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The Most Dangerous Writing App

maebert.github.io

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Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#141

Post by DecoPerson »

dlivingston wrote: post #137
larntz wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this an age thing? I do the exact same thing. Every time I stop typing I hit ctrl-s between 2-5 times. I don't eve think about it anymore. My kids are getting to the age where they are doing projects on a computer and I'm constantly telling them to "save early, save often." I guess it's some form of PTSD from computing in the 90's.

A few months ago, I saw a popular meme on Reddit (ProgrammingHumor, or something like that) where the core of the joke was: "that face when Visual Studio crashes after you've been writing code for 2 hours and forgot to save." And my reaction was: how do you forget to save? That's muscle memory for me, man! Command-S gets hit five times in as many minutes.

IntelliJ doesn't have "saving", it writes all files to its cache constantly and then to the original files as soon as you alt+tab, and yet I still find myself hitting Ctrl+S constantly, usually as part of like a nervous tic or something, where while I'm thinking I'll save, paste my clipboard, undo, repeat.

Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#142

Post by DavidTNcl »

bluedino wrote: post #124
Theodores wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved to using an IDE. Everything is saved and always. There isn't even a save button. I also moved from vi/vim quite painlessly and never find ':wq' or 'hhhjjjj' in documents that I have edited, this was a genuine danger once. With the right tools - an IDE with version control - the quaint notion of saving files can be mostly forgotten and the fear of losing unsaved work banished. Even if over 30 adaptation is pos…

VB6’s IDE doesn’t auto save. Ugh.

VB6! are you a time traveller?

Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#143

Post by vokep »

Turned out to be more interesting than I thought, led to a nice perspective comparing the journey of typing to that of life, though I don't generally believe in the afterlife as this may imply:

>I'm writing words about things just kidding I'm just typing words to fill this thing up so far but I mean idk what the actual point of this thing is other than to be annoying. I guess I'll try to form actual sentences. I just don't understand why this would be made but I guess it's to explore how a person types into something like this. Right now I'm already coming up with a narrative about my experience and opinions on this so that reflects some value I think. Really though I just wonder what made the creator of this come up with it. I just wish there was some explaination, which there probably is but I've yet to look at it. I wish I could have such an explaination here and now. Maybe this is sort of how life is, true explainations of what or why the things occuring at the moment exist, but are outside the scope of this existence. In the same way the truth of this journey of typing exists, but is not available to me while I'm typing. I could stop typing early and find out quicker, but that would make this typing sort of pointless. I'm curious to know what happens when the bar reaches the end of the browser window, does it save the text perhaps? Maybe if I type enough I get to save it? That would make some sense and would be cool, but if not it still has been an interesting adventure in typing rapidly from currently occuring thoughts. I guess someone could try to plan what they write and write something about a certain topic, but overall it seems easier to just type what is on the mind. Oh well, looks like the bar is almost at the end.

Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#144

Post by _underfl0w_ »

gmueckl wrote: post #120
jiggawatts wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still have a habit of pressing CTRL-S intermittently...

And then you work on an interface like Confluence's page editor where for no good reason, Ctrl+S is mapped to exiting the edior. It saves your edits in the background while you type, so you don't lose anything. But you get interrupted in a big way. Changing that would be trivial, but Atlassian deprioritized it to the bottom of the stack.

That one unorthodox hotkey mapping is just the tip of the iceberg. Confluence's interface is a super special, highly unique dumpster fire of an editor. God forbid anyone actually know what Markdown syntax is. Plus, you can only disable some of the hotkeys - you're stuck with several awkward site-wide ones. There's an open Atlassian support ticket filled with souls wistfully begging for the ability to disable ALL Confluence hotkeys. I hope they fired the intern that wrote it.

Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#145

Post by sirsuki »

mirimir wrote: post #4

This reminds me of early versions of Microsoft Word. Edit: And more generally, DOS, FAT and CHKDSK. You never knew, when there was a power interruption -- or when the system just crashed for whatever mysterious reason -- just how bad it would be. NTFS was such an improvement.

