History Main / RapidFireTyping

** The power of the command line is a major reason why certain people ''love'' the various descendants of UNIX: all of them include very powerful command line tools and shells that let the user combine them in all kinds of ways [[note]]generally by sending the output of one command directly into the input of another, like ''ls -l | grep <some pattern> | more'' (detailed list of files -> filter it down to matching lines -> display results one screenful at a time)[[/note]] to automate basically any task. Using these, a skilled operator can do most of the things a normal person could do through a GUI, but significantly faster, not to mention some things that are ''not'' doable via GUI at all.[[/folder]]

* [[http://hackertyper.net/ Hacker Typer]] is a website that allows you to generate several different types of pre-written code using Rapid Fire Typing in a manner similar to ''Whiz Kids'' (see above under-Live Action TV).

* Now you, too, can be a Hollywood hacker. Need the hero of your movie to infiltrate the Pentagon or disarm a nuclear bomb? Use professional tools, like [[http://www.hackertyper.com The Hacker Typer]]. Don't let the audience catch you [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMYypRb5smw inputting random gibberish into Microsoft Excel]]. [[spoiler:Hold F5 and press Alt. ACCESS GRANTED]]!

* Noted in ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'' with Dr. Catherine Halsey. Apparently 500 years in the future, laptops will not have silent keyboards. Also they will sound like machine gun fire.

* Chisame is one of the ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' world's greatest hackers, to the point that she can keep up with a highly advanced robot at a human level. Her finger taps are sometimes [[RuleOfCool played up for drama]].

* Celty the [[HeadlessHorseman Dullahan]] in ''{{LightNovel/Durarara}}'' can do this with her PDA. We actually see her typing the same sequence spots over and over; but the keys that she really wants to be pushed light up. Because in actuality, she mainly uses her shadow-like substance to do most of the typing.

* In ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', Keima Katsuragi has Capturing God Mode, a technique for playing multiple [[DatingSim Dating Sims]] at the same time. The anime depicts this as sitting in front of his multiple-screen setup and rapidly typing... on a spread of console controllers. For a genre of game whose input is mostly "press X to continue".

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'', [[CoolOldGuy Rowen]] is able dial numbers on the setting's equivalent of a cellphone with comical speed and without even looking.
* ''[[Videogame/HouseOfTheDead The Typing of the Dead]]'', a version of ''The House of the Dead 2'' with the controls changed from light-gun to auto-aim with words and phrases that players need to type before the zombies and monsters attack, and the in-game characters reflect on this by them toting Dreamcast-powered keyboards. The slogan indeed says "Type or Die". It receives its own sequels too, a Japan exclusive sequel based on ''The House of the Dead III'' and the last version available globally is based on ''Videogame/TheHouseOfTheDeadOverkill'' (as well as featuring the original Overkill as a mouse-controlled rail shooter)

* Now you, too, can be a Hollywood hacker. Need the hero of your movie to infiltrate the Pentagon or disarm a nuclear bomb? Use professional tools, like [[http://www.hackertyper.com The Hacker Typer]]. Don't let the audience catch you [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8oSOKeWlK4 inputting random gibberish into Microsoft Excel]]. [[spoiler:Hold F5 and press Alt. ACCESS GRANTED]]!

* ''VideoGame/TheTypingOfTheDeadOverkill'' generally subverts this in its gameplay, requiring you to type quickly, but to type in phrases to defeat enemies. The FinalBoss is damaged by [[spoiler:typing ''anything'' and hitting Enter, allowing you to play this trope perfectly straight and win, although]] typing words associated with a topic shown on-screen will inflict a CriticalHit.

* Rimmer does this on two computers at once in the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Holoship", after undergoing a "mindpatch" to give himself the knowledge of two of the smartest crew members.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* Professional ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' players work at incredible levels of "action per minute", each action being an order to a unit, a macro put into action, [[ConstructAdditionalPylons additional pylons constructed]], or similar. The average home player will do about 30 APM. By hammering away at keyboard shortcuts, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpCLqryN-Q championship players will do at least 200-300 APM]]. The all-time record hovers around ''800'', (held by world-class player Park Sung-Joon).

