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Your First Session

Let's walk through a complete Baboon session from start to finish. By the end, you'll understand exactly how Baboon helps you improve your typing.

Starting Up

When you launch Baboon, you'll be greeted with your first word displayed in large block letters:

                              Word 1/30

  ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄▄     ▄▄▄▄▄▄  ▄▄  ▄▄  ▄▄▄▄▄▄
  ██    ██  ██  ██  ██      ██  ██  ██  ██  ██  ██
  ██        ██  ██  ██      ██  ██  ██  ██  ████▀▀
  ██    ▄▄  ██  ██  ██      ██  ██  ██  ██  ██
  ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀  ▀▀▀▀▀▀  ▀▀▀▀▀▀  ▀▀▀▀▀▀  ▀▀▀▀▀▀  ██  ██

Notice:

  • The word counter shows "Word 1/30"
  • The timer hasn't started yet
  • All letters are in gray (untyped)

Typing Your First Word

Timer Behaviour

The timer only starts when you type the first correct character. If you mistype, the timer won't start until you get it right!

As you type each letter:

  • Correct letters turn green
  • Incorrect letters turn red
  • Letters change colour instantly as you type

Example: Typing "colour"

You type Display Timer
(nothing) colour (all gray) Not started
c colour Started!
co colour Running
col colour Running
colk (typo!) colkur Running
Backspace colour Running
colo colour Running
colou colour Running
colour colour Running
Space Next word! Running

As you type, you'll see context around your current word:

  • Above: The previous word you just completed (dimmed)
  • Center: The current word you're typing (bright)
  • Below: The next 3 upcoming words (dimmed)

This helps you prepare for what's coming next without losing focus on the current word.

The Live WPM Bar

At the bottom of the screen, a colourful bar shows your current typing speed:

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂░░░░░░░░░░  52 WPM
0                60              120

The bar uses a gradient colour scheme:

  • Red (left): Slow speeds (0-40 WPM)
  • Yellow (middle): Moderate speeds (40-60 WPM)
  • Green (right): Fast speeds (60+ WPM)

The bar updates every 100ms, giving you instant feedback on your pace.

Completing the Round

After typing all 30 words, the results screen appears with a wealth of statistics.

Core Statistics

Metric Description Goal
WPM Words per minute Higher is better
Accuracy Correct keystrokes / Total keystrokes Higher is better
Time Total round duration Lower is better

Each metric shows:

  • Your current session result
  • Your personal best (with a star if you beat it!)
  • Your historical average

Letter Accuracy Heatmap

  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
  ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Each circle is coloured by accuracy:

  • Green (95%+): Excellent
  • Yellow (70-94%): Needs work
  • Red (<70%): Focus here!

Typing Theory Statistics

Baboon tracks advanced metrics:

  • Finger accuracy: How each finger performs (LP, LR, LM, LI, RI, RM, RR, RP)
  • Hand balance: Left vs right hand distribution
  • Alternation rate: How often you switch hands (higher is better!)
  • Same-finger bigrams: Letter pairs typed with the same finger (slower)
  • Rhythm consistency: Standard deviation of your typing speed

Common Errors

The results show your top 5 most frequent mistakes:

Top errors: e→r(5) a→s(3) i→o(2) t→y(2) n→m(1)

This tells you that you typed 'r' when you meant 'e' five times!

Starting a New Round

Press Enter on the results screen to start a fresh round.

Adaptive Learning

Baboon remembers your mistakes! The next round will prioritise words containing letters you struggle with, giving you targeted practice.

Ending Your Session

Press Esc at any time to exit. Your statistics are automatically saved to:

~/.config/baboon/stats.json

This file persists between sessions, tracking your long-term progress.

What You've Learned

After your first session, you now know:

  • How to start and stop Baboon
  • How the timer works
  • What the colour feedback means
  • How to read the WPM bar
  • How to interpret your statistics
  • Where your data is saved

Next Steps

Ready to dive deeper?