WordGrinder: Terminal-based distraction free word processor

https://github.com/davidgiven/wordgrinder

143 68 3 years ago

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?

cyberpunk• 3 years ago

"WordGrinder needs the following packages installed: <...> - an OpenGL/GLFW development kit (if you want the OpenGL frontend). This is supplied with most systems."

That's one hell of a terminal based word processor. I wonder why vim doesn't have an opengl frontend? >_<

rcarmo2• 3 years ago

That's just for console mode.

hk__2• 3 years ago

You missed the "(if you want the OpenGL frontend)" part. It’s like using gvim instead of vim.

chankstein383• 3 years ago

Right?! lol I know people pointed out it's a special front end but still like looking through the list of dependencies it's like "Isn't this just a page of text? Can't the console basically already do that?" haha

unregistereddev• 3 years ago

It supports more formatting than notepad does. The project link has a site that includes screenshots: http://cowlark.com/wordgrinder/screenshots.html

My first thought was to compare this to MSDOS edit or *nix nano, but it has basic formatting that they lack. While I doubt I would ever use this for real work, I enjoy that it exists. Back when I was in college I used to pull the PCMCIA wifi card out of my laptop, put AbiWord in full screen mode, and write papers without distractions. It was a great way to write, and this tool seems like the terminal equivalent.

chankstein383• 3 years ago

Thanks for the link to screenshots! This is what I wanted from the readme instead of the blocks of text. I don't actually need this I was just trying to give it a quick glance to see what the heck it was and what made it different. I just didn't have the time to keep digging.

LeoPanthera2• 3 years ago

It’s a word processor. Notepad is a text editor. They are not the same thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_processor

I think a lot of people have forgotten that “word processors” were originally mechanical devices, and then electrical and electronic devices, before ultimately becoming software.

c-smile2• 3 years ago

It is not a word processor in common sense.

Difference between Word Processor and text editor is in WYSIWYG mode of operation. At least for most of people.

Like my Sciter.Notes (https://notes.sciter.com) has better chances to be named as Word Processor as its primary mode is WYSIWYG. It also supports WordGrinder alike mode (Markdown editing) so users can chose what mode is more suitable for particular document type.

themadturk2• 3 years ago

Having spent years in the legal industry, my first impulse is to say "word processors are people" but maybe that's just pedantic...

hmsp• 3 years ago

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.

bondarchuk• 3 years ago

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.

DC-3• 3 years ago

Vim Pencil is a simple plugin that makes Vim a decent environment for writing. Plus Goyo for full minimalism.

cesnja• 3 years ago

There is zen-mode in emacs as well.

spudlyo• 3 years ago

Not to mention olivetti mode[0] in Emacs.

[0] https://github.com/rnkn/olivetti

teddyh2• 3 years ago

What “zen-mode” would that be? https://github.com/zenlang/zen-mode seems to be for the programming language called “Zen”.

themodelplumber2• 3 years ago

Too bad the PyRoom site is down. I want to say I had shared some themes with that project a while back, but can't remember if they were full themes or just screenshots.

noloblo2• 3 years ago

:set wrap would make it work in vim or neovim ?

bongobingo1• 3 years ago

You also probably want

    :noremap j gj
    :noremap k gk

So j/k operate on "one display line" instead of ignoring wrapping.

nvy• 3 years ago

WriteRoom (mac)

There's also an analogous mode[0] for emacs that works great on my ARM Mac!

[0] https://github.com/joostkremers/writeroom-mode

rcarmo2• 3 years ago

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.

DiggyJohnson• 3 years ago

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.

taviso2• 3 years ago

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

rpastuszak4• 3 years ago

If you’re looking for an even less-featured one, feel free to check out my stream of consciousness writing tool: https://enso.sonnet.io

- Not terminal but browser based though.

