Marc3/ mods, if you would only consider this, it'd be great!

I'm sure all the long-standing users of this site would like to have this statistic too.

Marc3/ mods, if you would only consider this, it'd be great!

I'm sure all the long-standing users of this site would like to have this statistic too.

I for one don't see much sense in this... I mean, it took me a long time to get fast, and the overall average of my querty account would be, lets say, about 60 wpm, although I haven't typed below 80 wpm for months, so it really wouldn't represent any sensible number at all.

What I'd prefer would be a graph listing each game you ever played. This way, you could see the improvement made, and even identify cheaters by looking for unnatural jumps in wpm, if that's your goal; I don't see much sense in that, though... it's themselves that they cheat, most of all. It's not like there's a winnig prize to win on the site.

I'm working on a new version of the typing test at the moment. I'm rewriting the engine in a more modern language. When this is done, I'll spend some time on the profile page. I'm ok to add an overall average (the data is already there).

You are right a graph of all games ever played would be lovely. I will consider adding that.

Hey, thanks, that would be really great!

By the way, since you said you're working on a new version already, I'd like to suggest some features that would promote more communication between people using the site. To my knowledge, the only event that gives you a notification is when someone comments on your profile. What I'd suggest to add are:

- Notifications when someone replies to a thread you made in the forums
- Notifications when someone replies to a reply you made on someone else's thread
- Notifications when someone comments on a quote you added (I don't actually know whether this feature isn't existent yet since noone commented on my quotes, but if not, it would be a cool feature)
- Notifications when someone replies to a comment you made on someone else's quote.

I don't know how tough it would be to implement those features since my web development skills are zilch, but this would make communicating on the forums easier and allow people to have discussions about interesting or controversial quotes.

Yea! Flash is going away!

Marc3, please please please don't change it from flash to something else!

Even if you do, please don't change it to something that is INTERNET based. I have a VERY VERY hard time maintaining my usual average on typeracer whenever my internet is slow and it'll be the same here too. :'(

I LOVE this site because it doesn't depend on my internet speed and there are a variety of quotes to type from... Whatever you do, don't change it! Please! *sobbing*

This is a web app. It is a web app in Flash, or it is a web app in HTML5. There is no such thing as an internet app that is not "INTERNET based".

Writing an app in Javascript does not make the app either more or less likely to require a fast internet connection. That is entirely a function of how the app is coded. Take a look at 10fastfingers.com or keybr.com. Both are HTML5-based typing apps. Neither is impeded by a slow internet connection.

Flash is dead. The future is HTML5. Thank you, Marc3, for helping to kill the beast. Onward and upward!

I've added the all time speed to the profile page. Also, my work on the new typing test is getting there and I will publish it next week. Cheers, Marc

Thanks a lot Marc, although I would have preferred the site as it is, cause I like it. Also, please don't make your new site internet speed based. Also what is it with the "edit profile" link, whenever I try to do it now, it says "user doesn't exist"?

The current version of the typing test will continue to be available. Don't worry. I will have a look at the bug your are mentioning. That's odd.

I've fixed the issue with the "edit profile" link.

Here's a preview of the new typing test and the new design. Please let me know what you think.

http://www.keyhero.…

I really like that you can zoom in on the text now, and that you can access and rate a quote directly from the typing test page, that's a great feature! The accuracy gaph is marvellous. I also would've missed the graph that shows how fast you were throughout the quote and where your wpm drops were.

Features that I'm missing/change sugestions:

- The average shown in the wpm as well as in the accuracy graph seems to be for the last thirty games. This is a bit much IMO, I'd be happy to have it back to the last ten.

- I really liked the feature in the old test that differentiated between different types of errors, like capitalization, transposed letters, etc. If possible, I'd like to have that back.

- There's no audio cue when you make an error. Although you could argue that in a realistic typing scenario you don't have that either, I really liked that a lot.

- There's no field that shows your current wpm while you're typing. I'd like to be able to have a glance at how I'm doing during the test.

