I live and die by email, instant messenger, and the cell phone. I use these tools to keep in touch with clients, my regular employer and family.  And just like one of Pavlov’s dogs, I have been taught to reach for the phone when I hear a text message alert or the email when I hear the incoming mail chime or clunk. Actually, compared to the positively nauseous feeling I get when an email goes unanswered, making dogs salivate on command is nothing.

This tendency is more than a bit distracting, it can be downright frightening; particularly at those moments when I need to get something done.  And I am clearly not the only person who feels this way, as there are a bevy of products on the market that are designed to help me reach a state of Zen like calm.

There is one activity in particular where I need such help: my writing.  In fact, it may be the single most important component of producing something that is witty, intelligent and clear.  Let’s see you produce a brilliant paper with the boss, other physicians, and students bothering you every two minutes!

Luckily, there are a number of programs which will help can help simplify and de-clutter.

What am I looking for?

As writing is a very personal thing, it might be best to state what sort of my needs are?  The list, naturally, includes a few essentials, and some not so essentials. Specifically:

1. I want a program that (forcibly) removes sources of distraction. This includes email and instant messenger. While they may still be open, when in the zone, I don’t want to worry about them.
2. Uhm … that’s it really.

The Programs

I happen to be in luck as there are at least four programs that appear to meet this challenge. There are options for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Even better, there are proprietary, freeware and OpenSource. So anyone, regardless of operating system and source orientation, can find something to meet their need for Spartan simplicity.

After consulting the oracle of Google and some additional poking around at LifeHacker, I found four programs which have the features necessary for writing Nirvana.

1. DarkRoom. A Windows program from the people at They.Misled.Us. DarkRoom requires version 2.0 of the .Net runtime.
2. WriteRoom. The first (and original) retro text editor, written by Hogsbay Software. WriteRoom is a Tiger and Leopard only download for Mac OS X.
3. WriteSpace. Writespace is an OpenSource plugin for Microsoft Word that mimics the environment of DarkRoom and WriteRoom.
4. PyRoom. PyRoom is a Python text editor which runs on all platforms with a somewhat recent version of Python and the GTK bindings. That is, it will run on all recent operating systems. While testing, I used it on Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X and Windows Vista.

What’s the same?

As you can see in the screenshots below, the main interface for all of the programs is beyond simple. Superficially (and not so superficially), all of the programs I compared defaulted to a very similar look: marijuana green text on a black background.  The idea is something like this, when the program is launched, everything else fades into the background and you are dreadfully alone with your words.

The first time that you use one of these programs to enforce your solitude, it is disconcerting.  In my own case, I found that I was forced to focus on the language, logic, and flow of my words. For a few brief (and terrifying) seconds, I felt like a high school student needing to write a review review of Paradise Lost (which I never actually got around to reading) and not knowing what to say.  Then … the panic fades and life returns to normal, or mostly normal; and after a few hours of using the programs, the feeling that you are in a bad 80s movie wears off.  Then you realize that you are using just another writing environment (JAWE).

The difference is in the details

While all of the programs do the same basic thing (and do it very well), there were a few subtle details that (when taken together) had a major impact on my overall user experience.

The first major difference I noted was the inclusion of a spell checker in both WriteRoom and WriteSpace. So while everything else has been reduced to Zen perfection, the ubiquitous red line that accompanies poor spelling was still present. I found this to be both comforting and a boon to productivity. As I dismally failed my elementary school spelling tests, I have grown pretty reliant on the little squiggly editing lines (red for Spelling, green for grammar) to clue me off to my mistakes. However, only WriteSpace, since it is a Microsoft Word plug-in, included both a spell and a grammar check. So, while the squiggly lines might distract from the Zen of the overall program, I found them to be invaluable. Unfortunately DarkRoom and PyRoom did not have either spell or grammar check.

1 . WriteSpace includes both Spelling and Grammar Check, which it inherits from it’s status as a Microsoft Word Plugin.

2. WriteRoom, includes a spell check, but unfortunately did not have a grammar check.

There was also a second major difference that set the programs apart. This difference had absolutely nothing to do with features and everything to do with workflow. While each program allowed me to escape into the solitude of my thoughts and words, there comes a time when solitude must end. After all, as any author knows, creation is only part of the creative process. It doesn’t matter if you are writing a scientific paper or the next great novel,you eventually leave the protected environment and start preparing the text for consumption.

Of all of the programs, I found that WriteSpace handled this transition in the most elegant manner. It is, after all, a Word plugin. So, once I found myself happy with the content, I was able to press one button to move to the next stage in the work flow. From protected blackness to the full power of Word. Cool! Look ma! I can apply styles, insert references and work with hyperlinks. Once I’m happy, off it goes to colleagues for review. From Zen simplicity to necessary complexity, a single press of a button has never been so satisfying.

3. When launched from the View Panel of the Ribbon, WriteSpace transforms Microsoft Word into minimalistic writing bliss.

Where’s the catch?

As cynics have long known: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. While I found WriteRoom, DarkRoom, PyRoom and WriteSpace to be very useful, they also have some substantial weaknesses. In the case of the first three, you are limited to unformatted text only. While they might be used for distraction free coding or html editing, not one of the programs included niceties such as syntax highlighting, intellisense or code folding. Emacs can accomplish the same thing, but it has both syntax highlighting and code folding. While these same limitation also applies to WriteSpace, it is almost more so.

WriteSpace lacks support for text formatting. As a result, if you enter the editor from a previously existing Word document, all of the formatting in that document will be removed and converted to plain text. In documents which contain tables, images or other text unfriendly elements; it is not possible to enter WriteSpace at all.

So … does it work?

At some point (at the conclusion seems as good a place as any), I need to acknowledge the obvious. The premise behind all of these programs is pretty gimmicky. Yet … after spending a bit of time working with them over the course of the last few days, I have discovered that it is an effective gimmick. The philosophy that content should be separated from its presentation is not new. Systems such as LaTeX predate the modern word processor by a fairly large stretch. Yet, while testing these programs, I came to a second conclusion: content creation can be separate from its workflow. I found myself working more efficiently when I first focused on what I wanted to say and then went back to add in the details.

In conclusion, what can I say? I’m hooked. I’ve got both DarkRoom and WriteSpace installed on my Windows machine. PyRoom is installed on my Mac and Linux boxes. The only loser here is the grand-daddy them all, WriteRoom. In the presence of so many excellent OpenSource tools, forking over $24.95 just seems unnecessary.

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Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff, Featured, Writing and Literature
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