GNU Typist – universal typing tutor

GNU Typist (gtypist) is a simple, open source, interactive, ncurses based universal touch typing tutor. It assists you in learning to type correctly. The software improves your skills by practising its exercises on a regular basis.

It has several lessons for different keyboard layouts and in different languages. It uses an input file to create a series of typing tutorials, drills, and speed tests.

In a drill, gtypist displays text in every other line on the screen, and waits for the user to correctly type the exact same text in the intermediate lines. In a speed test, gtypist displays text on the screen, and waits for the user to correctly over-type the exact same text. It indicates typing errors, and at the end of the test it calculates the real and effective rate in WPM.

Features include:

• Easy to use and user friendly interface.
• Typing exercises: drills and speed tests, practice only.
• Comes with several typing tutorials: in Czech, English (Qwerty and Dvorak keyboard), Russian and Spanish, as well as simpler exercises in German, French and Norwegian.
• Interprets a simple and intuitive scripting language that describes typing tutorials.
• Extensible – lessons for other keyboards and languages can be easily added.
• Supports internationalization and already has an interface in Czech, English, Finnish, French, German and Spanish.
• Users can navigate through lessons through an easy to use arrow key based menu interface. ‘vi’ up, down, left and right keys can be used too.
• Easy to learn scripting language that the user can use to modify the existing lessons or create new ones.
• Perl script available to convert lessons written for ktouch’s format to gtypist’s format.
• Emacs major-mode which does syntax-highlighting, indentation and has some convenient commands for counting labels, a goto-label-command, inserting properly centred banners, special comments and more.
• vim syntax highlighting for gtypist lesson files.
• Multi-platform support.

Website: www.gnu.org/software/gtypist
Support: Manual, Mailing Lists
Developer: GNU Typist Development Team
License: GNU General Public License v3.0

GNU Typist is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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