The Unix Heritage Society mailing list
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
* Re: [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
@ 2021-02-06 23:28 M Douglas McIlroy
  2021-02-07  0:05 ` [TUHS] " Warren Toomey
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: M Douglas McIlroy @ 2021-02-06 23:28 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1005 bytes --]

This topic is evocative, even though I really have nothing to say about it.

Mike Lesk started, and I believe Brian contributed to, "learn", a program
for interactive tutorials about Unix. It was never pushed very far--almost
certainly not into typing.

But the mention of typing brings to mind the inimitable Fred Grampp--he
who pioneered massive white-hat computer cracking. Fred's exploits justified
the opening sentence I wrote for Bell Labs' first computer-security task
force report, "It is easy and not very risky to pilfer data from Bell
Laboratories computers." Among Fred's many distinctive and endearing
quirks was the fact that he was a confirmed two-finger typist--proof that
typing technique is an insignificant factor in programmer productivity.

I thought this would be an excuse to tell another ftg story, but I
don't want to repeat myself and a search for "Grampp" in the tuhs archives
misses many that have already been told. Have the entries been lost or
is the index defective?

Doug

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1326 bytes --]

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
  2021-02-06 23:28 [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive] M Douglas McIlroy
@ 2021-02-07  0:05 ` Warren Toomey
  2021-02-07  0:49 ` [TUHS] [TUHS} " Will Senn
  2021-02-07 22:33 ` George Michaelson
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Warren Toomey @ 2021-02-07  0:05 UTC (permalink / raw)
  Cc: tuhs

On Sat, Feb 06, 2021 at 06:28:19PM -0500, M Douglas McIlroy wrote:
>    I thought this would be an excuse to tell another ftg story, but
>    I don't want to repeat myself and a search for "Grampp" in the tuhs
>    archives  misses many that have already been told. Have the entries been
>    lost or is the index defective?
>    Doug

I'm not sure. I'm using swish to do the indexing. I've just destroyed the
existing index and rebuilt it. Fingers crossed!

Thanks, Warren

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
  2021-02-06 23:28 [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive] M Douglas McIlroy
  2021-02-07  0:05 ` [TUHS] " Warren Toomey
@ 2021-02-07  0:49 ` Will Senn
  2021-02-07 22:33 ` George Michaelson
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Will Senn @ 2021-02-07  0:49 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: M Douglas McIlroy; +Cc: tuhs



Doug said:
> Among Fred's many distinctive and endearing
> quirks was the fact that he was a confirmed two-finger typist--proof that
> typing technique is an insignificant factor in programmer productivity.
> 

I wrote my most lasting programs before I learned to type - many of which are still in production some 20+ years later. Tolkeim and Gilbarco credit processors, SMTPE and IRIG-B GPS satellite time signal processing hardware drivers, and others more ancient and specialized. Ah, those were the days... not the good old days mind you, but memorable.

Am I alone in seeing the utter irony in my sitting here, my two thumbs searching frantically for the right letters on a keyboard the size of a 1/3rd of a credit card, designed to slow typists down (qwerty), missing as many letters as I get right? Ugh... what lunacy progress hath wrought!


> I thought this would be an excuse to tell another ftg story, but I
> don't want to repeat myself and a search for "Grampp" in the tuhs archives
> misses many that have already been told. Have the entries been lost or
> is the index defective?

What’s an ftg? Grampp, I’ve heard about.

Will

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
  2021-02-06 23:28 [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive] M Douglas McIlroy
  2021-02-07  0:05 ` [TUHS] " Warren Toomey
  2021-02-07  0:49 ` [TUHS] [TUHS} " Will Senn
@ 2021-02-07 22:33 ` George Michaelson
  2021-02-08 15:17   ` Will Senn
  2 siblings, 1 reply; 9+ messages in thread
From: George Michaelson @ 2021-02-07 22:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: M Douglas McIlroy; +Cc: TUHS main list

The "learn" about shell or editing required you to demonstrate you
could type with 'pack my box with six dozen liquor jugs' input gating
the lesson as I remember it. something else around that time, I think
the TOPS-10 typing tutor got me the home keys. Took another 10 years
for me to wake up to being able to type mostly eyes off the keyboard
but it sure seems to work (most of the the time) now.