* It is very common among translators working on very simple, standardized or well known texts (especially when translating ''into'' their native language) and writer or journalist who simply type the text they have composed earlier. In both cases such people can use a maximum writing speed for a prolonged amount of time.

* Even in modern Windows, the old-school command prompt is still the quickest way around several tasks, including decent directory navigation (symbolic links get in the way most of the time). Do you want a list of all the files in a directory? You could manually copy each filename, one at a time, or you can use a command prompt or powershell window and just type dir /b /on > files.txt[[note]]"Give me a list of all files in the current working directory, in "bare" format (just filenames and extensions), ordered by filename, and write that list into an ASCII text file called files.txt"[[/note]].
** The power of the command line is a major reason why certain people ''love'' the various descendants of UNIX: all of them include very powerful command line tools and shells that let the user combine them in all kinds of ways to automate basically any task. Using these, a skilled operator can do most of the things a normal person could do through a GUI, but significantly faster, not to mention some things that are ''not'' doable via GUI at all.[[/folder]]

* Combine buckling-spring keyboards with people who type over 100 WPM (Think 150-180 on QWERTY) with hard strikes. Not only do people hear a very amplified strike and--with a rapid finger lift--return click, they'll hear the springs resonating inside the keyboard as well. Now apply that to someone writing the paper. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxjTgfGTLDo Like this boy]].

* Ben, the hero of ''Film/WhoAmI'', types extremely fast.

-->-- '''Kate Libby''', ''Film/{{Hackers}}'', after Dade shows off his ultra-rapid typing skills

* Parodied in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': when encountering Hollow Bastion's supercomputer, Sora tries to search for information on Kairi. Noticing how Leon seemed to be ''waggling his fingers above an unresponsive, flat ''representation'' of a keyboard'', Sora proceeded to bang the keyboard as hard as he can (and then [[Disney/LiloAndStitch Stitch]] jumped on Donald's head, and Donald fell on the computer). The MCP from ''Film/{{Tron}}'' got severely pissed off and converted the gang into data entities inside the computer, kicking off the cast's new adventure.

Occasionally this can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] through TruthInTelevision as many computer users can indeed do things quicker by using the keyboard exclusively though shortcuts instead of a mouse, especially if using command line interfaces. Even more occasionally, more fantastic setting may present this as something ''deliberately'' weird, to hint (or illustrate) that a character is an android, a wizard or otherwise abnormal. This trope is about JustForFun/{{egregious}} uses of speed typing to control what a computer does.

While some people actually ''are'' this fast at typing, they usually have to go back and delete spelling errors later, which is not an ideal state when programming. Not that anyone writes program code this fast anyway, because you always spend more time thinking about program logic and correcting minor errors (or simply copy/pasting redundant code with minor alterations) than actually typing large chunks of text, except if the program is really really repetitive or inane... in which case it wouldn't be performing the magic that it is (or is about to).

Occasionally this can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] through TruthInTelevision as many computer users can indeed do things quicker by using the keyboard exclusively though shortcuts instead of a mouse, especially if using command line interfaces. Even more occasionally, more fantastic setting may present this as something ''deliberately'' weird, to hint (or illustrate) that a character is an android, a wizard or otherwise abnormal. This trope, though, is about JustForFun/{{egregious}} uses of speed typing to control what a computer does.

Occasionally this can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] through TruthInTelevision as many computer users can indeed do things quicker by using the keyboard exclusively though shortcuts instead of a mouse, especially if using command line interfaces. This trope though is about JustForFun/{{egregious}} uses of speed typing to control what a computer does.

-->-- '''Kate Libby''', ''Film/{{Hackers}}'', after Dade shows off his ultra-rapid typing skills.

* The sequel to ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'' has Samantha Ford, explained in the manual to be a techno-psychic. She plays this trope ''really'' straight: Using rapid-fire commands to transmit camera-less views of the Stauf mansion and hints to Carl's Gamebook, and uses a mouse only in one shot - and rather awkwardly, at that. There's even a point where she seems to be playing the 7th Guest game on one of her three computers, while hammering away at the keyboard and never using the mouse!

