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WriterdeckOS

writerdeckos.com

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Re: WriterdeckOS

#91

Post by tombert »

ckz wrote: post #86

Surprised my fellow typewriter folks haven't shown up yet! [paging @ebruchez] If you want the writerdeck experience I'll echo the recommendations here for an Alphasmart. The brute-force autotyping file transfer it uses is quaint but always amusing. Gave one to a screenwriter friend and it's now gotten regular use for years. PDAs are a solid choice as well that may resonate with the HN crowd. Don't sleep on owning an…

I was born in 1990 with two geeky parents who always had a printer and at least one computer available, so I didn’t get to grow up using one, but my brain always sort of romanticized typewriters. I eventually bought a used Brother typewriter, and also one of those “word processors” that was basically a crappy computer that uses a typewriter as a printer.

They were fun to play with, but ultimately I don’t really write fiction, and pretty much anything I do write about would necessitate internet access to research weird math or tech stuff. I could of course use my phone for that, and I tried that for a bit, but I found that even more distracting than a regular laptop would be. This, in combination of the lack of spelling and grammar checks made made made it so that it was never more than a toy for me, and I eventually gave it away.

It made an extremely loud and satisfying “thunk” noise whenever it typed or printed and I admittedly do miss that sometimes. Maybe I should buy one of those color dotmatrix printers.

Re: WriterdeckOS

#92

Post by coffeebeqn »

ray_v wrote: post #32
RajT88 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I apply this to writing as well as coding. To keep the flow, I leave TODO: notes, and later I search for the TODO: and see what needs attention.

Feels like a lot IDEs now call out `TODO:` text; I think VS Code does this for most languages.

4000 TODOs? I’m sure we’ll get to these one day right team?

Re: WriterdeckOS

#93

Post by coffeebeqn »

re_spond wrote: post #70

Would love to try if I could swap out the underlying Tilde editor with classic Wordperfect... seems like https://github.com/taviso/wpunix Might actually be the perfect fit for this (for me).

Now that looks like the kind of rich text editor I’ve been looking for

Re: WriterdeckOS

#94

Post by coffeebeqn »

forgotpwd16 wrote: post #6
dingnuts wrote: post #2

a single fucking screenshot would go a long way to convincing me this is real. considering I lost an hour yesterday trying to use an open source library that turned out to be vibe coded non-functional slop, I have to ask for evidence that the project is real and functional be presented front and center

E.g. https://old.reddit.com/r/writerdeckOS/comments/1mu299a/ Not sure why such over-the-top presentation, marketing, and community building, for what is basically auto-logging in to a text editor.

I built an OS!

Re: WriterdeckOS

#95

Post by coffeebeqn »

dangus wrote: post #39
smlavine wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because then you'd have to do that.

Not much you really have to do though. Take your standard Linux distro… Make a new user. Login. Uninstall the apps you don’t want. Uninstall the web browser. You don’t really even have to set up an autostart script to turn off WiFi for this user, but you can if you want. The user not having a web browser installed should be enough. That’s it, you’re done.

Or pull the wifi chip out of the m.2 slot

Re: WriterdeckOS

#96

Post by anjel »

devilbunny wrote: post #81
cout wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the main reason I keep my PS/2 around with WordPerfect 5.1. Sure I can go browse the web with Minuet, or I used to before https everywhere, but that means saving and exiting WP. And 30+ years later I'm still waiting for a word processor with a decent Reveal Codes.

It’s been 30ish years, so I can’t be 100% sure, but Ami Pro 3.1 for Windows had an easy-to-use equation editor that gave great results. And I think its Reveal Codes equivalent was pretty good. Crashed a lot, though.

I still occasionaly yearn for features not seen since Ami Pro

Re: WriterdeckOS

#97

Post by mkl »

cout wrote: post #61
CTDOCodebases wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is intended for people who want to use a laptop as a single use device for the purpose of writing. So basic file management and a word processor is all that is needed. WriterdeckOS is not meant to be an OS for general computing. Purppose built writerdecks are quite expensive. WriterdeckOS is a practical, inexpensive and resourceful alternative to a purpose build device. For more information on writerdecks check…

This is the main reason I keep my PS/2 around with WordPerfect 5.1. Sure I can go browse the web with Minuet, or I used to before https everywhere, but that means saving and exiting WP. And 30+ years later I'm still waiting for a word processor with a decent Reveal Codes.

> And 30+ years later I'm still waiting for a word processor with a decent Reveal Codes.

Have you tried... WordPerfect? It still exists: https://www.wordperfect.com/en/product/wordperfect/

The first feature they list is Reveal Codes.

Personally I like Latex as it reveals all the codes and lets you type them, change them, find-and-replace them, define new ones, etc. But then, I'm a mathematician, so it's designed for my stuff.

Re: WriterdeckOS

#98

Post by mkl »

pigeons wrote: post #83
swores wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile my mind first jumped to the old, pre-USB connector used for things like keyboards and mice, and was wondering what wizardry they had built to turn a PS2 keyboard into a complete text processor!

I always thought they were related because my PS/2's did use PS2 connectors.

Yes, the PS/2 connector came from the PS/2 computer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS/2_port

Re: WriterdeckOS

#99

Post by wltr »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #17

The idea of a low-distraction laptop OS is a good one, but I'm not sure that this is necessarily the best approach. If I mentally model such a thing myself, I end up with something that looks a lot like Classic (pre-OS-X) Mac OS. It's simplified and has just enough presence to properly host graphical applications. No taskbar, no notifications (or associated drawer), no self-populated launcher menu. File manager is sp…

Basically, that’s what sway does for me for many years now. In a way, of course.

Re: WriterdeckOS

#100

Post by tanin »

This looks interesting. I have a window laptop/tablet that I'd like to convert it into a simpler machine. I'll try it out.

More screenshots would be appreciated. I was clicking around for a while only to realize there's only one screenshot that looks like Lotus 123...

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