-G

On Sun, Feb 7, 2021 at 9:28 AM M Douglas McIlroy
<m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
>
> This topic is evocative, even though I really have nothing to say about it.
>
> Mike Lesk started, and I believe Brian contributed to, "learn", a program
> for interactive tutorials about Unix. It was never pushed very far--almost
> certainly not into typing.
>
> But the mention of typing brings to mind the inimitable Fred Grampp--he
> who pioneered massive white-hat computer cracking. Fred's exploits justified
> the opening sentence I wrote for Bell Labs' first computer-security task
> force report, "It is easy and not very risky to pilfer data from Bell
> Laboratories computers." Among Fred's many distinctive and endearing
> quirks was the fact that he was a confirmed two-finger typist--proof that
> typing technique is an insignificant factor in programmer productivity.
>
> I thought this would be an excuse to tell another ftg story, but I
> don't want to repeat myself and a search for "Grampp" in the tuhs archives
> misses many that have already been told. Have the entries been lost or
> is the index defective?
>
> Doug
>

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
  2021-02-07 22:33 ` George Michaelson
@ 2021-02-08 15:17   ` Will Senn
  2021-02-08 17:17     ` John Cowan
                       ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Will Senn @ 2021-02-08 15:17 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: TUHS main list

On 2/7/21 4:33 PM, George Michaelson wrote:
> The "learn" about shell or editing required you to demonstrate you
> could type with 'pack my box with six dozen liquor jugs' input gating
> the lesson as I remember it. something else around that time, I think
> the TOPS-10 typing tutor got me the home keys. Took another 10 years
> for me to wake up to being able to type mostly eyes off the keyboard
> but it sure seems to work (most of the the time) now.
>
> -G
>
>

OK. I was hoping somebody somewhere had used a unix typing tutor, but if 
the TOPS-10 tutor was the only thing out there, was it any good? Surely, 
somebody somewhen knows of others?

Will

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
  2021-02-08 15:17   ` Will Senn
@ 2021-02-08 17:17     ` John Cowan
  2021-02-08 18:05     ` Jon Steinhart
  2021-02-08 23:46     ` George Michaelson
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: John Cowan @ 2021-02-08 17:17 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Will Senn; +Cc: TUHS main list

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 648 bytes --]

On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 10:18 AM Will Senn <will.senn@gmail.com> wrote:

OK. I was hoping somebody somewhere had used a unix typing tutor, but if
> the TOPS-10 tutor was the only thing out there, was it any good? Surely,
> somebody somewhen knows of others?
>

Note that SIMH + trailing-edge/bitsavers provides an excellent TOPS-10
environment.  If the typing tutor is hiding anywhere, it would be
straightforward to run it today.



John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan@ccil.org
Does anybody want any flotsam? / I've gotsam.
Does anybody want any jetsam? / I can getsam.
        --Ogden Nash, No Doctors Today, Thank You

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1967 bytes --]

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
  2021-02-08 15:17   ` Will Senn
  2021-02-08 17:17     ` John Cowan
@ 2021-02-08 18:05     ` Jon Steinhart
  2021-02-08 18:14       ` Larry McVoy
  2021-02-08 23:46     ` George Michaelson
  2 siblings, 1 reply; 9+ messages in thread
From: Jon Steinhart @ 2021-02-08 18:05 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: TUHS main list

Will Senn writes:
>
> OK. I was hoping somebody somewhere had used a unix typing tutor, but if 
> the TOPS-10 tutor was the only thing out there, was it any good? Surely, 
> somebody somewhen knows of others?

Never used a UNIX typing tutor since I took a typing class before UNIX was
a thing, but when my kid was young I had her use tuxtype (and tuxmath, ...)
which is pretty cool.

