Post #1513699
2026-04-17 12:45 UTC
@maxsnew @carloangiuli I think we're interleaving concerns about students at different levels.
Nobody's assuming first-years are capable vim users. But we might expect familiarity and some competence with basic text editing affordances like those in, say, Word and Google Docs. Select, and cut/copy/paste? I think Carlo is saying he's not even seeing that in first-years (I haven't taught first-years in a long time). I was alluding to the fact that I'm coming to the realization that assuming basic touch-typing is not realistic, despite the fact that most of our students have been typing essays in a word processor for years before college, often many years.
I was saying that at least later (closer to graduation?) students should have ideally gotten to the point where they can not only type proficiently, but be familiar with some preferred editor beyond its basic text editing capabilities --- even just for *navigating* code, but ideally to help them turn their thoughts into code faster.
Of course this all falls into the "hidden curriculum" bucket, e.g. https://missing.csail.mit.edu/2026/development-environment/, and we need to figure out where to cover this stuff.... like I said, in my undergrad some of this was built into the systems programming course, but that's unusual
Replies (2)
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@maxsnew@types.pl 2026-04-17 13:06
@csgordon @carloangiuli Yea my own experience was: 1. Learned touch-typing in an actual high school "keyboarding" class (semi-rural Louisiana public school ~04-05) 2. Learned emacs out of necessity when I took intro to systems in undergrad and had to use an editor while ssh'd into the lab machines. This was recommended by the course staff and they gave us some links but nothing crazy. Wild to think that students today have regressed in basic computer skills.
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@carloangiuli@mathstodon.xyz 2026-04-17 13:39
@csgordon @maxsnew Yes, this. "most of our students have been typing essays in a word processor for years before college" -- honestly I am really starting to wonder what it looks like when they type out an essay!