On 10/18/07, Tracy R Reed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I recently experienced a senior level IT guy who was a hunt and pecker. > This made me think: Perhaps we should administer a typing test? Would > that be offensive? Can you really be an experienced > coder/sysadmin/whatever and not know how to type without looking at the > keyboard?
I went into the Brentanos in Seattle about sixteen years ago and was surprised to find a line going out the door and halfway down the block. Inside, Harlan Ellison was promoting one of his books, and was challenging the people in the line to give him a subject rather than autographing books. He would then write a short story based on or around that subject. I watched, facsinated. The stories were anywhere from a half a page to a page and a half long, and he cranked out about seven in the fifteen minutes or so I was in the store. There were little groups gathered reading several others to each other. The line was so long that I didn't have time to stay and get one for myself, but I noticed three thnigs: 1. Harlan Ellison was using an Olympia manual typwriter. 2. Harlan Ellison is a two-finger typist. 3. None of the stort pages I saw(6) had any spelling or syntax errors. Those stories are surely collectors items now. If an experienced writer of prose can do that without knowing how to type, I would bet that an experienced coder could do it too. Robert Donovan -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