* Subverted on ''Series/PowerRangersZeo''. Bulk and Skull go to a computer to look up information on somebody, and Skull's fingers are ready to fly. Once he's at the computer, he starts flailing non-sensibly at the keyboard, and Bulk asks if he knows what the hell he's doing. Skull admits he doesn't know anything about computers but looks like he does, to which Bulk kicks him off and starts browsing more realistically.

[[folder:Fancic]]

** The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' team is also prone to this. For example, in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]] when they need to boost a signal to call the Doctor, everyone instantly goes into RapidFireTyping mode while running around and taking turns on various keyboards.

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Fan Fic]]

[[folder:Films]]

* A time-pressed ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'' is at it in "Public Property on Parade".
* The computers in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' seem to operate via a Windows-type OS of on-screen button pushing when not simply responding to verbal commands. In a subversion, there don't seem to be any keyboards or mouse function at all. Nevertheless, despite thinking that keyboards are "quaint" and not knowing what a mouse is in the TimeTravel-themed fourth ''Film/{{Star Trek|IV The Voyage Home}}'' movie, Mr. Scott uses Rapid Fire Typing to the shock of 20th-century native observers.
** In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', in an attempt to stop the Borg from hacking into the ''Enterprise'''s computer, Data uses Rapid Fire Typing to improvise a highly complex encryption code on the spot and encrypt all the ship's major systems in a matter of seconds. Data's an android, though, which means his typing speed is limited mostly by how fast his fingers can physically move. Also a subtle SpecialEffectFailure: you'll see the reflections of the "red alert" flashing lights speed up, since they just sped up the film to get the effect.
** There are ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' episodes where the "Relativity", a [[TheFederation Federation]] [[strike:star]] time ship from the 29th century, is shown, which has a kind of "beefed up" console interface which also featured some kind of fusion out of a (real-life) Trackball and a [[{{Hologram}} Holographic Interface]].

* Parodied on ''Series/TheColbertReport''. Similarly, pawing at the keys of a calculator with his whole hand, a gag carried over from ''Series/StrangersWithCandy''.
* In one of the ''Nick Burns: Your Company's Computer Guy'' sketches on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', all the computer usage is done through typing. It gets particularly silly when Nick explains how to do something and the actions are all in terms of what to click on, then he does it by typing. Apparently Nick Burns is quite the command line purist.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' is a particularly egregious example. No one ever seems to use a mouse. Considering that the people actually using the computers--Chloe, for instance--are extraordinarily skilled, this actually isn't too far off. Many experienced techies will prefer a keyboard for some applications, because it can be quicker if you're a good typist, and many of the advanced commands are only available via command line.
* In an episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', Carter, granted SuperSpeed, works on a book about wormhole physics she'd wanted to write for a while, but "didn't have time to." Now, she operates so fast that her hands blur over the keyboard and she occasionally has to stop and wait for the keyboard buffer to clear out. Of course, for all we know, she ''is'' making typos and fixing them; it's just that she's operating very, very, ''very'' fast.
* Similarly, in ''Series/LoisAndClark'', Franchise/{{Superman}} once speed-tried a bunch of different passwords, whether they're dictionary words or random alphanumerics, until finding the right one. The keyboard was smoking by the end of it.
* Subverted on ''Series/WhizKids'', a 1980s-vintage show about teenage hackers; the camera angle did in fact show the monitor with words appearing as fast as the Whiz Kids could type (this was done with a program that stored the desired text in memory and then displayed it one letter at a time for each keystroke; therefore, the correct text appeared regardless of whatever gibberish the actors were typing).
* Seen in at least one episode of ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'', where a hacker is fighting for control of an airplane's functions. Most notable for the episode's climax, where at a command from his boss (with YouHaveFailedMe undertones) to kill the thrusters, he panics and practically starts ''hammering'' the thing.

