Back when I used to do accessibility work, we would encourage developers to take a day and drop their mouse down behind their desk so that they could get a sense of what it was like for a blind person - someone who MUST use only the keyboard. I did this for a long time and have learned tons of keyboard shortcuts. When you're pairing, always share them with each other and you'll learn tons quickly.

I'm a big believer in using the keyboard, I'm also a big believer in the IBM keyboards with their stick button mouse(not sure of it's proper name) instead of just the trackpad.  I find I'm way more productive using my laptop with some things, than I am with my desktop for this reason.  I wish more laptop manufacturers included this, it seems to be getting phased out.

You can have my mouse. I use a Fingerworks Touchstream (stupid @!$%@ are out of business though), so my keyboard IS my mouse.

However, I totally agree that you shouldn't ever force anyone to switch devices to get a job done. Hard thing to acheive (and not always possible), but it is a good habit to get into.

I definitely agree. I used to do my coding in vim, read mail in mutt, and use Ratpoison as my window  manager - it's hard to get used to, but it's impressive to see the speed at which things can get done without reaching for the rodent.

A few months ago I did a search for some keyboard shortcuts to make my programming fast but didn't find a site that helped. Any suggestions? Can you share some shortcuts?

I created a VisualStudio shortcuts cheat sheet a while back.  

http://iamacamera.org/default.aspx?section=home&id=43

Steve,

You certainly did teach me a TON of keyboard shortcuts, and I thank you.

With VS.Net bare, it's pretty hard to achieve this, but since I use Resharper as my IDE inside VS, I reach for my mouse very seldomly.

Try rewiring all your editors to the same keyboard shortcut. For example, I use Source Insight, VS .net and Editplus. Ctrl + Shift + F searches in files in all three. Ctrl + shift + f11 is for list of windows open.

For custom rewiring, remember that in VS when you go to Tools-->Option -->Keyboard, you can type the keyword (like split) to show the commands related to that. That way you can narrow/find what you want  to wire to keyboard. (The other day I found that there is a macro to beginning of a function (even if it outside) the screen by typing ' ').

Backup your settings in VS about once a month. I cannot live without my settings.

The worst one is sqlwb. The only automation you can do is with those free keys (Ctrl + 1, etc. ). If you select a text and press, say ctrl +3 and Ctrl + 3 is wired to a sproc, the selected text will be passed in as argument to the sproc.

So I have sprocs  (in master)

create proc sp_listall

(

 @tablename varchar(50)

)

as

string sql varchar(300);

set sql = 'select * from ' + @tablename

exec (sql)

which lists all the rows in the table. (another sproc for listing all the columns in table)

Helpful when doing dev work.

hth

beginning of a function (even if it outside) the screen by typing ' ').

Left out ....

by typing 'begin' in show commands containing....

Don't forget to start at the very beginning: learn to touch type.  No looking at the keyboard AT ALL.  Although most programmers "multi-finger" hunt-and-peck at a fair rate, most can't actually type, and its just stupid.  

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Choosing a Text Editor

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Choosing a Text Editor

I totally agree!  When I was a kid, all we had was DOS.  My mom taught me some commands and the basics of QBASIC.  Spent many hours trying to hack the computer lol.  Those were the good days :)