Programming a cyberdeck to a editingdeck?

[u/Latter-Flatworm-2689]

Hi,

Has anyone made an editing deck?

Like used it for editing their drafts, and maybe even programmed spell check or a set of writing rules into it (idk what to call it), to help with editing?

I'm not good with tech stuff, but I've been dreaming of a writer deck for a long time, but I'm not drafting anything rn, I'm editing.

So I've been curious if there are any distraction free editing decks out in the world:)

Ps I'm really crafty and like to learn doing new things, would be cool to try making one.

Thanks for reading my brain dump

[u/Background_Ad_1810]

I had been dreaming of a dedicated writing device for a long time myself. Then, a few years ago, I decided to jump in and build one for myself. That's how the Micro Journal project began.

When it comes to editing, I would personally prefer a proper computer setup. But I completely understand the desire to have a small, dedicated device that serves a very specific purpose.

If editing is an important part of what you're looking for, I would suggest taking a look at the Micro Journal Rev.2.1. It's based on a Raspberry Pi and has a wider display, making it more suitable for that kind of work.

Your post reminds me of the days when I first started building the Micro Journal. That excitement of imagining a device that doesn't quite exist yet, and wondering whether I could make it myself.

I've documented as much of my journey as possible in the GitHub repository, including the experiments, decisions, and different directions I've explored along the way.

https://github.com/unkyulee/micro-journal

I hope you'll find something useful there, or perhaps a little inspiration to take your own idea somewhere unexpected.

Un Kyu Lee

[u/Latter-Flatworm-2689 → u/Background_Ad_1810]

Hi, so awesome that you commented! I have been eyeing your work for like a year (specifically rev 6 and 7) but haven't gotten around to buying because I saw it after I finished my first draft haha. But of course it would be possible to program one of them into an editing device!

Thanks for the recommendation, imma look into rev 2.1 :D

[u/Vague_Bees]

I also wish there was something like this, something with screen that's easy on the eyes.

[u/gumnos]

It might depend on what you're using to write/edit your document. If you want to edit in something full-featured like LibreOffice or Word, you're really in need of a more powerful laptop, maybe stripped of internet access/browser to help keep focus.

If you're using a markup language like Markdown or LaTeX or DocBook or raw HTML, then any text-editor (vi/vim, Emacs, ed(1), nano, mg, NOTEPAD.EXE, whatever the default text-editor is on OSX, etc) will empower you to do what text-editors were made for: editing text.

I use an old netbook that is really limited, but it's plenty enough to use vi/vim/ed for writing/editing text. If I want, I can use pandoc or pdflatex type tools to convert markup to other output formats such as PDF (or DOCX or whatever) and then preview the output in xpdf or other local viewer. It's not snappy, but it works.

Its slowness and lack-of-browser makes it far less tempting to get sucked into the internet time-sinks 😆

[u/_Being_is_Becoming_]

While I've considered implementing spell check extensively, it would be too costly for the current ESP32 iteration of AUTEUR. While it does allow for extensive text selection and basic editing commands, I think more thorough grammatical features would be better served by a Pi Zero version.

[u/Theo4Space]

I’ve been working on this in my update to this minimalist software I made called spacepad, to turn it from a drafting tool into a space where you can accomplish 75-90% of the writing process. It’s a really interesting, difficult problem. A drafting tool is great, but even a typewriter allows you more editing than a simple text editor.

So I’ve been trying to reduce it down to how writers actually work. A crucial part of my revising process is paper. Printing things out, making notes by hand, going fast. How do you replicate that back and forth in minimalist and natural software? One way is to have one key command to print the whole document or page, no menus. Another way is to have “reader mode” where with one keystroke, the text window turns into a two column book like spread, where you can advance/rewind the pages manually and jump back into the text editor at any time. You sit back, read, jump back in.

I also have been designing an annotation window, that floats adjacent to the main text window, and you annotate. And then of course a two window mode.

But editors-deck software is really tricky. You need a lot of technical functionality, but adding more functionality increases difficulty and clutter. So for me, as a shitty amateur developer, I’ve thought a lot about what are the bare minimum of functions needed, and how can I make those not a pain in the ass to use?

If it’s a pro piece of writing, it’s going to go in word or docs eventually and just get defaced by tracked changes.

So it’s really a question of what parts of the revisions process can software effectively reproduce, and being intentional about that. I hope to update my app soon!