The digital typewriter and the unnecessarily costly pursuit of focus
emergencycreative.com
emergencycreative.com
I've wasted waaay too much thought on that thing: why won't the founders just release an API like they originally promised, why did they delete the entire Freewrite forum full of many complaints right before a new model was released, why... and here I am... sucked in again, whining... publicly. Jeez.
Anyone out there thinking of buying one these things, my gentle suggestion is don't. Really just don't. I'll let you borrow all my wasted time so that you don't have to waste yours.
The most gracious thing I can say is that wasting my precious time and hard-earned cash on a Freewrite taught me a very important lesson... do not be seduced by slick marketing and a new device to solve what is at its heart a self-discipline problem.
On a positive note, it got me into exploring the dead art of writing on actual typewriters. A typewriter is a good deal more useful than a Freewrite, version control on the page for example. I can edit and rewrite with a pen. Good times.
I'm a professional screenwriter and often use a typewriter for first drafts or when I'm super stuck on something or procrastinating on a hard deadline. It's a good way to get things moving. I OCR the pages into emacs and fountain-mode to rewrite until the inevitable time comes when production needs the script in Final Draft... which is a sad moment, but so it goes.
I took an unfortunate road filled with regret that led to way of working that I love. So there's that.
I have a decent enough digital art setup, but I really find myself drawn to traditional lately. Like, the input just isn't as good in digital for doing characterful lines. There are pretty good stylus systems now, but they have a handful of different shapes and nib frictions, the raw output is always a little bit too aliased to be satisfying, and it always ends up going into software that stabilizes it into a generic swooshy line. So you have to work at it to get something like an analog result. And most of the things you really benefit from in digital happen either at the beginning(edits to help with planning) or at the end(corrections and layered treatments).
But the two things that help the most are also there in traditional: use references, and make straight ruler lines and take measurements to help get the initial shapes in proportion. If you're mashing the undo a lot you're still wasting time that is mostly accounted for by good planning and use of technical drawing tools.
And writing really is the same way. Good command of language isn't really restricted by slow writing speed.
I should print this quote, frame it, and put it on my desk.
But we're not going to, because we lack discipline.
Amirite? Who's with me? [waits for high five]
Increasingly, I've taken to outlining my work (like Xe Iaso recommends[0]) on pad and paper (helps if you have a nice pen and nice paper), and then trying to write a stream of consciousness for each section.
Then, I'll go to my text editor of choice and start forming more coherent, cogent, and discrete thoughts and arguments from the previous word salad.
All to say, I appreciate that typewriters make it really hard to revise your work while you're writing as it facilitates that draft phase. Same deal with writing in pen, you can only scratch out so much before the page becomes an ink rag.
Perhaps this implementation was sloppy in that it _only_ has this no-cursor/no-backspace mode. A physical dial could be a cool alternative ("Draft Mode", "Editing Mode")
A more productive strategy would be to write up a first draft (Markdown is a great option here so as not to fuss about presentation), go through a round of edits and tightening sentences/paragraphs, then formatting.
But honestly I really haven't the patience for it. One step at a time haha
I do aspire to become that person, though!
Can you share why you think so? Vim is my go-to editor for most things, except when I am coding (sorry, hardcore Vim users!), and I find myself backtracking and editing sentences as I write, all the time. I am eager to learn what helps you not backtrack when using Vim.
Why?
Because it is basic, but it isn't actively trying to be hipster or minimal or whatever. In the case of notepad.exe it is actively despised: who has said they like notepad.exe other than in jest? And they are pretty minimal on features. All there is is you and the words that YOU will be writing.
There is no meta-thinking about the editor. No "planning the planning session to shave the yak to build the gaant chart to start the project". You just start tapping the keys.
When I need to make a note and need no friction I often open a notepad window. Later on I decide "shit I better save this!".
See also: a pencil and a piece of slightly creased cheap A4 copy paper.
The era of writing on paper was backed by a large human staff of typists, rewriters, fact-checkers, editors, and Linotype operators. Everything was re-keyed several times before it reached print. It's not about nostalgia for typewriters. It's about nostalgia for servants.
It had a keyboard and a three-line LCD display. It was powered by batteries, and could be connected to a computer as a keyboard via ADB. Press a button on the device, and it would send your document as a series of keypresses to the computer. I think our classroom had two of these? I'm not sure. You could take them outside and write, and then bring them back to the classroom and dump them into the computer. No software necessary.