- The penalties for errors are far too low in my opinion. Personally, I'd like sticking to the "No errors allowed" policy. Back when I was at 90 - 100 wpm on QUERTY, I still threw in some transposed letter errors, like "taht" instead of "that". They usually cost me between 5 and 10 wpm since I'd be two to three words further into the text before my fingers got the signal from my brain that I'd have to go back and fix it. This really hurt, but it encouraged me to not let these errors become a habit. Just now, I did 2 of these errors in the new typing test and got a 2.19 wpm deduction. Comparing to the time needed to fix the errors, the penalty is laughable and thereby encourages not fixing, promoting sloppy typing.

- There's no longer a countdown before the quote is displayed... I think this makes especially short quotes more a reaction-time test than a typing test. What I've seen others suggest before and would much appreciate as well, is to have the timer not start until the user has started typing. Like this, you'd be able to read through and sort out quotes you don't like before starting the test, and you'd also avoid having your reaction time tested.

That's all I can think of now. That being said, I really like the feel of it, feels much more direct than the old one.

Awesome feedback thanks. I took care of a bunch of things:
- I've set the average to the last 10 games.
- I've added the different error types.
- I've added an audio cue.
- The WPM on the right is now updated during the typing test.
- I've made the penalty stronger. Hopefully it is enough to encourage
people to not leave errors. I chose to add this penalty system because
I was losing users because of the stricter rule.

I will take care of the issue with when to start the timer next. I'll
post again when it's ready.

Looking very good.

One suggestion on the penalty: Only use the red highlight on the words that have errors on them, rather than the rest of the typing test.

Also, another vote for not starting the clock until the user starts typing. But I can live with the countdown also.

EDIT - Nevermind on the highlight. I see what it is doing now. Looking great!

Wow, that was fast, thanks!

The penalty strenght feels right now, good job!

I still have a little issue with the averages, though... the old ones were a graph of their own, showing the change in average between each individual test, but the new one is just a horizontal line that spans the last 30 tests in the height of the current average. If possible, it would be great to see the change in average again.

I've been thinking about the timer issue some more, and I fear my suggestion is actually kinda bad under current conditions. The new test as it is now allows copy/paste -- if the timer isn't started until the user starts typing, it would be fairly easy to just type the quote in a different window and paste it to the site, and thereby cheat. So, either you'd have to make the test copy/paste secure, or go for the countdown option, otherwise we'd get lots and lots of cheated highscores beyond humanly possible typing speeds.

There seems to be a bug that I managed to trigger when fumbling the escape key. I wish I could tell you exactly how I did it.

I ended up with a 0 result in my graph, and a break in the accuracy chart:

http://imgur.com/Qy…

It cleared up, though, in the next result. The null result disappeared.

Thanks for telling me about this issue. I was not able to reproduce it
using the ESC key. However, I found a similar bug if you press the
restart button repeatedly. I have fixed this problem and hopefully your
issue is gone too. Let me know if it happens again.

I have added the moving average of the ten last games. It should now
be just like the flash version.

For the timer, I have changed the rules. Once the quote appears, you
have 3 seconds to start typing. As soon as you type the first
character, the timer starts. If you wait longer that 3 seconds, the
timer will start on its own. I hope this change will work for you.

I was not able to cheat using copy/paste. Did you try? Are you able to
cheat this way?

Thanks for everything, marc3, You must be one hell of a coder. I wish to be half as good as you, someday.

Thanks for the site. I'll still be using the older version cause I'm too used to it by now.


I wish you had more users participating on this brilliant site of yours but then again typing is a niche sport in which only a few fanatics like us frequent regularly... like they say once you are beyond 70/80 wpm, it doesn't really matter in real life. so I guess it makes sense that people don't prioritize speeding up too much. I'm glad though that things aren't the same for me though, cause typing has given me so many little yet overbearing moments of joy in my life.


Whatever it may be, please do take heart in knowing that your work on this site is highly appreciated by this fan.

Thanks for the moving average, works just fine!

Timer works fine for me now, that's a good compromise.

I just tried cheating with copy/paste, and you're right: It doesn't work. The test does not accept pasted words as it seems to count the actual key hits, not the speed by which the text is moving. Great stuff!

Seeing a lot of cases where a corrected word is not actually showing as corrected. Here is an example:

http://imgur.com/Il…

I can consistently replicate this one. It happens then I hit backspace followed by the correct key in rapid succession. The correction shows in the text bar below, but the text above remains red, and if I continue typing, it registers as a penalty, even though the text below is correct.

