You could argue that the free software world isn’t short of a text editor or two. With some people already pretty attached to their preferred choice, you might wonder if we really need another.
Some time ago, I read a newspaper article complaining that today’s computer desktop dangles too many distractions in front of professional writers. The author presented two solutions:
- a return to typewriters
- and Hog Bay Software’s WriteRoom.
WriteRoom is a big black box with green text. Basically, think Windows Notepad but with fancier marketing and a $24.95 price tag. Nonetheless, its simplicity has struck a chord with many; not least of all me.
That’s why I was delighted when Bruno Bord told me about PyRoom. It’s one of several WriteRoom clones that grew out of a thread on the Ubuntu forums and, as you might expect, is written in Python.
If you have Bazaar, you can get hold of PyRoom with:
bzr branch http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~brunobord/pyroom/trunk
Writing this post in PyRoom almost makes me nostalgic for my Amstrad PCW days. It’s is a work in progress so give it a try and file bug reports. Bruno’s also on the look-out for translators.
You will also like WordGrinder then:
http://wordgrinder.sourceforge.net/
The most important feature than none of the “Writeroom clones” have implemented is that in Writeroom, when the Enter key is pressed, the cursor always stays at eye-level and the text moves up.
I am using LyX to compose (as well as document process) and would like to try PyRoom since I have heard about how good (simple) WriteRoom is for composing. I installed bazaare and followed directions. What shows in terminal is that four branches have been download or installed or something. But I can’t find PyRoom in my menu. How do I run it and give it a try? In terminal? Please advise. I am running kubuntu gutsy 64 bit. Thanks!!!
Blaine: PyRoom is a very young project and as yet it does not show up in the menu. If you look in the directory where you downloaded the files, you should see a file called “pyroom.py”. Typing “python pyroom.py” will run pyroom.
You need to change your directory to where it was downloaded and then run it. It does not install system wide yet.
Type in the terminal:
cd ~/pyroom
then
python pyroom.py
and type away!