macOS
brew install gnu-typistprovider-native install command
brew / rank 4843
GNU typing tutor. Version 2.10.1 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-19.
install
brew install gnu-typistprovider-native install command
overview
GNU typing tutor
history
GNU Typist, also known as gtypist, is a terminal typing tutor from the GNU Project. It combines a curses-based practice program with lesson files, keyboard-layout support, and a small lesson scripting language so users and teachers can adapt drills rather than consume a fixed course.
GNU FTP records gtypist releases from the early 2000s, with version 2.5 appearing in 2002 and a long release line through the 2.8, 2.9, and 2.10 series. The GNU project page presents it as an official GNU package and emphasizes text-mode portability across GNU/Linux, GNU/Hurd, Unix variants, and Windows builds using PDCurses and MinGW.
The project evolved around international lessons and modifiable tutorials. The GNU page lists lessons for several languages and keyboard layouts, and describes the tutorial format as a simple scripting language that contributors can write directly or submit as plain text for conversion.
GNU Typist is niche compared with graphical typing tutors, but it has remained packageable because it fits Unix education environments: it runs in a terminal, depends on curses, and stores lessons as text. Its ecosystem role is strongest in free-software education, multilingual practice material, and lightweight lab or remote-shell setups.
Users run gtypist to navigate lessons, practice drills, and track errors and speed in a keyboard-focused interface. Teachers and contributors use the lesson format to create new tutorials, localize exercises, or adapt material for QWERTY, Dvorak, Colemak, and non-English practice.
The appeal is that a typing tutor can be packaged like any other GNU terminal tool: source tarballs, info/man documentation, curses portability, and lesson files that can be inspected and patched. It is a small example of GNU treating educational software as hackable text.
security posture
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
gtypist | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
typefortune | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
install metadata
| Package key | brew:gnu-typist |
|---|---|
| Version | 2.10.1 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://www.gnu.org/software/gtypist/ |
| Last updated | 2026-06-19T12:31:20-07:00 |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
View the package source record on GitHub.