FocusWriter

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by gmw

Wow! So you've managed to retain WordStar keystroke habits after all this time. Now that's what I call dedication! They were old when I was busy losing them to learn WordPerfect habits, and I've almost managed to lose those heading on towards 20-odd years since I last needed them.

Just sayin'. Not judgin'.

It's not so much me as it is my fingers. They don't forget.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I've tried to get WordStar keystrokes to work in LibreOffice without any success. As far as I can tell, there is is no way to emulate WordStar combination keystrokes (which is what I mostly use).

It's SO many years since I used WS menus and more than the single ones. I forgot about the evil combo ones.

[Quoth]

I admit Nano is not much like WS:
Simpler than Vi or Emacs?

File handling
Ctrl+S Save current file
Ctrl+O Offer to write file ("Save as")
Ctrl+R Insert a file into current one
Ctrl+X Close buffer, exit from nano

Editing
Ctrl+K Cut current line into cutbuffer
Alt+6 Copy current line into cutbuffer
Ctrl+U Paste contents of cutbuffer
Alt+T Cut until end of buffer
Ctrl+] Complete current word
Alt+3 Comment/uncomment line/region
Alt+U Undo last action
Alt+E Redo last undone action

Search and replace
Ctrl+Q Start backward search
Ctrl+W Start forward search
Alt+Q Find next occurrence backward
Alt+W Find next occurrence forward
Alt+R Start a replacing session

Deletion
Ctrl+H Delete character before cursor
Ctrl+D Delete character under cursor
Alt+Bsp Delete word to the left
Ctrl+Del Delete word to the right
Alt+Del Delete current line

Operations
Ctrl+T Execute some command
Ctrl+J Justify paragraph or region
Alt+J Justify entire buffer
Alt+B Run a syntax check
Alt+F Run a formatter/fixer/arranger
Alt+: Start/stop recording of macro
Alt+; Replay macro

Moving around
Ctrl+B One character backward
Ctrl+F One character forward
Ctrl+← One word backward
Ctrl+→ One word forward
Ctrl+A To start of line
Ctrl+E To end of line
Ctrl+P One line up
Ctrl+N One line down
Ctrl+↑ To previous block
Ctrl+↓ To next block
Ctrl+Y One page up
Ctrl+V One page down
Alt+\ To top of buffer
Alt+/ To end of buffer

Special movement
Alt+G Go to specified line
Alt+] Go to complementary bracket
Alt+↑ Scroll viewport up
Alt+↓ Scroll viewport down
Alt+< Switch to preceding buffer
Alt+> Switch to succeeding buffer

Information
Ctrl+C Report cursor position
Alt+D Report word/line/char count
Ctrl+G Display help text

Various
Alt+A Turn the mark on/off
Tab Indent marked region
Shift+Tab Unindent marked region
Alt+N Turn line numbers on/off
Alt+P Turn visible whitespace on/off
Alt+V Enter next keystroke verbatim
Ctrl+L Refresh the screen
Ctrl+Z Suspend nano

[j.p.s]

Looks way more complicated than vi to me.

[gmw]

One of the problems with a simple list of shortcuts is that it can make anything look complicated. We all pick and choose what shortcuts we can be bothered remembering.

And some of this stuff is also affected by your choice of operating environment. In recent decades I have mostly used Windows, largely because I develop for Windows which is mostly because that's what my clients are using, and so I favour those shortcuts that are (reasonably) consistent throughout Windows applications. That way my habits for common stuff like copy and paste etc. happily work even when I'm forced to work on systems I don't own, and I don't have to customise shortcuts in applications like browsers and so on to work in the way I expect because these mostly respect operating system conventions by default.

If you only ever work on your own personal system it will be less important that your habits are transferable.

[Quoth]

Indeed I reprogrammed Alt A to insert an Anchor/Bookmark because Ctri A is commonly select All.
I remember Ctrl K is insert linK
Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-Y, Ctrl-A and Ctrl-S do the same things in most Windows and Linux GUI programs. Shift-Enter is common (newline but not paragraph or newline but not Send) but shift-Space less common (Non-breaking space).

