APR
29
2002
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Application Of The Month: KTouchAs part of the May 2002 issue of "Application of the month" series on KDE.de, Klaus Stärk has interviewed Håvard Frøiland, author of KTouch. KTouch is part of the KDE Edutainment Project and provides a quick and fun way to learn the useful and impressive skill of touch typing. See the main homepage for further details and screenshots -- the interview follows.
First of all: Congratulations for publishing the first official release of the KDE Edutainment family.
First of all I would like to say thank you on the behalf of the hard working KDE Edutainment team. I have not
We are currently preparing new programs for the KDE3.1 release: a maths plotter program, a Japanese language How did you start the KTouch project and who else is involved in it?
KTouch was started as a way of learning C++ and QT. I had previously started a couple of other projects based
I have had small contributions to KTouch from various people with translations, training files, keyboard
Do you know of any plans for CD-ROM-based CBT-programs (Computer Based Training) for the KDE Edutainment
Not yet I think. At least I have not heard of anything like that. The KDE-Edutainment project started just Do you have any more features planned for KTouch?
Yes, I want to finish the statistics page. As you can see there are a couple of missing pages in it. I have
I also want to remove the splash screen and write a touch typing tutorial to go in the help page. And while I
What do you think about Open Source and what is the reason for you personally to publish KTouch under the
I am mainly doing this for fun, and I am glad that so many people can use this application since it is GPL.
I like the idea that this application is meant for educational purposes, as I feel this group often has Do you know other KDE developers? Do you know them just virtually or in person as well?
I only know a few people very briefly, just some of the girls and boys in the kde edu project. And of course I don't know any of these people in person though, only through e-mails or IRC. How much time do you usually spend per week working on the KDE project?
It really depends, it goes up and down. In the past I have got most of it done when I have had heaps to do at What's the most common Desktop Environment used on your workplace? (If not KDE, why not? :-)
Well, I haven't started there yet. But I am afraid that most of the stuff is running on Windows at the moment.
Here in Germany, we had an initiative called "BundesTux"
I am not sure about this, but I know that we have a big project called "Skolelinux", and What's your opinion about the future of "Linux on the desktop"?
I can't see how we can avoid it. A Linux solution running KDE is in my opinion much better than a Windows
I also think it would have helped if we had a distribution that only focused on a graphical environment for What's the configuration of your computer, and which Linux distribution do you use for your daily work ?
At the moment I am running Mandrake 8.2 and KDE 3.0 on a 600 Athlon processor, with 128 mb memory. It runs What do you do in your spare time when you're not coding for the KDE-project?
My biggest interest is climbing and spending time with friends. I am also keen on bush walking and like Thanks a lot for joining the "app-of-month" :-) Thanks for choosing KTouch, this was fun. ;-) Håvard Frøiland: havard.froiland@chello.no KTouch: http://edu.kde.org/ktouch Klaus Stärk: staerk@kde.org Application of the month: http://www.kde.de/appmonth |
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Comments
Formatting suggestion
This interview would be a lot more readable if the questions were bolded or indented or somehow differentiated from the answer.
Re: Formatting suggestion
Also, it would be nice if I could access the KTouch homepage :)
(ktouch.sourceforget.net)
(Konqueror gives a sigfault when clicking on the link)
Re: Formatting suggestion
It works perfectly fine here... It's a quite simple page.
Re: Formatting suggestion
AAHHH, here it crashes too:(
Re: Formatting suggestion
I also get a sigfault when clicking on the same link ;-(
Re: Formatting suggestion
Have you compiled konqueror with obj-prelinking? I have the same issue here. :(
Re: Formatting suggestion
hmm, I'm having the exact same problem
What version of konqueror are you using?
Mine is 3.0 from the Gentoo distribution (I was heavy on the optimisations tough).
btw the same thing happens to me on wilwheaton.net,
but those are the only sites I've ever had problems with
Re: Formatting suggestion
I'm using the TexStar rpms (KDE 3.0 stable with optimizations, without obj-prelink) for Mandrake 8.2 ( see http://www.pclinuxonline.com )
There are a few other sites that crash on me, but not many..
Konqueror is more stable for me than Internet Exploder under Windows :) (which I'm not using anymore)
Re: Formatting suggestion
Huh? What? Aren't the questions already bolded? I didn't do the markup, I just used what was provided, but it seems fine to me.