When I try to look it up, I get results for AlphaSmart. I wonder how much they cost at the time. Sometimes you can figure that out by digging through computer catalogs on the Internet Archive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart
I understand that this is a whole category of devices called "word processors", but I'm a bit too young and I never really encountered them besides the AlphaSmart (which required a computer). You can dig up old commercials for word processors on YouTube.
The brilliant thing about the AlphaSmart is that is transferred data to the computer as a keyboard. That ensured it was compatible with almost any computer of the era and it will likely support any device that supports USB host mode today.
I still do something similar now, although I use Word instead of a typewriter. I print the first draft, edit on paper and retype from scratch for a second draft. I always print that and do (at least) one more editing round afterwards. Sometimes I may do a complete retype deep into the revising practice as things become more dramatically changed.
I bought a Pomera DM30 instead, and I love it. I haven't seen it mentioned in this article or thread, so I thought I should call it out. There is no US keyboard version, but the learning curve for the Japanese layout wasn't too bad, and otherwise it's perfect: small size, e-ink screen, plaintext editor saving files to onboard flash (easily accessible with USB) or SD card. There is no pointing device, but (and I'm saying this as someone who wrote a novel in Vim) the editor provides enough commands to get around a document without too much trouble. More than anything else I think it's the screen size that discourages pathological editing-as-you-write, especially if you pick a comfortable font size.
The DM30 is a serious tool for people who want to get work done. If the idea of the Freewrite appeals to you but you feel like the Freewrite itself is bullshit, check out the DM30. It's also significantly cheaper.
edit: looks like it's discontinued, RIP: https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/p5zg6s/fyi_the_kingji...
Get one while you still can...
edit: Actually this seems to have an LCD screen like their other models, rather than the DM30's e-ink, which is a shame. Still, it might be better than the alternatives.
Since you seem to know about these things, do you have any suggestion(s) for where to buy a DM250, preferably with a US keyboard layout? Somebody elsewhere in this thread said that exists, but I couldn't find any mention of it myself.
Amazon JP will start shipping the DM250 at the end of this month. The device only has one keyboard option as far as I know, but it comes with decals to switch it to a US layout. The layout is a bit weird (e.g., the enter key is split in two, which both perform the enter function) but probably ok, I'm guessing.
If usage is for reasonably static material and navigation tends to be via pagination rather than scroll, it works quite well.
Full video is possible, if of lower quality than on an emissive display.
I've written a set of my own recommendations for e-ink Web and App design here:
https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba844...
Mostly because it seems no one else had.
Better if you're using a browser optimised for the medium. Einkbro is excellent:
I've some sympathy as hardware is a mug's game and price competition when it does hit is absolutely brutal.
That said, the 10" and 13" displays available now are excellent, and are being found in Android tablets (sold as e-book readers, but fully general-purpose). The Onyx BOOX line for example.
Android itself is hugely limiting in numerous ways. I'd like to see actual e-ink laptops, and suspect we will before too much longer.
A quick note on power use: if the device is only used for reading reasonably static text, battery life is exceptional. Once radios, backlights, and in particular web-surfing are added to the workload, power draw really ramps up. You'll get a full day or two off a charge, but not a week or more as with reading books.
For my primary use: a portable library, 16 GB onboard storage was simply too little. The BOOX Max Lumi offered 64 GB, and the Lumi II has 128 GB, which I could really use, and ultimately I'd prefer more still.
Remarkable has since shifted to a cloud/subscription business model, which makes me happier for my choice.
I'd prefer Linux under the hood, really. But not with the senseless HW sacrifices that Remarkable are imposing.
I'll add that Onyx's post-purchase support of the platform has been refreshing after Samsung devices that saw no updates at all. There've been about 4--5 in a year and a half, including specifically addressing issues I'd reported.
Over 2,200 packages now.
A few comments as someone who has done a lot of writing both pre- and post-computers.
- I am most certainly not Hemingway but you could write on a typewriter--especially inverted pyramid, newspaper style. Yes, you did compose a sentence or a paragraph mentally. And, then, between you and/or an editor there was various (literal) cutting and pasting/scratching out/etc.
- However, you get used to certain styles of doing things. These days, I mostly don't even like writing someplace I don't have Internet access because I'm accustomed to being able to check facts, look something up, etc. on the fly. Hard copies of research materials are just a partial solution.