And Vim and Emacs users laugh uncontrollably. History has yet to learn.

Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#147

Post by allhat_nocode »

Would this application stop writers block? Or would it just frustrate you further? I see some immediate value as my eyes are drawn to the status bar inching closer and closer to the end of the page. I am now wondering, "will it delete when complete too?" that would be extra cruel as I am so far maintaining a high and continual writing pace. This actually is fun in a way, not just nerve wracking. Did I spell 'wracking' right? No time to spell check with this app! Well now, let's be sure to not run out of source material. Keep the creative juices flowing brain!! We're strating to get sloppy and we can not avoid another deletion. Our ego is on the line here! DO NOT MESS WITH THE EGO! I am convinced one day I will be a writer of some esteem and failing to write a page on demand would really poke a whole in that story. So let's default to a childhood memory for the reader's entertainment. Maybe the time I ran around the house naked for a stick of gum? Or the time my dad shot a water moccasin snake's head off as it charged us? Perhaps a sad story would due better. Like the time I took my prized BB gun outside to hunt birds before elementary school one morning. I managed to sneak up on a bird feasting on seed at the feeder outside the kitchen window. Quietly I raised my rifle and aligned the site with the small featherly creature and squeezed the trigger. BBQ guns make a dull sound, really a inconsequential noise compared to the death it brought that morning. The tiny bird fell to the ground and I realized I had not only hit it but killed it. When I picked up the ball of blue and brown, I cried. Hard. I knew I had done wrong.

Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#148

Post by khendron »

So I need to keep writing and if I stop for too long I get stopped and lose everything. I wonder what that black bar going across the top of the screen is for. Is that an overall time limit?

I guess I will tell a story. How about the time I was in grade 6, competing in the inter-school track tournament. My sport was the standing broad jump. I was amazing! I could jump, from standing, 2 meters 30 cm. Nobody could come close to me. I was a shoe-in for the gold medal.

At the track meet, on a fine day in early June, I was really confident. Until I saw this one competitor. Supposedly he was 12 years old, but he was almost 6 feet tall. 12 years old my ass!

Anyway, he beat me. I jumped 2 m 31 cm (personal best), and he jumped 2 m 32 cm. Nobody else in the competition was even close. 3rd place was something like 2m 10 cm.

I've never been so disappointed with 2nd place. Just goes to show, not matter how confident and able you are, you can still fail. Yes, the world kept turning, and the sun still came up in the morning. I was just a bit more disappointed than the day before.

OK I am at 222 words. And I have run out of things to say. And the black bar is almost across the top of the

Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#149

Post by smhenderson »

owl57 wrote: post #112
namelosw wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, this is so true. At least several times a week I press Command-S and unintentionally saved HTML from browser. I even have a script to delete all HTML in my Download folder.

Funny. I also press ctrl-s in Firefox quite a bit, but for a completely different reason: in Emacs that shortcut invokes search.

I like how Firefox uses / for search like Vim.

I also find myself hitting ctrl-s in Firefox in an online ERP system we use when I really need to find and hit an Export To... button. I sit there for about two seconds staring at the Save As dialog wondering where it came from.

Been using this system for over two years now but I still find myself doing it at least once a week.

Re: The Most Dangerous Writing App

#150

Post by ramses0 »

sflanagan wrote: post #134
omarhaneef wrote: post #128

There is a whole tradition of these apps. Perhaps you have heard of "Write or Die" or the countless variations? https://v2.writeordie.com https://writingstreak.io http://writtenkitten.co And, yes, the most dangerous writing app. The idea is that it is easier to edit once done, so it is important to get everything out quickly and then go back and edit. Edit: Someone should come up with an Atom plugin that does the sam…

I would love that Atom plugin, wow How to get started making an Atom plugin? Would love to collaborate w/you or others

git commit || git revert
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