe aren’t accessible to me yet, and I’m still exploring the right business model. Why rush?
- Educational Content: I thought about providing snippets with facts or explanations. But for now, the typing experience comes first.
- Multiple Languages: I started with Go because it’s concise and popular among developers. Supporting more languages can come later. By cutting down features, I could iterate faster and focus on what truly matters.
Features I Kept
- Dynamic Syntax Highlighting: Thanks to Shiki, every snippet looks and feels like real code.
- Real-World Snippets: Practice typing Go snippets straight from the standard library.
- Finger Hints: Learn the most efficient way to type every symbol and letter.
- Stats Tracking: Keep track of your accuracy, speed, and progress to stay motivated.
The flow
Touch typing is about not leaving the state of the flow while coding. Even though AI is typing 1000x faster, it does require the switch of the context of your mind.
It’s not just about speed or typing code better. It’s about keeping the state of the flow longer.
So I am typing this in a markdown file in nvim zenmode floating in ideas while my fingers just do the work.
Check out typinghackers to see the progress and train some finger muscles.