- Yes, focus is a thing but there are probably better ways to achieve it than using something that is so suboptimal in other ways.
If you have something printed out, you can cut up the paragraphs or sentences and physically rearrange them until you figure out an order that makes sense. It's much faster than doing the same thing with ctrl-X ctrl-V, and when you ctrl-X, the material you've cut vanishes from sight.
Unless you've had experience with physical paste-ups, it's hard to appreciate.
In vi/vim, the concept of seting marks then moving copy (especially with a split in the buffer so that the original / destination locations are both visible) comes reasonably close. It at least avoids that intermittent disappearance onto the clipboard / paste buffer.
That said. I have a lot of writing experience and I'm mostly not going to sweat the average 1,000 word piece I write. I do like starting off in Scrivener for the odd longer piece I write on a Mac.
For longer works --- fiction or otherwise --- structure matters far more, and works written without consideration to this tend to show this as much lower in quality.
That said, many writers (both before and after invention of typewriters) would dictate their works to an assistant who would either write longhand or type the text. If you read a lot of 19th and early 20th century material, this is sometimes evident in the style, which tends toward conversational. I'm presuming these would typically at least begin with notes.
John McPhee is an example of a writer whose works are heavily structured, and who relies on index cards for drafting his stories, as well as extensive editing and rewriting. (See also Niklaus Luhmann and Nabokov.)
I have a script[1] I use to generate a zoomed out PNG version (barely readable) of any PDF document I'm working on. Recently I started printing out the resulting PNG on paper and "editing" and re-ordering chunks using scissors.
It was tremendously useful on a current chapter I was working on: I knew it was too long (60 pages) when I printed it out and the pages (even zoomed out at 20%) took up the whole room! After restructuring, I managed to cut it into sections that all fit on the table (20 pages max).
[1] https://gist.github.com/ivanistheone/536939e36a9dc0f9bb80969...
Use `--maxpages 5` command option for 20% zoom (five PDF pages per sheet). That's barely readable, but good for overview.
In fact I seek exactly the opposite—a writing interface with as much vertical context as humanly possible, which I have found in the vertical monitor (a regular monitor that rotates 90 degrees), see the pictures in this tweet https://twitter.com/minireference/status/1508208193104666628
Because the battery will last days with some luck instead of weeks.
Incidentally, whats wrong with any random text editor (or even a professional oriented one) in full screen mode on a laptop? Just disable the damn notifications already, they’re not good for your health.
amazon could easily add a dock that lets you turn it into a distraction free writing device. Hell they could just add some software that lets you connect it to a existing usbc keyboard for the same purpose.
Compare with amateur photographers who spend most of their time obsessing over gear on forums instead of just taking pictures.
What about people who don't care about tack-sharp images? 10+ years ago, I probably would have said they should buy a nice point-and-shoot with a versatile zoom rather than lugging a cheapo DSLR and zoom lens around. Today, I'd say they should just take pictures with their phone. In 2022, I think the segment of people who don't really care that much about image quality but still have a good reason to carry around a dedicated picture-taking device is small and rapidly shrinking.
>You could also do this easily on that $60 laptop or any chromebook
You couldn't because these devices don't have an e-ink screen. This would be the entire point of having a kindle as a writing device. Otherwise you would be correct
If it's about aesthetics—if you want to light candles and put on an old jazz recording and feel like you're a postwar novelist living in Paris—that's totally fine too, you can pick up a real typewriter for under $100.
E-Ink is amazing for ebooks, but I'm not sure what the appeal of this low-tech/high-tech thing is, especially given the price.
Well there's your problem. You need Intel, NVidia, and either Windows or Linux.
P.S. This blog post was way longer than it needed to be.
The webcomic "The Guy I Almost Was" put me down this path twenty plus years ago. There's a part of the story where the author daydreams about buying a typewriter at a garage sale - the same one William Gibson used to write Neuromancer - to pursue his own fantasy of becoming a beatnik novelist after nearly becoming broke, homeless, and rejected for not having the latest Apple Newton. https://www.electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/ Writing and editing became a large part of my career in technology, but I've felt I never developed the habits of a 'good' writer and am distracted like everyone else by the Internet at my desk and my cellphone everywhere else. Several writers have talked about using old word processors to write their novels and I thought I could be one of these people. Back in 2016 my iPhone 5 screen was damaged and I didn't have the funds to fix it, so I ended up buying a Chang Jiang長江 card phone which could fit in my wallet. It was bliss, until I began 'missing out' on the social scene happening in group chats... but I still yearn for an offline, disconnected experience and continue to pursue this idea.