The following two images show that:

http://imgur.com/IJ…
http://imgur.com/5V…

Hey Marc, sorry to bother you again, but I still have a tiny little detail that I'd like you to include: The current average (wpm as well as accuracy) of the last ten games as a number, like you had in the flash version below the graph. Doesn't have to be at that same spot, but around that region would be great.

I've also had ideas to further improve the graphs showing average and accuracy, but this might be more difficult so just take them as food for thought:

- Right now, the information when the test was taken is just accesible through the profile, so if you want to take a certain number of tests in one sitting, you need to check on your profile or count in your head. Since the x-axis of the wpm and accuracy graphs is unused, why not display the information there? I think the only real problem with this is a lack of space, so we'd have to think of a very short way to display timestamps. There is an alternative, though, which leads me to another idea:

- The dots representing the individual test are pretty inert right now. Maybe, it would be possible to display further information with a mouse over. This could include the time the test was taken, the actual speed and accuracy you scored in a number and the name of the quote as a hotlink, so you can access the quote page to rate/leave a comment (all just accesible through the profile right now). If you're comfortable with it, I think there is even enough space to display the quote as a whole again on mouse over, so you can rate directly without having to go to the quote page first.

Thanks for spotting that. I think I've fixed it. If you get it again, let me know.

Working on this project is a lot of fun and I'm super happy to read nice feedback. I can't believe I started it 5 years ago already!

I've found another little bug: If you rate a quote in the typing test window, the current rating for the quote is shown (e.g. 3.7/5 stars), but once you hit enter or escape, and a new quote appears, that information doesn't disappear or change its value to the rating of the new quote.

Another thing, sorry this comes in dribbles now: While typing, the WPM is updating just fine, but the accuracy says 0.00% until you've actually finished the test. Could you make it so that the accuracy updates, too?

I took care of a few thinks:
- I've fixed the incorrect rating display
- I now update the accuracy while the quote is typed
- I've added some interactivity to the charts
- I've added the current average values on the right

Thanks for your suggestions.

It's magnificent. I can't find anything more to criticize!

Edit: I was wrong. Turns out, you no longer see WHEN you scored in the "Scores on this quote" graph you get when you finish a quote you've finished before. I really liked that feature, and would even love to have it extended so that you don't just get "months" for older tests, like in the flash version. Maybe make this one interactive, too, so you can just click on the past tests? Would be very much appreciated!

Sometimes I am typing quickly enough that I do not catch a mistake before the penalty is applied. This is particularly true when the words are short. However, even if I backspace over the word to where the mistake was first made, the penalty still applies.

It would be nice it the penalty is removed when one backspaces far enough.

No worries. I've made that chart interactive too.

This one is a bit tricky. I have tweaked the values so that the
penalty is applied if you type 7 characters after an error. The
previous value was 5. Hopefully it will make things better for you. I
will have another look later to come up with a better solution.

That made a big difference, Marc. Thank you.

I think we have a regression. The bug has returned where when a letter is followed by a backspace in rapid succession this does not register properly and results in a penalty when the typed text is actually correct.

You are right. Some users were having problems typing accentuated
characters on OSX and Linux and that forced me come up with a
different way of dealing with text input. The changes caused some
problems with backspace. However, I just deployed a fix. According to
my tests, the problem is solved. Thanks for posting about the issues
you find.

And it's live!

Congratulations, Marc, for some fantastic work.

Hey Marc, just noticed that there seems to be an error (or maybe it's my browser): All the users have all achievements unlocked for me (i.e. the crowns, snowflakes and speech bubbles).

Thanks for telling me. I have fixed it.

"Flash is dead". I don't agree. Actionscript is back in top thirty on http://www.tiobe.com list of the most used programming languages.

This page http://www.easytype… works fine and is written entirely in Flash/actionscript.

Surely you jest.

No?

Well, here's the list: http://www.tiobe.co…

Question: How may Assembly programmers do you know? How about COBOL?

ActionScript is #30 on that list, right below Assembly, and only barely edging out COBOL.

In other words, people are maintaining old code. Next to nobody is writing new code.

Flash is dead, for good reason. And good riddance.