Since my conversion to Dvorak last week I’ve found myself needing to practice as much as possible to retrain myself on a new keyboard layout. My day to day requires quite a bit, but there are also those times when I find I just need some good old fashioned training. For that I use gtypist.
Gtypist supports both QWERTY and awesome–err, I mean, Dvorak layouts so you can practice whichever you prefer. I had used the program from time to time before my switch to test my speed and accuracy. I’m now using it for practice.
To install gtypist you’ll want to install the gtypist package using your favorite method (command line via aptitude or GUI via Synaptic).
sudo aptitude install gtypist
You can run gtypist by using that same command or offer some arguments such as those listed below.
gtypist -e % : default acceptable error percentage (0 - 100, defaults at 3%)gtypist -s : silent mode. If you find yourself making a lot of errors it can get annoying!
This will come in handy for any of you other brave souls that want to take on the challenge. I know it really is helping me. I’m up to 60wpm on some tests after only a week of use!
Why aptitude and not apt-get?
sam – you can find a brief explanation on why at this previous post:
aptitude package management
dvorak7min seems quite a nice tutor as well. It doesn’t offer a lot of help beyond the exercises, but then you don’t really need it for dvorak, right?
Also, re the aptitude thing, I take some issue with automatic dependency removal, as I sometimes find I’m using the dependency-installed package separately from the package that installed it. I’m sure that doesn’t apply to anyway, but if you compile any programs from source, it’s worth watching out for.
is there any typing tutor software for ubuntu?
As the post says, gtypist is a typing tutor.