WordGrinder: Terminal-based distraction free word processor

  • Nice. There are also WriteRoom (mac) and DarkRoom (win), and on Linux PyRoom, whose website is defunct but which does have a wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PyRoom.

    I would just use nano or vim, but their disadvantage is that word wrap, and moving around between wrapped lines, don't work (by default) like you'd want from a plaintext editor.

  • Tavis Ormandy released some patches to get WordPerfect for UNIX (terminal based) to run on Linux [1]

    Alternatively, WordPerfect 6.2 for DOS running in Wine on Linux (or DOSbox) [2]

    This word processor was pretty serious back in the day. I have distant memories of sitting in class and learning it in at school in the early 90s. It’s interesting how we retain such inconsequential memories that can resurface with very specific triggers (such as seeing the screenshots of ASCII text of an ancient word processor).

    [1] https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/wordperfect.html

    [2] https://blog.cmpxchg8b.com/2020/09/finding-console-word-proc...

  • Would be nice to have some images in the README to see what makes this unique compared to alternatives. Thankfully, you can find them on the website in the sidebar.

  • This reminded me of something I'd love to have - a physical text/graphics terminal with a full (at least as complete as the last DECs/Boundless units) implementation of ANSI codes, as well as a good, high-resolution implementation of Sixels, ReGIS, and Tektronix graphics, smooth scrolling (but now speed-adjusted - the more backlog, the faster it scrolls), as well as terminal-side windowing for multiple terminals (as the Blit family had).

  • The title reminded me of WordStar from my youth.

    In like grade 5 or so a friend and I got it into our heads to become reporters, conduct interviews around our school, and publish dot-matrix printed newsletters. "Just the facts, ma'am"

  • I've found vim best for distraction-free writing.

    Not a full word processor, true, but its easy enough as a separate step to copypaste text into a word processor doc when WYSIWYG formatting is desired. Or use something like a pandoc script to generate a PDF or ebook, when needed.

  • If you're looking for a more full-featured terminal word processor, you could take a look at wpunix! https://github.com/taviso/wpunix

  • Looks excellent. I'll even give it a pass for using C (bonus points for Lua). Thanks!

    I want to take David Given's Master Class!

  • Emacs has it built-in: M-x enriched-mode

    https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/En...

  • So what actually is this? Reading through it, the description sounds like it's basically notepad? Why would I use this instead of notepad except for some sort of aesthetic of working in the terminal?

  • Genuinely awesome project - especially fit 'n finish. I have a happy place in my heart for this style of terminal app (TUI++).

    I hate to ask this, but do you have any plans for implementing modal editing or vi-style shortcuts? EDIT: I feel so guilty asking this question, that I realized that a second "Alternative Shortcut" field would go a long way for me as well. No expectation that this would be implemented, just sharing my thoughts.

    More importantly though: awesome project that I do plan on using for my personal writing project (nonfiction book) and at work.

  • I like the fact that the file format is plaintext and actually includes an embedded dictionary -- it's a nice touch. Would prefer if it used Markdown instead, but conversion seems doable with a simple script.

    Edit: it's available on Fedora, FYI.

  • This is really cool. I write a lot of long text in him but find it not perfect for that task. This looks really amazing and I’m glad to know about it.

    I really like that it sticks to the CLI ethos of doing one thing very well.

    Thank you for your work.

  • Does anyone use a typewriter for this purpose? Just to have a distraction free environment?

  • The scrolling is done in a distracting way though.

  • 13 years old and still in “beta?” :-)

  • You mean vim?

  • I'm looking at my word processor window on the second monitor right now and it is not distracting.

    https://i.imgur.com/E7Xj4Su.png

    Which word processors are distracting?

  • Not to be confused with grindr.com