Still in the early early stages. Can be a little slow going since I’m treating this like a training project to strengthen my Python skills. Typing mechanics are nailed down, basic UI is in place.

Next is to get the functionality working for new-page, save, export, etc… and the correction tape mode.

  • Unattributed@feddit.onlineEnglish
    1·
    5 days ago

    What about some of the other distraction free editors, like [FocusWriter}(https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/) and Ghost Writer

    Your project looks very interesting. I would like to understand how it differs from the other “distraction free” applications that are out there. (Granted, you are saying “minimal” instead of “distraction free”.)

    • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      Essentially, it’s a digital typewriter (or as close as I can make it).

      That means a few things, but the biggest ones are:

      • No cursor. The “paper” moves left to right under a caret (the bottom red triangle) in order to place the next character.
      • No word wrap. A “ding” warns you when you’re reaching the right margin and you with do a carriage return, which moves that paper up one line and back to the left margin.
      • No backspace. Hitting backspace or delete will move the carriage back however many spaces, but it doesn’t delete what is typed. Instead your new characters are on-top of the old ones, just like a typewriter. If you want to “delete” a word, there’s a “correction tape”, which allows you to retype over the word in “white ink”, effectively erasing it. Or you can simply do what I do on a typewriter, which is go back and cover the error with xxxxx and keep moving forward.
      • Related to the above, there is no block selecting of text. For all intents and purposes, what you’ve typed is immutable. Like typing on a piece of paper, once it’s typed, it’s typed. The correction tape gives you a limited ability to correct errors, but trying to do that for an entire paragraph would be a pain in the butt.
      • (optional) only your last ten pages are visible. As new pages are added, older ones move into a “done” folder so you can’t fall into a continuous editing cycle instead of making forward progress.
      • Unattributed@feddit.onlineEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        Ahh, I missed the concept that you were simulating the experience of using a typewriter.

        How far are you planning to take the concept? Are you going to make people manually set up margins, tab stops, headers, footers, etc?

        • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.caOPEnglish
          2·
          4 days ago

          Nothing that complex with tab stops, etc… At least not yet. The caret is tied to a margin/ruler up top that will allow people to slide the paper back and forth to set both the left margin, and at the same time, when on the right, the “ding” occurs. And that’s about the only option in that regard.