I call my e-ink writer 'the microWrite', 'μWrite', 'uWrite', or 'you write'. I call it this since I'd like to use micropython as the basis of the firmware/software. An e-writer was one of the first projects that came to mind when I discovered micropython. I don't think lack of USB host mode is the biggest problem; this can be overcome with an extra micro-controller. There are several options which I'll detail in this post. The major components of the MicroWrite can probably be had for less than $150, and perhaps half of this at scale and if a smaller e-ink display is used:
- An RPI Pico as the main processor module.
-- The new "w" Wi-Fi enabled version takes care of connectivity.
-- The castellated pads makes integrating the RPI Pico onto another PCB very simple.
-- The 'sleep' function of a microcontroller combined with an E-Ink displays persistent image retention when powered off seem like a perfect combination.
- An e-ink display. There are many more options on the market nowadays.
-- Pervasive Displays has a large number of options with different sizes, resolutions, and features, such as partial refresh (they even have micropython libraries for some of their product line): https://www.pervasivedisplays.com/
-- As a stop-gap solution, I thought about finding a large character LCD or VFD to test out the basic hardware concepts before diving into e-ink.
- USB host IC. Since the RPI Pico doesn't offer USB host/OTG functionality, a second controller co-processor/micro-controller allowing users to plug in their keyboard of choice. However, YouTuber Ben Eater has made a few videos explaining the complexity of USB keyboard protocols (basic/advanced), so supporting every USB keyboard could be a challenge. Luckily there is a WCH CH559-based project which allows USB to serial translation. The RPI2040 has 4 serial interfaces which could handle this input.
-- https://github.com/atc1441/CH559sdccUSBHost
-- Another option is the Maxim MAX3421E (I bought a dev board for this and never opened it) https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/interface/contro...
-- There are more discussions about USB host on the micropython forum: https://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic.php?t=6013
-- It might also be possible to use a WCH376, these are popular ways to add USB flash/SD card storage to 8-bit systems (ISA), but peripheral support hasn't emerged from the open source community.
-- Another option might be bluetooth, but I didn't investigate this that much.
- Power. This is a bit more complicated since various buck/boost converters, and battery charger ICs would be needed to supply the various voltages, handle charging, powering a keyboard, and handling "sleep". There are so many options, such as 18650 lithium or larger cells, or Nokia batteries, that this isn't a major concern.
- Storage and connectivity. There are also a lot of options for this. Millions of characters can be stored cheaply and the RPI Pico has a lot of great connectivity. I didn't like the cloud features of the Freewrite, but I suppose those could be implemented easily.
- Industrial design. 3d printing is ubiquitous and I'm sure a community of designers would design their own bespoke options to accommodate different screen sizes and layouts.
- Manufacturing. There are so many PCB manufacturing houses available now. Kicad has put schematic and layout tools into the hands of anyone willing to learn.
Software Design Considerations
There are so many software design considerations that the project becomes overwhelming.
-How many characters are "enough" to show on screen?
-Do I incorporate different font sizes?
-Do I use monospace fonts, or try to implement proportional fonts?
-Do I stick with an ASCII character-set and ASCII file-encoding, with a simple 80 column screen or do I go all out and try to implement unicode right-to-left language support for languages like Hebrew and Arabic and IME input for East Asian languages?
-How do I handle screen updates and 'keeping track' of what parts of the e-ink display need to be updated? My biggest concern from a software perspective is actually the biggest grip from the author: How would I implement the cursor/editing system and screen update routines? I came across this page which opened up a can of worms: https://lord.io/text-editing-hates-you-too/
-How do I handle the 'sleep' routines for the USB host IC, E-Ink, and the RPI2040 to conserve battery, while at the same time remaining responsive enough to the user (so that keystrokes are not lost).
Future
If all this could be solved, the microWrite could be used as a terminal device; allowing SSHing into another computer. Or maybe it could even be used to expose the python repl environment, allowing individuals to code from it. It could also be the basis of an e-reader; and maybe this is a first step to solving the challenges of displaying text.
No-one cares about you buying a console for one game and never playing it, you insufferable prick. You make me want to commit a hate crime.
But did you really need to insult the author?