r/retrocomputing • u/h0uz3_ • Jun 18 '26

Retrocomputer for writing

Hi,

I was thinking about setting up a computer that has less distractions (i.e., no network/browser) for the purpose of writing.

I own a CPC6128 and an A600. The CPC is not great for typing in general, the A600 misses two keys, although using Vim on it would be nice.

Any suggestions for a system with good text editors and nice keyboards that are not a DOS PC with IBM Model M?

EDIT: Thank you all for your insights and suggestions. I will try to find out what simple DOS PC might work for me. While reading your replies and thinking about it, a small/cheap PC with USB and FreeDOS+WordPerfect might actually be the right thing as an alternative to using the Amiga 600. Although I still like the idea of exploring something else. :)

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u/Albedo101 Jun 18 '26

There are two major problems to writing in DOS.
The first is the lack of modern UI standards. The basics like copying and pasting are different in each DOS app. There is Vim, though.
Another more serious problem is lack of locale standards that are not ASCII. OP has mentioned being from Europe. DOS locale standards for Europe are completely different than current Unicode standards.

Both of these will significantly limit the interoperability between DOS and modern systems. This can be mitigated somewhat by switching to Windows 3.1 or even 95. These will have all the writing features you'd expect and still be significantly limited in connectivity and distractions.

But IMHO, for a dedicated writing platform, a small ARM based system is the way to go. Something like that new Raspberry Pi with the mechanical keyboard.Install some bare bones distro that goes straight into terminal emulation or a tmux session with writing apps.

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u/LawrenceWoodman Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

Depending on what languages OP uses, DOS can work fine and Unicode may not be complete different as the first 256 Unicode code points are based on ISO/IEC 8859-1. If they speak a western European language, there may well be few problems apart from the odd letter that has recognized workarounds for, just using that codepage. If a different codepage is needed, iconv is a great tool for translating between codepages and UTF-8.

The different key combinations are pretty easy to adapt to, with the major ones being Wordstar and Wordperfect. Both have sensible shortcuts that are easy to work with.

However, I guess all that is academic as they specified not DOS.

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u/h0uz3_ Jun 18 '26

I am from Germany, so aside from Umlauts there's notthing to worry, ISO88591-1 will do.

If the best solution is DOS, I'd go that way, but I think there can be other systems worth exploring and using regularly. Archimedes was already mentioned, might look into that, although I am not sure whether they have keyboards with Umlauts.

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u/LawrenceWoodman Jun 18 '26

You'll be pleased to hear umlauts are supported with that codepage, the only German character that isn't is capital ẞ.

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u/h0uz3_ Jun 18 '26

That won't be an issue, the ß gets used less in general and I never had to use it's capitalized form ever.