- Prioritises writing over editing, thinking over second guessing, censoring yourself.

djsavvy• 3 years ago

Wow, this is beautiful! Pretty fun to dump text into

cssanchez• 3 years ago

Wow what an elegant design. I tried the web version from mobile even after all the warnings and it wasn’t bad at all. I’m definitely trying out the desktop versions later.

noloblo2• 3 years ago

how to install this and word grinder ? also how is this better than vi or neovim or emacs-client?

taviso2• 3 years ago

A text editor and a word processor are different things. There are things you can do very easily in a word processor that are difficult in a text editor, and vice versa. I actually wrote a FAQ about this!

https://github.com/taviso/wpunix/wiki/FAQ#q-why-not-just-use

(Fwiw, I'm a daily vim user)

ape4• 3 years ago

Not to be confused with grindr.com

artisanspam• 3 years ago

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.

parasti• 3 years ago

I thought so, too, but the README file is actually just a regular text file, like we used to have before Github.

rbanffy2• 3 years ago

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).

phire• 3 years ago

I find it interesting that when we say terminal emulator these days, we are very explicitly referring to an informal standard that is (more or less) VT100 + color + mouse + Unicode.

rbanffy2• 3 years ago

Oh yes. This would be a board with an MCU, HDMI output and USB input for a keyboard and, perhaps, a mouse.

Preferably a LK501 layout keyboard ;-)

amichail• 3 years ago

The scrolling is done in a distracting way though.

sasas• 3 years ago

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...

rkagerer2• 3 years ago

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"

tyingq• 3 years ago

There's a clone called WordTsar that runs on Linux and Windows, MacOS (though lightly tested), etc. http://wordtsar.ca/

insane_dreamer• 3 years ago

Gotta try this out. I used to have the WS commands burned into my brain, but it’s been decades now …

rocket_surgeron• 3 years ago

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?

eviks• 3 years ago

The ones that get in your way!

lproven2• 3 years ago

I can aver that the UI of both Vi and Emacs are highly distracting to me, because I spend my time swearing at them trying to remember what mode I'm in, whether I'm editing text or accidentally invoking editor commands, trying to remember their ridiculous non-standard keystrokes for saving or cutting or pasting or whatever.

Because they totally fail to follow the UI guidelines introduced in the early 1980s and adopted across almost all OSes by the start of the 1990s onwards, they are extremely distracting and constantly get in my way.

lproven2• 3 years ago

I think the point is that a full-screen window that's largely empty of UI means that you don't see other windows, icons, toolbars etc. that are the potential sources of distraction.

It's not that the WP is distracting. It's that the WP leaves other sources of distraction -- such as playing around with formatting, other apps and so on -- visible.

A WP with little or no onscreen UI and which runs full screen so you can't see anything but the WP is trying to minimise visual distraction.

nerpderp82• 3 years ago

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!

user39393822• 3 years ago

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

themodelplumber2• 3 years ago

I use a Casio B.O.S.S. or other similar electronic diaries for this sometimes. I usually type in shorthand since the screens are small.

I was going to pick up an Alphasmart a while back but felt guilty for how little it would be used, and ended up in Nano on my old MSI Wind... It's still amazing how much you can do with these devices. So I'll have a movie open, Falkon on the side, and several terminal sessions. Semi-distraction free since browsing is costly and the movie will be something I've seen before...

For the regular desktop and distraction-free feel, I like to use Breeze for MS-DOS in DOSBox, or mcedit.

wellthisisgreat2• 3 years ago

I got an e-ink typewriter (a Japanese device, with a 7" screen or something to that effect). It's cool in theory, but in practice it was easier to just use Selfcontrol (on Mac) and block everything, except the word processor.

typing on normal keyboard with all the copy-paste etc. functionality is just so much better.

An even more extreme variant I used was to create a separate user profile with just the word processor in it.

user39393822• 3 years ago

New side project idea: OS that’s a word processor that runs in ring 0 on bare metal that you dual boot into :)

syngrog66• 3 years ago

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.

sva_• 3 years ago

You mean vim?

teddyh2• 3 years ago

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

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

spccdt• 3 years ago

13 years old and still in “beta?” :-)

WordGrinder: Terminal-based distraction free word processor

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