the friday blog

Wow, first I find one good writer’s editor and then I trip over another. Last week I wrote a little bit about Q10, a minimalistic word processor for Windows users that can also be used on Linux machines using Wine emulation. This week I would like to talk a little bit about the word processor that has taken my fancy and replaced Q10 on the desktop of my main machine. And, with no further ado, I’d like to say…. Welcome to PyRoom PyRoom, is functionally very similar to Q10in that it provides the minimum of screen clutter an just lets you get on with the job of writing.

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Over the last 10 years, I must have googled linux console wordprocessor at least a dozen times.  You’d think there would be loads about – after all, I first installed Linux in 1994 – that’s 16 years ago – surely someone would have written or ported something by now? I’ve played around with DOS versions of WordPerfect and Microsoft Word under DosBox and I’ve tried to streamline AbiWord, Writer and TextMaker to suit my needs.  Nothing but nothing made the grade.

To put it simply, all I wanted was a simple wordprocessor that would allow me to write and not get in the way of that writing.  Of course, if it used a simple file format that didn’t tie me to any particular operating system or software provider, all the better.

Looking back at it, most of what I have written over the last 15 years (and certainly the best of what I’ve written over that period), has been written by pen on paper or on an electric typewriter.

I know that there’s a certain psychology at work here.  The words come the most freely when using a cheap ink pen and a lined A4 pad; there’s nothing to get in the way, you see.  On the other hand, with a typewriter the words come out slowly but ordered, under control and, one hopes, conforming to the rules of grammar.

Sooner or later though, the words have to go onto a computer and most of mine have done so via AbiWord.

It does what most of us require from a word processor, it runs fast and, best of all, is free.

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Although I have a number of other blogs where I can express myself, I felt that there was a need for yet one more – somewhere where I could pick on one subject close to my heart, once a week, and hammer it to death for all the world to see.

Well, this is that place. It’s here that I’ll be talking about writing and reading and all those things that don’t fit in elsewhere. I do hope that you enjoy your time looking round here; you may even want to take a look at some of my other sites.

All the best

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