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    • CommentAuthorSlyShy
    • CommentTimeMay 16th 2013
     

    Hey guys,

    I’ve secretly been working on some tools for writers. You are invited to try an early version of my experimental text editor: http://zencephalon.com/dd/index.html

  1.  

    I realize I haven’t posted anything for ages here, but I just tried it out, Sly, and I think it has the potential to be super useful! How long did it take you to write? I think it would take some getting used to, but I like the concept of having to decide on a ‘final’ draft to move on.

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      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeMay 16th 2013 edited
     

    That is pretty neat indeed. There’s lots of times when I don’t know exactly how I want to proceed or how I want to phrase something, and it’s always annoying if I change it a bunch and then can’t get it back to the original… or if I end up with six lines in a row and then have to pick one and erase the rest. This would certainly speed up the process. And if something simply was NOT working… well, you could just start again from your last committed point and go on from there.

    For the future, it might be nice to be able to have branching drafts (and merging them later, I suppose). Another feature that might be nice is being able to see another draft as you type (off to the side, in grayed out text, something) if you just wanted to play around with small changes and see how it looked. You probably have already thought of these things, but they came to me as I was messing around.

    EDIT: Forgot to ask, what did you write this in?

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      CommentAuthorlilyWhite
    • CommentTimeMay 16th 2013
     

    Interesting concept. The command for “scratch” is a bit awkward, since some people use double-spaces at the end of sentences or might accidentally double-tap the space bar when they didn’t mean to start a new draft. It would probably be simple to allow the user to customize the keyboard commands anyway.

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      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeMay 16th 2013
     

    Interesting! I think it could be really useful for people who think/write like that, but it’s probably not for everyone. I agree that command customisation would be a good thing, if possible, or at least something less common than double-space. Double semicolon, perhaps? ;;

    I really like the mechanics of this and the way it facilitates and streamlines a writing style that is ordinarily rather messy and difficult. Is there a way to save aside from highlight and ctrl-C? Would it be possible to program a ‘select all’ button, or even better, a ‘save as .txt’ or ‘convert to Notepad’ button?

    Are you planning to host this wholly online, or will there be an offline-friendly download version?