For me, a fountain pen has fulfilled this function, but in my teens I had a typewriter collection. I still wonder where they all went...
Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
11–20 of 58 posts
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#12For me, a fountain pen has fulfilled this function, but in my teens I had a typewriter collection. I still wonder where they all went...
Ditto for the fountain pen. For the past few months I've been trying to switch off the computer as much as possible and do as much writing as I can by hand. I can concentrate a lot better and I enjoy the physicality of handling a good pen and actual paper.
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#13You should definitely check out https://getfreewrite.com/.
You'd like that. It's like getting the best of both worlds.
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#14I have a Monica and while I like typing on it I couldn't imagine writing anything substantial with it, the physical effort required to hammer down the keys hard enough is already quite fatiguing, even for someone enjoying mechanical keyboards. There are a few more modern electrical typewriters that I would consider for serious writing duty.
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#15I have a Monica and while I like typing on it I couldn't imagine writing anything substantial with it, the physical effort required to hammer down the keys hard enough is already quite fatiguing, even for someone enjoying mechanical keyboards. There are a few more modern electrical typewriters that I would consider for serious writing duty.
This is somewhat compounded by the fact the QWERTY layout itself is an inefficient legacy remnant of typewriters, whereby the most utilised keys would have a tendency to stick together if placed side by side, so QWERTY was envisaged as a way of spacing out these keys across the keyboard. Not for ergonomics or efficiency, but as an engineering workaround.
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#16Hmm YMMV. I like it even slower for writing fiction, as in handwriting.
But the most important part is probably not the slowness but the distraction-free environment. Get a DOS machine with WordPerfect and it will work as well. But don't run DOS in an emulator that you can alt+tab away from and doomscroll...
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#17Hmm YMMV. I like it even slower for writing fiction, as in handwriting. But the most important part is probably not the slowness but the distraction-free environment. Get a DOS machine with WordPerfect and it will work as well. But don't run DOS in an emulator that you can alt+tab away from and doomscroll...
An old 486 DOS laptop is great for this!
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#18I have a Monica and while I like typing on it I couldn't imagine writing anything substantial with it, the physical effort required to hammer down the keys hard enough is already quite fatiguing, even for someone enjoying mechanical keyboards. There are a few more modern electrical typewriters that I would consider for serious writing duty.
This is somewhat compounded by the fact the QWERTY layout itself is an inefficient legacy remnant of typewriters, whereby the most utilised keys would have a tendency to stick together if placed side by side, so QWERTY was envisaged as a way of spacing out these keys across the keyboard. Not for ergonomics or efficiency, but as an engineering workaround.
There appears to be some disagreement on whether that is true, for example, in this paper: https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433...
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#19Thinking about efficiency is a reliable way to buzz-kill creative inspiration. Editing is only more work with my typewriter (Olympia Traveler Deluxe with British layout) if I write something worth editing and am willing to do the work of editing it. When it comes to self-expression (a somewhat better term than creativity) the writing is important. Not having the mental burden of possible OS updates, battery, cable an…
For those who don't know: a flathead screwdriver should be flat. Almost all taper to the point and that makes for a bad screwdriver that will cam out and ruin the screws.
Re: Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter
#20For me, a fountain pen has fulfilled this function, but in my teens I had a typewriter collection. I still wonder where they all went...
Ditto for the fountain pen. For the past few months I've been trying to switch off the computer as much as possible and do as much writing as I can by hand. I can concentrate a lot better and I enjoy the physicality of handling a good pen and actual paper.
I've loved fountain pens and ink for years. Used an iPad with an Apple Pencil (which are great) for a couple of years, and then recently came back to fountain pens and pencils. I missed them so much!
What pens have you/others been using? I like the TWSBI 580.