3 ms·

Writer for iPad: First Reactions

17 points by slig 16y ago

drcode 16y ago
I love monospace fonts when I'm coding... but writing regular English text in monospace sound excruciatingly tedious.
- oloolo 16y ago
  What's the difference between coding and writing a careful solid consistent text?
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - joshd 16y ago
    We only use monospace because there is a lot of symmetry in code, and unlike other forms of writing, a single punctuation characters can completely change the meaning of the text (/.!^,;).
    - oloolo 16y ago
      The idea of using a monospaced font was to invite the writer to conscious slowness. Reading typography needs speed and ease, writing needs care and precision.
    - Isamu 16y ago
      Most of the need for monospace in coding is for the sake of indentation and alignment. If you have any ASCII diagrams (see the Internet RFC's) you need monospace. But we forget how much of this is a circumstance of history. Teletypes were monospace, like typewriters, for mechanical simplicity. Line printers and DecWriters were monospace for the same reason. Then the first video terminals and eventually the original IBM PC were all monospace, all for the same reason, and because of familiarity. We simply got used to monospace and came to depend on it. There is no inherent virtue of monospace. Come to think of it, the first (mainstream) computer I remember with proportional fonts was the original Mac in 1984.
  - kujawa 16y ago
    Reading monospace text sucks. It's only good for coding for alignment issues. But reading monospace characters for long blocks of text is hard on the eyes. (Not to mention that proportional spacing is more efficient -- you can get more text on a line with roughly the same letter forms.)
    - oloolo 16y ago
      It's not about reading, it's about writing. Many measures in writer came from studying coding programs.
      - kujawa 16y ago
        I dunno about you, but I barely type when I'm coding. I'd guess about 90% of my day is reading and thinking.
    - Zev 16y ago
      I've taken to setting whatever IDE or editor I'm using to have comments in italic Helvetica, rather Menlo, my fixed width font of choice. It makes comments easier to read, and I find myself writing slightly more of them as a result.
nsfmc 16y ago
Am i the only one that finds it ironic that they basically recreated a typewriter?
- oloolo 16y ago
  It's not ironic, it's conscious. The typewriter was the blue print for the app. It was supposed to be called writing machine (from German Schreibmaschine = typewriter).
  - xtho 16y ago
    Some people call that innovation.
  - nsfmc 16y ago
    ok, so that's super informative. In my life, i've had a few trysts with writing and ended up buying an Olivetti when i was in college. that's been a good investment and it has also had the effect (which i find positive) of slowing down the speed that i type at and making me more thoughtful about how i write (i have a two color, non-correcting ribbon). My love for that flawed device is probably similar to model m keyboard affection. Writer seems, conceptually, like using an old ibm word processor (remember those with the one/four line text display that would then typewrite that onto the page?) It seems like a sophisticated version of that. maybe with the new printing in ios 4.2, you could make a usb-teletype that would print out the document you had just written. (aside: i would love a usb-teletype printer) still, props to y'all for making that leap. i don't have an ipad, otherwise i'd probably have some other comments.
NathanKP 16y ago
I really like the concept and the unique focus features. However, I don't have an iPad (yet) so I hope they come out with a web app or desktop application version.
- oloolo 16y ago
  Yes, we will. Hopefully before Christmas. BTW: We're looking for Cocoa developers... http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/work-ia/ http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/work-ia/
msbarnett 16y ago
So far I like it, but I definitely miss Elements-style autosyncing. Switching to my main computer and then having to switch back in order to manually sync my work is sub-optimal.
- jaaron 16y ago
  I've become very partial to PlainText myself.
jckarter 16y ago
I don't know about how that font looks on the iPad, but my first reaction looking at it on my laptop was that it looks extremely awkward with those thick character-wide serifs. I know this is a bikesheddy thing to bitch about, but I'd personally be less distracted if Writer stuck with a familiar monospace font like Vera, Monaco, or Consolas...or if, as drcode mentioned, it used a proportional font.

