KP Typing Course Generator is part of my project of developing KP Typing Tutor, in 1996, when I lived in England. The toolkit is to help myself and others generate typing course with high quality, in any alphabetic languages.

Please read the following thesis and then run 'tcg.exe'.

The C codes of TCG is in the package as well.

Please find more details at

http://www.arlido.com/zijianhuang/kpe.html

where you may find KP Typing Tutor serials, for DOS and Win95/NT. KP Typing Tutor serials are all distributed as freeware.

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A Toolkit for Generating a Typing Courses

By Zijian Huang
6 February, 1996
Revised in 2000-09-08

INVESTIGATION OF VARIOUS TYPING COURSE
======================================
After investigation on various existing typing courses, I got the following conclusions for the essentials of the typing courses:

1. In the very beginning of the course, a learner shall practise home keys first, for example, on QWERTY keyboard: "fj fj fj ... dk dk dk ..."; or on Dvorak keyboard, it will be "uh uh hu ... et et et ...".

Type using index fingers, middle fingers, ring fingers, little fingers, and then the combinations. The practice on the home keys is the most important part of the whole learning process, relatively longer. Gradually, the content of the practice (the combinations of letters) appears to be meaningful words.

2. After the long practice on the home keys, the learner starts to practise the upper row.

Again, from index fingers, then middle fingers, ... and then the combinations. In the beginning of this stage, fingers mainly hit on the homes key, but each word used to practise at least contains one letter on the upper row, then gradually, more letters of upper row appear in a word used.

3. Then, start to practise the lower row of the keyboard. The words used in this stage only combine middle row and lower row. The style of the practice is just like stage two.

4. Words contain characters on all three rows. The selection of words can be less constraint.

5. In my opinion, it is optional to practise those numbers and symbols on the top row.

Style of Existing Typing Course:
================================

From Pitman Publishing, "Professional Text Production with Keyboarding",
ISBN 0-273-03959-8

The order of practice is:
A S D F J K L ;  (home row)
E   H  O   .   ,   {SHIFT}
I   N   T   G   Y   W
C   V
M   X   Q   B   P   Z


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From Made Simples Books, "Typing", ISBN 0-434-98466-3
F   J   R   U
D   K   E   I
T   Y   G   H
L   W   O
A   ;   Q   P
(SHIFT) :   .
V   M
B   N
C   ,
X
Z

The first one may be called row approach; the second one may be called column approach. The first one may be good for preventing the learner from looking the keyboard, and then remember the key locations easier. The second may be good for creating better finger movement and striking.

When I make a course, I will comprise both styles. In the very beginning of the course, close to the first style, when the fingers start to move out of home keys, close to the second style. Nevertheless, the TCG will be flexible to help to generating courses of various styles.

How to use TCG
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1. run 'tcg.exe', by responding the prompt 'Dictionary file', input the name of a text file containing all words the a specific alphabetic languages, for example, 'diction.txt'.
2. With 'basket file', input a file name of storing the result, please refer to 'ah.txt'.
3. With 'Define a list of strings for picking up words from dictionary: Press 'K' for inputting from the keyboard, others for inputting from a file.', please input a file that containing the template for generating course. Please refer to 'bb.txt'.
4. The you get the result like 'ah.txt'.



Appendix:
=========

Content of 'bb.txt':

asdjkl
adffkl
adsejkl;
asdfwefkj

Content of 'ah.txt':

The Definition Strings
======================
asdjkl
adffkl
adsejkl;
asdfwefkj
================
The Sieved Words
================
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asdjkl >> Total: 17
****************************************************
ad a add ad alas all as ask ass dad
Jadas la lad LSD sad salad sal 
----------------------------------------------------
adffkl >> Total: 5
****************************************************
alf alfa fa fad flak 
----------------------------------------------------
adsejkl; >> Total: 50
****************************************************
addle ale alee assess dale dead deal deed dell desk
ease easel eel eke elk else jade jakes jell kale
keel lade ladle lake lea lead leak leal lease led
lee leek lees lese less lessee e saddle sake sale
sea seal see seed seek sell skedaddle slake sled sleek

----------------------------------------------------
asdfwefkj >> Total: 33
****************************************************
askew awake awe daw deaf dew ewe fade fake fed
fee feed few jaw jew safe saw seesaw sew skew
swede was wad wade wake was we weak wed wee
weed weeds week 
