Deutsch

Current Texts Comic Imprint Calendar Search PHP-Classes Container-Wizard main.s21

Categories

Word Processing on the Command Line

I prefer to write text on the Linux command line. The command line is simple and I don't get distracted by buttons, menus or windows. So far, I used vim or nano, but there has been a problem: if vim or nano wrap lines, the cursor navigation using cursor keys doesn't work anymore in a way I'm used to by word processors. For if I use <Cursor Up>, I'll wont up end one line up on the same row, but in the next paragraph instead.
That is not as disturbing when pursuing a typical "Editor"-Use Case, like editing configuration files, as there you usually have shorter lines, which therefore do not need to be wrapped. It is, however, very disturbing when writing longer text, as it is common that you notice a mistake one line above and want to correct it and continue to write thereafter. Therefore, it is bad if you need to navigate a while with the cursor.
I therefore made some research to look if it was possible to "teach" vim or nano a different behaviour. The result was as follows:

• You don't need that (sorry guys, that's for me to decide)
• You should not use the cursor keys, as there are 4,327 different, better ways in vim (unfortunately, one has to switch from INSERT into VISUAL mode, which hampers any writing flow)
• You should use vim & LaTeX (stupid, as LaTeX is a typesetting system and not a word processor)
• do a line feed every 80 characters and put it back together with a script afterwards (I've got better things to do, such as actually writing texts)

The Linux Gurus once again succeeded at putting themselves next to that joke about the Microsoft Hotline - the answers are right, but irrelevant.
I then realized that I asked the wrong question: I wanted to have a word processor, not an editor.
So I researched again, and there actually is a word processor for the command line: Wordgrind. An apt-get install wordgrind later I write this text (well, wrote the german one first) and wordgrind works exactly as I'm used from a word processor. Well, most of it: there is no WYSIWYG, of course.

It reminds me of the good old time of my first word processor: Word Perfect. 1.0. On MS-DOS 3.3.

Comments

Please note: comments posted won't be visible immediately, as they will be checked for harmful content.