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Ensō: design constraints of a focussed writing tool

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55 points rpastuszak | 4 comments | 20 Nov 24 13:45 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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luqtas ◴[20 Nov 24 15:39 UTC] No.42194851[source]▶
you can always install Emäcs and put this at your init.el file;

(menu-bar-mode -1)

(scroll-bar-mode -1)

(tool-bar-mode -1)

pronto, a solid decades old platform that is privacy oriented (whatever that means on text editors); runs flawlessly on Android too, has an easy sync with Syncthing (just add (global-auto-revert-mode) for real-time synchronization) to your computer/server; ALL shortcuts are customizable so you can set Copy/Paste/Cut to whatever is most ergonomic and crazy stuff like accessing your ibuffer with i-search mode for an easy navigation at your files that's keyboard-centric but you can use your mouse with its buttons doing whatever you want/set, just fine; org-mode...

it can even run on a, distraction free, terminal ^-^

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1. methyl ◴[20 Nov 24 17:45 UTC] No.42196397[source]▶
This is truly an infamous Dropbox comment moment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
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2. rpastuszak ◴[20 Nov 24 19:00 UTC] No.42197057[source]▶
I get this comment quite often tbf, but I enjoy the slight variations of configs people share :)
3. spudlyo ◴[20 Nov 24 19:09 UTC] No.42197114[source]▶
Is it though? That comment recommended a hodge-podge of open source tools to approximate what Dropbox offered in as a complete solution. GNU Emacs literally has a several decades head start on any new niche electronic writing tools and is, in my estimation, a towering achievement in this space.
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4. DoingIsLearning ◴[20 Nov 24 22:51 UTC] No.42198971[source]▶
Warning: this comment may offend some in the Emacs community.

> GNU Emacs literally has a several decades head start on any new niche electronic writing tools and is, in my estimation, a towering achievement in this space.

I love Emacs but I had to spend more time that I would like to admit making changes to my init file in the first months of seriously using it. The 'average' user expects to be able to hit the ground running with reasonable defaults.

A large fraction of my (blasphemous) changes was of course overriding keyboard shortcuts to match the expectations that average users have of what keyboard shortcuts should do, in at least the last 40 years of software. I don't have the mental bandwidth or appetite to learn incantations.

So to me I see emacs as a tool no different from Notepad++/VS Code but a tool I can actually open the hood and mod to my needs/preferences that also happens to have a huge community that I can leverage with all the packages and minor modes.

However, neither of this is realistic or practical as a key turn solution for the 'average' user looking for a distraction free editor.