26 Jan
2023
26 Jan
'23
9:12 p.m.
On 1/26/23 12:34, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
> I believe professionals routinely achieved
that speed, certainly on electric typewriters; non-electric ones would be a bit harder.
This may surprise some:
https://www.academyoflearning.com/blog/the-fastest-typists-in-the-world-pas…
> The IBM selectric mechanism could handle 14.8
characters per second, about 150 WPM. At GSFC, one guy managed to get a selectric
terminal up to about twice that (300 baud?), but soon, the [APL] typeball flew off across
the room. There was some discussion of competing for distance.
I submit that the Selectric was not the optimum platform with which to
set speed records.
As an aside, one nice thing about old FORTRAN 66 and predecessors, is
the use of what amounts to a 46 character set, which amounts to letters,
numbers and -+=()/.,* and space. It makes for very fast program entry.
--Chuck