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
  2021-02-08 18:05     ` Jon Steinhart
@ 2021-02-08 18:14       ` Larry McVoy
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Larry McVoy @ 2021-02-08 18:14 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Jon Steinhart; +Cc: TUHS main list

On Mon, Feb 08, 2021 at 10:05:29AM -0800, Jon Steinhart wrote:
> Will Senn writes:
> >
> > OK. I was hoping somebody somewhere had used a unix typing tutor, but if 
> > the TOPS-10 tutor was the only thing out there, was it any good? Surely, 
> > somebody somewhen knows of others?
> 
> Never used a UNIX typing tutor since I took a typing class before UNIX was
> a thing, but when my kid was young I had her use tuxtype (and tuxmath, ...)
> which is pretty cool.

Wandering a little far afield but ...

I'm a self taught touch typist, if you can call it that.  I've just typed
enough that it works.  But it's a thing that works when I don't think about
it, as soon as I go "oh, I'm typing without looking" it stops working.  So
I try not to think about it.

Funny thing is that I bought an excavator maybe 5 years ago or so.  Using
the joysticks to control that thing is just like my touch typing.  I've
done it enough that if I'm not thinking about it, everything just works.
And that's after about 300 hours of experience on it, which isn't a lot.
It's some, not a lot.

I'm good enough that I set this skidsteer upright with it, which was
something, that excavator is way too small for that 8000 pound skid
steer but I got her up.  And didn't break anything, or anyone, in the
process.

http://mcvoy.com/lm/skidsteer-rescue.jpg

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

* Re: [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive]
  2021-02-08 15:17   ` Will Senn
  2021-02-08 17:17     ` John Cowan
  2021-02-08 18:05     ` Jon Steinhart
@ 2021-02-08 23:46     ` George Michaelson
  2 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: George Michaelson @ 2021-02-08 23:46 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Will Senn; +Cc: TUHS main list

It was very probably a precursor to this product on a VMS DECUS tape:

https://www.digiater.nl/openvms/decus/vax83c/harris/aaareadme.txt

This is from '83 but the one I was using was pre 79.

Funny story: the account to run the typing tutor had an open login.

The login had unlimited credit on JANET, the uk pre-internet X25
network. JANET was driving cost recovery models, so data was
"budgeted" with real world money.

I used the typing tutor login to make X29 PAD calls over JANET from
York to Edinburgh to "talk" to my dad who was on EMAS at edinburgh
uni. It was nice.

I spent GBP200 of JANET "credits" and got caught at the end-of-month
by the accounts team in the computer centre, hauled up before the
professor for "hacking" and was formally reprimanded and required not
to do it again (tm).

Hacker career over before end of first term of first year university.

On Tue, Feb 9, 2021 at 1:18 AM Will Senn <will.senn@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2/7/21 4:33 PM, George Michaelson wrote:
> > The "learn" about shell or editing required you to demonstrate you
> > could type with 'pack my box with six dozen liquor jugs' input gating
> > the lesson as I remember it. something else around that time, I think
> > the TOPS-10 typing tutor got me the home keys. Took another 10 years
> > for me to wake up to being able to type mostly eyes off the keyboard
> > but it sure seems to work (most of the the time) now.
> >
> > -G
> >
> >
>
> OK. I was hoping somebody somewhere had used a unix typing tutor, but if
> the TOPS-10 tutor was the only thing out there, was it any good? Surely,
> somebody somewhen knows of others?
>
> Will

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2021-02-08 23:47 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 9+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2021-02-06 23:28 [TUHS] [TUHS} Typing Tutor [and tuhs archive] M Douglas McIlroy
2021-02-07  0:05 ` [TUHS] " Warren Toomey
2021-02-07  0:49 ` [TUHS] [TUHS} " Will Senn
2021-02-07 22:33 ` George Michaelson
2021-02-08 15:17   ` Will Senn
2021-02-08 17:17     ` John Cowan
2021-02-08 18:05     ` Jon Steinhart
2021-02-08 18:14       ` Larry McVoy
2021-02-08 23:46     ` George Michaelson

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).