Making A Typing Program

[Smasher816]

Hey guys, a while ago I started making a small typing program as a hobby (and c+SDL programming challenge).

It was originally just a remake of TypeRite 2, an OOLLLDDD 16bit dos program my high school still used, which had many weird bugs like typing a backspace would output a square root and move the cursor to the next letter. Because it was made for dos the move to windows 7 64bit also broke compatibility so it has to be ran is dosbox or something similar. My program fixed those issues and added a few other little features. Although it looks like crap right now its using bitmap fonts, textures, etc under the hood so the art style could change a lot.

Over time it has evolved with more features. It's actually now being used at my dad's grade school, which is working well and providing me with some well needed criticism. Kids complained they would accidentally "press any key to continue" and lose the score screen - so now it has a short delay, and all results are stored in a database. Then I made a website to view the database results which was cool. Then I started adding in lots of random aggregation of the data I had collected including a WPM over time graph for the tests, a heatmap of the errors, trend of the WPM between tests, etc. Next on my todo list is some basic training exercises that help teach the different rows and force some % accuracy before moving on to the next lesson - with progress saved between states.

For now the actual tests are just using the TR2 passages which are outdated and pretty bland. I'v considered making the program call to the database and return some random content which would open up a lot of possibilities. If I did that where should I find content? I know TypeRacer uses real quotes which is cool and I believe they are all from older works which are now in the public domain. Can anyone confirm the legality of using those? (I found a website that collects all the TypeRacer passages and some statistics - http://www.seanwrona.com/typeracer/texts.php?texts=full&sort=passage)

Also, this program was designed for a school system (organizing info by tests->student->class), but there is nothing stopping an individual from using it. The only difficult part is getting a database running to keep track of all the test results and other data that is recorded. With that in mind, what features would you want to see in a typing program? Either cool things that other sites do well, or something new no one has thought of before. Looking at the first page of google hits it seems like I do everything the standard tests do and more right now, but I am sure there is more it can do. I look forward to some cool ideas from you guys.

If anyone is curious here are some photos of the website

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I apologize if this looks like I giant wall of text. I just wanted to write this all out real quick before I went to bed so hopefully there would be some comments in the morning. Take care everyone.

[Smasher816]

Bumpity bump.

Any comments on the legality of using the Typeracer passages, or suggestions for what you would like to see in a typing program?

[divito]

As far as I know, the passages come from songs, quotes, books, movies, etc... and they can be submitted by users as well. Since they're passages, I think copyright doesn't apply. On top of that, lyric websites exist, quote websites exist, etc...

For instance, Quotations Page uses this disclaimer:

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[yasuo]

i waiting the software for offline
you can make user's v PC 

[HoffmanMyster]

This is so cool!  Very impressive.   

I do not have an answer to your question, but it seems that this is getting lost in Off Topic.  I think it belongs in either Making Stuff Together or Other Geeky Stuff.  Do you have a preference for which subforum it ends up in?  (or do you prefer it here?)

[ksm123]

I will not make any comments on legality of using Typeracer quotes.

I would like to know whether you are going to share sources with community?
It would be nice to see new development in FOSS typing tutorials.

[dorkvader]

Bumpity bump.

Any comments on the legality of using the Typeracer passages, or suggestions for what you would like to see in a typing program?

I think if they are quotes you have a reasonable case for fair use: education. Same as how wikiquote does it. Otherwise, just make sure they are pre 1926 or whenever the disney limit is at and you should be fine even for longer passages.

I recommend translated french revolution speeches and american revolution speeches for some good content that's more challenging. Many older novels are like that as well. There are a ton of those novellas-published-in-magazines by people like maurice leblanc and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

[frosty]

Completely unrelated, but would be cool to add like a polling rate checking feature, switch hitter etc...

Not sure whether it's possible or not, but a all-in-one keyboard app seems pretty cool to me

[Smasher816]

Thanks for the comments on the passages. I think I will go ahead and use those or some other similar source, and might switch them out later if I find something better.

If you happen to think of anything else that you think would be cool to see feel free to reply. The actual typing test is fairly simply but you can do a lot of fun stuff with the content and the reporting. Maybe even do something fun like the "Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing".

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Regarding your question Hoffman - I'm not really sure where this should go. At first I just wanted a few quick questions and didn't plan to make it an ongoing build log, but if I do end up doing something like that then I would agree that butting it in "making stuff together" would be smart. For now I suppose "Other geeky stuff" would be an appropriate home. Either way I don't care too much, so whatever you think is right should be fine.