17 points by slig 16y ago

drcode 16y ago

I love monospace fonts when I'm coding... but writing regular English text in monospace sound excruciatingly tedious.

oloolo 16y ago
What's the difference between coding and writing a careful solid consistent text?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- joshd 16y ago
  We only use monospace because there is a lot of symmetry in code, and unlike other forms of writing, a single punctuation characters can completely change the meaning of the text (/.!^,;).
  - oloolo 16y ago
    The idea of using a monospaced font was to invite the writer to conscious slowness. Reading typography needs speed and ease, writing needs care and precision.
  - Isamu 16y ago
    Most of the need for monospace in coding is for the sake of indentation and alignment. If you have any ASCII diagrams (see the Internet RFC's) you need monospace. But we forget how much of this is a circumstance of history. Teletypes were monospace, like typewriters, for mechanical simplicity. Line printers and DecWriters were monospace for the same reason. Then the first video terminals and eventually the original IBM PC were all monospace, all for the same reason, and because of familiarity. We simply got used to monospace and came to depend on it. There is no inherent virtue of monospace. Come to think of it, the first (mainstream) computer I remember with proportional fonts was the original Mac in 1984.
- kujawa 16y ago
  Reading monospace text sucks. It's only good for coding for alignment issues. But reading monospace characters for long blocks of text is hard on the eyes. (Not to mention that proportional spacing is more efficient -- you can get more text on a line with roughly the same letter forms.)
  - oloolo 16y ago
    It's not about reading, it's about writing. Many measures in writer came from studying coding programs.
    - kujawa 16y ago
      I dunno about you, but I barely type when I'm coding. I'd guess about 90% of my day is reading and thinking.
  - Zev 16y ago
    I've taken to setting whatever IDE or editor I'm using to have comments in italic Helvetica, rather Menlo, my fixed width font of choice. It makes comments easier to read, and I find myself writing slightly more of them as a result.

nsfmc 16y ago

Am i the only one that finds it ironic that they basically recreated a typewriter?

oloolo 16y ago
It's not ironic, it's conscious. The typewriter was the blue print for the app. It was supposed to be called writing machine (from German Schreibmaschine = typewriter).
- xtho 16y ago
  Some people call that innovation.
- nsfmc 16y ago
  ok, so that's super informative. In my life, i've had a few trysts with writing and ended up buying an Olivetti when i was in college. that's been a good investment and it has also had the effect (which i find positive) of slowing down the speed that i type at and making me more thoughtful about how i write (i have a two color, non-correcting ribbon). My love for that flawed device is probably similar to model m keyboard affection. Writer seems, conceptually, like using an old ibm word processor (remember those with the one/four line text display that would then typewrite that onto the page?) It seems like a sophisticated version of that. maybe with the new printing in ios 4.2, you could make a usb-teletype that would print out the document you had just written. (aside: i would love a usb-teletype printer) still, props to y'all for making that leap. i don't have an ipad, otherwise i'd probably have some other comments.

NathanKP 16y ago

I really like the concept and the unique focus features. However, I don't have an iPad (yet) so I hope they come out with a web app or desktop application version.

oloolo 16y ago
Yes, we will. Hopefully before Christmas. BTW: We're looking for Cocoa developers... http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/work-ia/ http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/work-ia/

msbarnett 16y ago

So far I like it, but I definitely miss Elements-style autosyncing. Switching to my main computer and then having to switch back in order to manually sync my work is sub-optimal.

jaaron 16y ago
I've become very partial to PlainText myself.

jckarter 16y ago

I don't know about how that font looks on the iPad, but my first reaction looking at it on my laptop was that it looks extremely awkward with those thick character-wide serifs. I know this is a bikesheddy thing to bitch about, but I'd personally be less distracted if Writer stuck with a familiar monospace font like Vera, Monaco, or Consolas...or if, as drcode mentioned, it used a proportional font.