Freewrite, ZeroWriter Ink and Vin (my sabbatical project)

So it all started with me getting a Freewrite Alpha. I like the device, but I only use it occasionally. I got it because I liked the idea of a dedicated writing device. I even wrote a super long post using the Freewrite. However, I haven’t been using it as much as I thought I would. I don’t know, the form factor is not the most compelling; The screen is a little too little, and I am not a huge fan of the keyboard.

But when I saw the Zerowriter Ink, I was excited! It has the same form-factor as the Freewrite Alpha, but it is fully OpenSource and has a bigger screen. I think having an OpenHardware device would mean more innovation and a lot more mods to the form-factor and maybe even an OSS BYOK style device.

And finally, I have been typing on a typewriter recently and I love it. I have been following Un Kyu Lee, an incredible creator and their work for a while now. I think their MicroJournal Rev.7 is close to perfection. I want the same but with an Ortholinear Keyboard. I hope to create one in the future, but right now it’s a bit out of my skill set.

But this is fascinating and something I have been thinking about for a while. I want to have a Typewriter like experience and a writing corner but ideally with my own quirky keyboard and at a super low cost. I realized that I just needed to dumb down my existing computer and it should work! As I was listing projects I could focus on during my sabbatical, this was always consistently at the top of the list. Now that my sabbatical is only a week away, I have decided to give this a name and focus primarily on this.

Vin Editor

(This is not the final name, but I am re-reading the Mistborn series and Vin seemed like a good fit. Especially because of the inspiration I am taking from Vim.)

I want to create a very simple Terminal based editor that has a typewriter like experience. i.e, no AI, no auto-correct, nothing, just focus on drafting.

It will have shortcuts and modes from Vim that make sense, ability to pick a file and type text into it. The plan is to have an experience like that of WordStar.

Elend OS

Once the editor is ready, I plan to create a minimal TUI based Linux distribution, that you can put into a pen drive and boot into. This will drop you into Vin by default and will have little to no other software. This means no browser, no internet and no distractions, turning your own computer into a typewriter.

Once you are done, you can then boot into your normal and access the files on the same pen drive. I will eventually implement a minimal sync functionality to get the files off of Elend without having to plug in the drive.

Why this?

I wanted to spend my sabbatical building something significant and rediscover the joy of programming. This was the project that has consistently been in the back of my head for the past couple of months. As I thought more about it, it also clearly falls into the “edge of my abilities” in many ways.

And I think that enough people will find this useful and something I can slowly but consistently improve over the next few years.

The rough plan

This roughly outlines what I need to do. I fully expect it to fall apart. I also think of this as a long-term project I will work on for the next year, and not rush through and “finish” during my sabbatical.