What browser are you using?
Re: Formatting suggestion
The questions are bolded, as I provided them. Must be a problem with your browser. I tested it with Konqui 3.0, Netscape 4.78, Netscape 6, Opera 5.0 and Mozilla 0.94 - works fine in all these browsers.
Re: Formatting suggestion
Doesn't look bold in my Konqueror 3.0 either..
Maybe there's a small bug in Konqueror which prevents bold tags to be used within paragraph tags?
Re: Formatting suggestion
Huh. Can someone suggest a fix? The HTML file (w/out header/footer) for the interview is attached.
Re: Formatting suggestion
It's definitly a bug in Konqueror..
I just browsed the KDE bug list and there have been more problems with the bold and other tags, 1 bug is still open (dated last year)
I'll take a look at the KHTML source myself in a few days.
(in a few days because I'm too busy right now to create some GIMP tutorials (I'm an artistic programmer ;))
As for a solution: maybe it can be solved using inline style tags? (CSS)
Re: Formatting suggestion
The bold works okay in Konqueror 3.0.1 (KDE 3.0.1) from CVS as of last week.
Re: Formatting suggestion
That's great news!
Wow
Wow, hey, this is a great app!
I never checked out the kde-edutainment progs.
I just finished trying Ktouch, and suddenly my typing classes flashed back into my memory. I used to hate those classes :(.
Ofcourse it was with a goofy old typewriter.
But learning how to type with Ktouch is much more fun :)
I typed for five minutes, I couldn't stop, because it was so addictive :)
I'll remember that when my little sister needs to learn how to type.
Indeed the kde-edu section is underrated.
Well it's good that there is some *fuzz* (fuzz is not the word, but I can't find the correct word, well you know what I mean) around kde-edu.
I may not need it so very much, but if someone needs to be educated, I will tell them: "Hey dude, get the kde-edu package." :)
Re: Wow
I agree! KTouch is ruly.
Congratulations on having the first on-topic post.
Great app ...
... so simple and elegant, and so addictive!
I couldn't stop typing either, such a lot of fun! And of course I had to
go on f f a a s s t t e e r r a a n n d d fa fa s s fa fa st st st er fa st er an d and fas ter fas ter and faster and faster ....
After having tried KTouch for 10 minutes I really felt the progress.
It's a great app, thank you!
Re: Great app ...
I absolutely can *not* recommend KTouch.
Having used /real/ typing-tutors this utility is plain silly.
What does a /real/ typing tutor do ?
First: It teaches you the ten-finger system
Second: It contains lessons to make you type faster and faster.
KTouch does not do any of these. I installed two revisions of KTouch
and in none it would tell me *where* to put my fingers and *which* finger to use for *what* character. This is the very first thing it should do however.
Much better is GNUTypist. It is a console based application (yeah learn typing fast over an internetted ssh connection ;-D), that can read the datafiles of many different familiar applications. Alos the ones of KTouch, btw, but even here you will not find any instructions on where to put your fingers. KTouch simply does not have them. The GNUTypist lessons, however, do show this and are overall more professional.
Re: Great app ...
Considering that the QWERTY layout keyboard is *designed* to slow down your typing (since mechanical typewriters couldn't keep up), who says the "10 finger" location is best anyway?
I type with 6 fingers. A, S, D, and L, :/;, "/' on my keyboard. Spacebars is thumb, and Enter key is right pinky or right ring-finger depending. Left pinky for shift, control, etc.
I also type 120 wpm with 85% accuracy, and 80 wpm with 95% accuracy.
I failed typing class in high school.
Why? Because I had already been typing for 8+ years before I took the class and they wanted me to "unlearn" what was working well for me.
Now, take the Dvorak keyboard for instance. A much more intuitive keyboard layout, but if you try to put your 10 fingers where the "old school" wants you to have them and you'll end up breaking a knuckle.
I say pooh!
As long as you know where the keys are, who gives a sh*t how you type, just as long as you can.
Re: Great app ...
The whole QWERTY thing is a myth. There's a few pages out there that I'm too lazy to find right now that explain it all in excrutiating detail.
I think there was _some_ merit to the idea that the design was meant to keep a typewriter's machinery from jamming up, but in many tests proved no slower than any other setup. It ended up succeeding because of company/marketing reasons.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=qwerty+myth
Re: Great app ...
