Great program!  Are you sure it is not overestimating though?  I cannot really believe I am capable of 63 wpm!  I've always struggled to cross 50 on the Colemak exercises (although, truth to be told, I did give up on then quicker owing to ennui).

It is also rather reassuring to see that the champions all achieved their top speeds despite having to stop many times to correct their mistakes.

Thanks for the compliments. I would think that the WPM calculation is correct (although you can check it by manually counting the characters in the replay), but maybe it is just easier to type the given sentences since I don't chop them up into meaningless fragments quite as much as TyperA tends to do, and I think it is easier to type something if you comprehend its meaning. I have also tried to eliminate spelling and grammatical mistakes from the sentences, which should also help the speed.

I think perhaps it is not too surprising that the fastest people type so many characters before before realising their mistake, simply because of the speed at which they are going. e.g. Suppose it takes someone a quarter of a second to react. A fast person will have travelled more distance in that time (i.e. pressed more keys) than someone who is going much more slowly.

Although I am not anywhere near Joel's speed myself, I can say that there seem to be two parts of my brain involved: one conscious part that looks at the next word and sequences it into some finger action that is quickly memorised by the other subconscious part of my brain. My fingers can read off the memorised sequence simultaneously while my mind is sequencing the next word. So, there is definitely an "automatic" process involved where my fingers read off the sequence, and reflexes won't always be fast enough to interrupt it when the conscious part of the brain notices a mistake. In the quarter of a second it takes the conscious brain to realise what has happened, the subconscious brain will have already pumped out 5 of the automatic characters.

I think that is what everyone is doing, only it bocomes more noticeable when you get faster.

that's an awesome typing test...thanks. I got 62, I'll try again later to see if my tiredness plays a role on the results. Then I'll try a different keyboard to compare.

Awesome and addictive.... aaargh.

Congrats Ryan, both on improving your highscore and on getting me moderately addicted.

I just put on some computer game music and improved my 57 WPM highscore to a 59. Seems the driving themes helped me maintain a better flow somehow. Not suggesting that all typing be done to psyched music, but in my case it was interesting to note that tension I was mostly unaware of may disturb my typing flow significantly. Helps show the way forward.

Indeed, 'first' is confusing at first. Luckily, with practice it becomes one of the fast words in Colemak!

Thanks for the expert tips! I'll see if I can work on my rhythm. Maybe I ought to use a metronome...

One thing I'm anxious about is that my shift usage is 'dirty': I far too often use the left shift for a left-hand key, out of habit. I'm curious whether that affects my speed significantly or not. Maybe nobody can know? It does feel a bit straining, stretching the hand for two keys at once like that, so I suppose I should try to break the habit.

User feedback: Sometimes I have to click more than twice on the typing test to get it started. How come?
[Edit: I think I've discovered something: The orange button may not (always) let clicks bubble through to the frame? If I click outside the button, it seems easier to get the test to (re)start.]

The font is very nice! It's quirky for sure, but it does give a vintage typing feel that I've grown quite fond of.

Maybe the setting could harmonize better with the font's theme though? A diffuse background image of a vintage typewriter? Too noisy maybe - a diffuse, wrinkled paper background? A sepia theme?

Come to think of it - the typing frame may be a tad small. Lots of empty space in the window. Details, details.

> *There is no visual indicator where the cursor is at. Moreover since the spaces are invisible, you don't know if you've typed them or not.

I agree this is definitely important, my brother has also personally complained about this :-) I will try to get some sort of cursor working next weekend.

> *It would be nice to be able to start/restart the typing test by using the keyboard instead of having to use the mouse (I suggest F2).

Using click-to-begin was just a tricky way to make sure the applet definitely has keyboard focus before beginning the game. Without clicking in the applet first, none of the keys respond, actually.

I'm not sure of a good way to overcome this technical problem, sadly...

> *It would be nice to display accuracy statistics.

I would definitely love to display the most commonly mistyped characters and also the slowest popular words, for a start.

Another idea I've been thinking of is a practice mode that only gives you sentences that contain a given word(s) that you wish to practice.

> *The font isn't very nice. (EDIT: i.e. on a high screen resolution with anti aliasing enabled some of the glyphs aren't thick enough to be clearly visible).

I haven't heard this one before and so it seems possible that the font can show up differently on different computers depending on what font set they have installed in their operating system and/or the JVM. I will at some point have to see for myself how it looks on other people's computers.

> I really like it, and I've added it as a recommendation in the list of typing tests.

Thank you very much, and I will post again once I have sorted out these issues.

Ryan, I suggest you go for a simple underscore marking position. No need for any flashy stuff as it'd maybe mess with the 'nice-and-simple-yet-effective' impression the app is giving now. An underscore always placed on the next character position until something is typed there would be subtle enough not to annoy those who don't want too much, yet distinct enough to aid those who feel the need for a cursor.

There are some instances of ` ' style quotes in the syllabus. Those should be rooted out as not only are they typographical abominations but take ages to type on a non-US keyboard like mine where you have to use a released dead key for the grave accent!

Done, and done!

I also fixed some grammar and spelling problems, so hopefully the sentences should be easier and more natural to type, now.

I'm particularly happy that the underscore turns red whenever I mistype a space character.

I'm particularly UNhappy that I cannot break 62 WPM no matter how hard I try, and now my wrists are starting to tell me to slow down a bit (it's okay, I know my wrists well from the time I practiced the piano so I won't get RSI this time either). But I don't suppose anyone except me can do much about that.  :)

If your wrists are hurting, it may indicate that you are moving your fingers too much (e.g. which can happen if your fingers have trouble deciding which key to press next, and hence move around a lot or get stressed). So, whenever your wrists hurt, it may be an idea to try typing with minimal finger movements for a while -- *really* minimal finger movements.

Also, it is important to be aware of your weak words so that you know to slow down for those words. Hopefully, adding statistics to the applet will make it easier to identify those weak words.