Daily Archives: September 25, 2006

Gearing Up

Right now, I’m excited about WriteRoom and its Windows counterpart, DarkRoom.

The programs do the same thing. The create a simple screen, devoid of user interface and formatting options that allows you to just sit and write. Provided, of course, that you have the temporal luxury to sit and write.

WriteRoom however, has the advantage of an autosave (every five seconds) and multiple rooms. You can have up to ten rooms open at a time, each a different project, and they’ll all be saved once you close and open up the app again. In this respect, it turns your five pound PowerBook G4 into an AlphaSmart Neo with a larger screen.

A word on rooms. You can have ten rooms open at a time. Each room can be a different project, for instance, room 1 can be a blog entry, room 2 can be a flash fiction submittal for 365tomorrows.com, etc. Their contents are saved every five seconds. When you close WriteRoom, their status is saved. When you open up the application again, all of the rooms are restored, and you can switch between the active room with a simple key combination.

It’s a different way of working, but one that I’ve grown used to, working on the Neo.

Of course, the Neo has the advantage in terms of weight (two pounds), battery life (three AAAs, seven hundred hours), and autosaving every keystroke. On the other hand, the LCD screen is functional, not so elegant.

Running WriteRoom on your laptop is both.

DarkRoom is not as good as WriteRoom, at least not yet. DarkRoom is notepad with a WriteRoom appearance. It’s still very early in its development cycle, so I’m sure that multiple rooms and an autosave function will be implemented at some point. Update: Oh wait, my fault. I didn’t dig deep enough into the application preferences. DarkRoom has an autosave feature, but I don’t really know how often it saves. I just wanted to be clear on the feature set. I do hope to see multiple rooms, though.

They are both useful for getting text “out there” without any distractions. Why would these programs be important?

For NaNoWriMo, of course.

Two for two

I think I had another unpleasant dream, but it’s slithered off into the depths of my subconscious. I suppose it will return some night, to wake me from restful slumber as if I wasn’t good enough for sleep.

Bad enough that I’ve got class tonight until elevenish, I feel like going back to bed now.

Yes, High School

I think I just had a nightmare about high school english. I’m back in San Diego, but oddly, my high school is coed and populated by a mix of my current friends and the people I knew in grade school. We’re all walking to Mr. Adam’s Honors English class. When we get there, here’s what’s going on:

  • Somehow, I’m late, despite having walked there with everyone else.
  • There is a vocab test and a writing exam I’m not ready for and know nothing about.
  • A note passed on a previously graded assignment says to expect a low final grade since I hadn’t turned in any other homework.
  • No matter which desk I got into, it isn’t mine.
  • Even the “stupid” kids look like they are writing furiously.

So now I’m wide awake.