My grandfather worked for Underwood typewriters.
I can assure you, the QWERTY layout is *not* a myth, and was specifically engineered that way to slow down typists and prevent the arms and hammers from jamming up.
I have two Underwood typewriters in my attic. Both can only handle typing around 50-60wpm before they jam up.
Re: Great app ...
well, most ppl hate the 10 finger system.
Re: Wow
This app slowed me down on my typing, I can already type at 150 wpm, the only thing that I need to work on is probably, um....10 key? I hate numbers, but that's never been a problem for me, because...well...I just don't care for numbers and I already know where all the numbers are on the key board, it comes with years of typing experience, that you learn where all the keys are on the keyboard, as a matter of a fact it only took me a minute to type all of this
which would be at about 111 wpm, pretty fast eh? that's with out mistakes.
Re: Wow
Plenty of mistakes:
"um...10 key?" What is that supposed to mean? Maybe you mean "10 *keys*", with an 's'?
"key board" You have an extra space there.
"with out" Another extra space.
Other mistakes include missing punctuation and/or inappropriate punctuation.
Maybe the app is slowing you down for a reason?
(Note: I'm not claiming my own post is error-free.)
edu vs. science
I'm just wondering if there is a similar kde-science initiative? I still think that linux/unix system have a great market share among scientists. I'm not talking educational programs that teach you calculus or the periodic table, but rather tools that are geared especially towards a scientific audience. KLyx was a truly great program in the right spirit, but it hasn't been around since KDE 1 :(
What I would want is:
* a great scientific "word processor". A well integrated equation editor that generates nice (LaTeX quality) equations is very important as well as footnotes and multiple-file reference handling. Revision control like in KLyx would also be very nice. Candidate: Lyx GUI independent
* A decent illustration app. Hopefully Kontour will do.
* A professional quality plot component. This is a real problem today - when saving plots from for instance Matlab the font sizes etc are all fixed. If the image is resized in the word processor the font sizes are as well resulting in a document/book with slightly varying plot appearance. It would be awesome to have a plot component where you can change the label sizes, line widths, oline styles etc globally using normal formats/styles/whatever! (killer warning)
* A numerical maths program like Matlab or Octave. Just put Octave in a KDE-window and add support for the above mentioned plot objects and ... wow!
* A flow chart program (Kivio)
* Perfect PDF generation from all of the above.
* Anything else you can think of (but the above mentioned programs would be a more than decent start!)
Am I just dreaming?
Re: edu vs. science
> KLyx was a truly great program in the right spirit, but it hasn't
> been around since KDE 1 :(
> [...]
> Am I just dreaming?
Yes, you are. Must be some sort of nightmare. There was a KDE2 port of
Klyx (albeit badly maintained) and there is a working verison for KDE3 in
the CVS. I have it running here under KDE3, yet I prefer vim+(la)tex ... :-)
Re: edu vs. science
KLyX was a port of LyX to KDE. Development always lagged behind LyX, though, and since LyX will soon be GUI-independent (i.e. available in Qt and Gtk flavours as well as the old ugly xform widgets) it should provide what you're looking for. See http://www.lyx.org
i've enjoyed this
I Like this program! I've played all the way to level 26. Edutainment is a good name; the program is fun and I believe gives good practice. To better teach typing to beginners, rather than just provide practrice, perhaps some incorporation of proper hand position training would be nice.
KDE3 version?
Hey, I'm looking to move my Dad to Linux/KDE. All he uses Windows for is web browsing, email, and to practice typing! I don't want to give him KDE2, tho. Is there a KDE3 version anywhere, (I didn't see one)?
Those keyboard buttons can use some themeing, too ;-) If there's a KDE3 version mind if I add it? Want to impress the old man with KDE :)
Re: KDE3 version?
You need to look for a kdeedu package for your distro (or compile it :) http://download.kde.org/stable/3.0/
Re: KDE3 version?
I see. The webpage should be updated, too, tho ;-) I just looked there and didn't see it.
Not enough layouts
There doesn't seem to be support for Dvorak. "??????" would be nice too, but I don't really need support for Russian. Not yet at least.
Great name...
...so what are you going to call the KDE app which changes the access time of a file? :-)