Touch Typist Typing Tutor is developed by Sector Software.

Touch Typist Touch typing (also called blind typing, or touch keyboarding) is a style of typing. Although the phrase refers to typing without using the sense of visual perception, sight to find the keys—specifically, a touch typist will know their location o ...

typing tutor is the earliest example of typing tutor software currently still on sale. The software was written and released for sale in 1985 on the Sinclair QL computer. Its first public sale was at The ZX Microfair in 1985. This was a very popular computer show held in The Horticultural Halls, Elverton Street, London, England. The ZX Microfair was a showcase for all manner of software and hardware related to the Sinclair range of computers. The software was also first advertised as a small classified advert in QL World magazine, but soon became a flagship product for the company formed to sell it, Sector Software. Touch Typist soon went on sale in

WH Smiths WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

as well as in many smaller computer shops which were supplied by the now defunct company Terry Blood Distribution Ltd. The software was originally written in QL Basic on the Sinclair QL, this was compiled with the Digital Precision Superbasic Compiler and released on Sinclair Microdrive cartridges for the Sinclair QL computer. Microdrive cartridges were small cartridges similar to an 8 track tape, with a continuous loop of tape which could hold 100KB of code. The software was soon converted to run on other computers including the

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

, Commodore Amiga, Acorn Archimedes, Cambridge Computers Z88 Portable computer and Microsoft Windows based computers. Touch Typist has been on continuous sale and been continually developed by the original author David Batty and is still published by the original company, Sector Software of Leyland Lancashire.https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbatty The current version of the software is written in Microsoft Visual Basic, versions for other platforms have all been written in other versions of

compiled BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College in ...

. The software features very short lessons, each less than 55 characters long. With feedback after every lesson. The very short lessons with plenty of feedback give the software a 'game' feel. The first version of the software had a Space Invaders game built into it that the users were allowed to play once for every 20 lessons they completed. The Sinclair QL had 128KB of memory, but after the operating system had taken its share of it, only 97KB were left for programs to run. Touch Typist was 95K in size so there was only 2KB of memory left in which to add a game. In order to include a game without losing anything from the software, a space invaders game was written in

MC68000 The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...

machine code, the whole game and graphics took just 2K of memory. The game was removed in second and subsequent versions after requests from various schools who were using the software, for a version without an

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

in it. The software is currently sold to schools, colleges, businesses and private individuals around the world from its website. The software is distributed either on a CD for Microsoft Windows-based machines, or via a download and on-line unlocking method.

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.typingtutor.co.uk
History Of Touch Typist Software
Windows text-related software Typing software