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Comment by talldatethrow | Hacker News Reader

I bought one recently at an estate sale so that I could write things without the ability to open a window and browse the web.

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That piqued my interest for sure. This kind of thing exists too:

https://getfreewrite.com/products/freewrite-smart-typewriter...

but I'd really like to bring my own keyboard and have the e-ink display at a more ergonomic height. Combine that with Vim, and that'd be something I'd use

You might enjoy some of the full-fledged e-ink tablets (with folio keyboards, iPad style) on the market right now. Some even run Android, so you could definitely find a way to run Vim.

I was just looking at some today but the biggest downside right now is that they're pretty expensive for what you get.

It's kind of surprising that there are no "typewriter OS" based on Alpine Linux, but it's always has to be paired with hardware sales to go past prototype stage as a business, and even then the viability is dubious.

Why not just use a pen?

I can type on QWERTY much faster and more legibly than I can write with a pen. I suspect this is true for most proficient QWERTY typists.

I've never tested it, but you may be right. On the other hand a pen is smaller, and you can draw and doodle with it.

I used to love doodling and drawing, but as soon as I start to write my hand cramps up. I take hand written (short notes) for work and I struggle to read them a month or so later when the context is gone. I also really struggle to spell, and will consistently get common words wrong.

BUT on a keyboard I can type almost as fast as I can think - and I can also spell 90% better - I don't know how it happens but it is like the words 'flow' out of my fingers when i type - and I can easily spell words that if you asked me how to spell I wouldn't have a clue. Also if you asked me to find you a key on a keyboard I'd have to look - but when I'm typing my fingers just know where they are.

I'm a 44 yo successful man, but I still don't know my alphabet well (for example I couldn't start in the middle or recite it backwards) - but put me in front of a keyboard and I can type all day long (note - I am VERY thankful for spellcheck though!)

> as soon as I start to write my hand cramps up.

I always had similar problems in school growing up. A few things that I've found helpful:

- Try a larger pen. It helps you maintain your grip on the pen without as much effort.

- Try a pen with less viscous ink. If you're used to ballpoints, this can mean e.g. a rollerball. This lets you write without putting much pressure on the page, which at least for me significantly helps to avoid hand cramps. (I use fountain pens these days myself which write with even less pressure, but rollerballs are a more familiar starting point.)

Thanks, I think for me part of the cramp is a mental block - I spent a long time hating writing (and English lessons in particular) and being told I was bad at it/lazy.

but as soon as I could type my essays I loved English and writing.

You can also use your pen to draw or doodle on your typewritten documents. Doesn't have to be one or the other.

As an avid pen/paper user I can say that using a pen takes more time, plus you can't OCR it as easily as a typewriter output.

Nevertheless carrying a nice pen and a good notebook always beats having a heavy typewriter with you.

in my case, writing with a pen for long periods of time makes my hand cramp/hurt real bad (i still write on my journal daily but it's not pleasant).

(i don't have a typewriter, but i prefer to type anything because of this).

As a lefty, I've tried writing properly, and tried to like it but I just... Don't.

And, today, with LLMs it'll take you a few seconds to digitize the document, too. For this reason I've also been considering a typewriter...

OCR has been a solved problem for years. Long before LLMs started being hyped.

At least from typewritten documents that you did not torch or shred etc.

No it hasn't. Just 1.5 years ago I tried all the latest OCR tools, including AWS, GCP and Azure services, and none of them could consistently and reliably read a receipt printed at a store.

Receipts are hard.

- cheap paper

- cheap ink

- misprints

- abbreviations

- every store does it differently

Yes. Which makes OCR not a solved problem.

OCR is merely step one.

Interpreting recognized characters is another matter.

Reminds me of those tablets (and pens) that you can write on / with and they automatically digitize and OCR whatever was written, as if by magic.

Does one exist that actually works?

The iPad, with the Apple Pencil is pretty much there. It’s actually amazingly good. I have terrible handwriting, and it doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.

If anyone ever tried using a Newton, there was a series of Doonesbury comics[0] about its awful handwriting recognition.

[0] https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-computing/...

I got pretty good at writing with the Newton, but it was me adapting rather than the Newton understanding my natural handwriting (which is fairly neat given my parents are both teachers).

Yup, iPad and Apple Pencil do an amazing job, either with the built-in Notes app or several third party apps. Even better with a screen protector like the Paperlike that gives a little tooth to the screen to make it a bit more like writing on paper.

I was OCRing documents with ABBYY or Tesseract in 2000s if not a little bit earlier. I have been OCRing text documents with my phone for the last 6 years or so, with Prizmo.

It was taking seconds back then, too.

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