I try to use entirely keyboard as it's less strain/RSI etc than Mouse <-> Keyboard
So I might for a list that needs to be links
Shift-End to select line, Ctrl-K for insert link, #<id prefix matches item number> instead of browse Anchors. Enter, right Arrow (to start next line and repeat)

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by gmw

If you only ever work on your own personal system it will be less important that your habits are transferable.

I understand that. In most of jobs I worked I worked independently so was able to install and use dBASE for DOS and WordStar. These were mainstays for me from my DR=DOS days into my Windows years (post 1999 (approximately when I left OS/2) and pre-2007 when I went to Linux). Just to see it if would work, I've put both of these programs in DOSBox (last time I used them regularly was about 2007). Both seem natural to me, but going back to an SVGA screen takes a bit of getting used to. Jstar will still be my main editor, but I've figured out how to convert WordStar files into clean text.

Word processing — 1990's style (attachment). (^B is for bold and ^Y is for italics.)

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's SO many years since I used WS menus and more than the single ones. I forgot about the evil combo ones.

"Evil?" It was kind of nice, actually. If you had trouble remembering the right key combination you could hit ^k (as an example) and, within a second (or so), if you hadn't pressed the second key, all the ^k choices would come up — just hit the second key, without holding the control key. This was a good option for a feature that you didn't use much and couldn't quite remember (most of them for me). That's not available in Jstar, though you can hit ^j (for help) and walk through all the choices. Fingers were always over the "home" keys with WordStar. I never could get used to using the Function keys that WordPerfect required. (And I just about hit ^k - s for "save" again.)

[Quoth]

I confess I never liked that aspect of Wordstar on CP/M (old S-100 and Z80 card in an Apple II and later an Amstrad PCW8512) or on DOS. Didn't like Wordperfect either, though I had to teach it for a while. I used MS Word on DOS for a short while and later wrote a text editor for DOS in Modula-2 that could play an audio file and control it with a footpedal. It could work without a mouse, but on DOS the there were drop down menus in Windows style using either keypresses or mouse. It was entirely text mode. No actual graphics. It worked well enough on NT in the NTVDM too. The idea was to copy a dictation cassette (micro or regular) at twice speed (i.e. normal cassette speed) to the hard disk and then no expensive audio dictation machine was needed. The foot peddle used the joystick port on the sound card and had no electronics, just switches. I did try a pot and sprung peddle for variable speed but the test typists didn't need it. They used play/pause, skip back and skip forward.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Quoth

... I used MS Word on DOS for a short while and later wrote a text editor for DOS in Modula-2 that could play an audio file and control it with a footpedal. It could work without a mouse, but on DOS the there were drop down menus in Windows style using either keypresses or mouse. ...

Way above my pay scale on writing your own specialized editor. I always used WordStar for general purpose writing. WordStar 5, 5.5, 6 and 7 all had drop down menus as well.

[Quoth]

The idea was to sell it to everyone using dictation and audio typing. Also that was long, long ago. Plenty of decent open source stuff now.

Anyone want two versions of WS on 5.25" floppies?

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Looks way more complicated than vi to me.

I suspect that something about going into and out of insert mode in vi is what makes it easier to use.

I've never used vim so I don't know how fancy/configurable it is but when writing code emacs is my favorite, particularly when it does color coding, bouncing the cursor to the matching parenthesis, etc. And when you start writing elisp then you know you're in the deep end.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I've never used vim so I don't know how fancy/configurable it is but when writing code emacs is my favorite, particularly when it does color coding, bouncing the cursor to the matching parenthesis, etc. And when you start writing elisp then you know you're in the deep end.

I use Fountain-Mode in Emacs, but that's all I really know about it. Emacs looks like it will do just about anything. It's its own little world.

[ownedbycats]

I've used FocusWriter for years. Even made a few custom themes for myself.

Use it in conjunction with Scrivener (Windows, 1.9) - Scrivener for organization, FocusWriter for the actual writing. I use Folder Sync since Scrivener doesn't like it when you edit the files directly.

Originally Posted by pazos

I find the ability to use typewriter sounds very pleasant, but others might find it annoying.

I replaced keyany.wav with the sound effect of an explosion.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Looks way more complicated than vi to me.

How do you generate a random string?
Put a Windows user in front of vi, and tell them to exit.