** "School Reunion" has kids hypnotized into doing this in order to unlock some MacGuffin.
** Donna accomplishes this in the series 4 GrandFinale, {{hand wave}}d by her claiming to be the best temp in London.
** Similar to the ''Superman'' example above, a Dalek in the eponymous episode hammered through a billion password combinations on a keypad in one second, apparently using directed suction with its sucker hand. Either that, or he was putting electrons directly into the chip (making the entry of that many passwords more plausible than with button-clicking). Of course, the real question is why the high budget, high security facility doesn't require smartcards in addition to [=PINs=] on the doors...with that setup, there would be quadrillions (or more) of potential card/PIN combinations and even at the CPU's clock speed it would take a significant amount of time (hours or days) to go through them all.
** The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' team is also prone to this. For example, in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Season 4 finale when they need to boost a signal to call the Doctor, everyone instantly goes into RapidFireTyping mode while running around and taking turns on various keyboards.
** The Doctor does this a lot, especially in "The Eleventh Hour", where he establishes his identity by typing the ''real'' Fermat's Last Theorem and a proof for faster-than-light travel (with diagrams), and codes a computer virus on a cell phone, in about two minutes. How does he make diagrams by typing really fast? He's coding the diagrams in [=LaTeX=]. Or SVG.
** Absolutely everywhere in season 7 mid-series premier, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn "The Bells of Saint John"]]. The Doctor, Clara, and the villainous organization of the week engage in tons and tons of {{RapidFireTyping}} in order to {{Hollywood Hack|ing}}, Counter-Hack, and Anti-Counter-Reverse-Super-Hack each other.
* Parodied in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. Kramer appears on an episode of ''Series/MurphyBrown'', hammering keys haphazardly at a ridiculous rate that could never be real typing.

* Parodied in a skit on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', although they flat-out revealed that the actor was just typing rapid gibberish.
* ''Series/ICarly''. Freddie, the resident "computer genius", does this ''all the time''. Someone hacked the iCarly website? ''Rapid typing''. Need to edit a discriminating photo? ''Rapid typing''.
* Strangely, on ''Series/LieToMe'', whenever someone asks Loker to call up a picture, not only does he never need them to be more specific than "that one thing you showed me the other day", but he never uses a mouse.
* Subverted on ''Series/StargateUniverse'', when Rush is forced to work on the [[spoiler:Lucian Alliance's Icarus gate]] program, he taps on the keyboard wildly for a few seconds and says "Alright then, I'm done." He then has to explain that he's kidding and the work will take a long time.
* Frequently employed by Bryce and Theora on ''Series/MaxHeadroom'', where all the keyboards are antique typewriters and the monitors never actually display what they type. Amanda Pays took a typing course in order to play Theora Jones (she wasn't ''that'' fast...and she wasn't just mashing keys).
* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Chloe is quite an efficient hacker...she is able to pound her fingers on random keys with such skill! (At some points it's blatantly obvious that she's not typing anything meaningful at all.)
* Subverted on ''Series/PowerRangersZeo''. Bulk and Skull go to a computer to look up information on somebody, and Skull's fingers are ready to fly. Once he's at the computer, he starts flailing non-sensibly at the keyboard, and Bulk asks if he knows what the hell he's doing. Skull admits he doesn't know anything about computers but looks like he does, to which Bulk kicks him off and starts browsing more realistically.

* PlayedForLaughs in one episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Howard uses a robotic arm and his laptop to unpack the Chinese takeout for the rest of the gang, and when Penny comes along, she asks him to pass the soy sauce. Cue Howard typing ''absurdly'' fast on his laptop, so fast that it's obvious to the audience that the actor's typing nothing of real use. The flurry of clicks goes on for quite some time, and Penny holds a conversation with Leonard while she waits for the sauce.
* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'': The opening credits sequence includes a shot of Jessica Fletcher typing on her typewriter at breakneck speed, as you'd expect a professional author. We don't see whether Angela Lansbury was actually typing coherent sentences, but it ''looks'' realistic.

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]