Ghostwriter, and a small Emacs update.
Table of Contents
Ghostwriter, wth is that?
Hi, right now I am outside of my Emacs environment, as you can understand from the fact that this blog does not have a table of contents.
UPDATE: I actually generated a new table of content with an online generator. But it is not like Emacs, y'know.
Anyway, recently I booted into my Windows partition (which surprisingly was only for to play some games, and yes, I've lost all of them) and wanted to write something to my blog - I had ideas too, top 10 things I hate about Linux, 10 reasons why you should and 1 reason why you shouldn't use Linux, the list goes on and on, I even wanted to write about my Emacs configuration since I am getting closer to my first month's end, which is hilarious.
But I didn't want to go thorough the hassle of downloading and setting up Emacs, skipping through the initial phase, etc. Hence why I started looking into other programs to write Markdown on the go!
Don't get me wrong, I still think Org-Mode is one of the best markup languages to write short to middle content, but sometimes, I want another software that is just works and intended to be used with markdown, you understand me? Albeit, Emacs is more like a programming text editor and an agenda to me. At least for now, it is. I am still working on my configuration and dang, I am nowhere near of that finish line, and I don't want to give up, yet.
As you can understand from the title, right now I am using something called Ghostwriter. It's open source, surprisingly cool-looking considering the fact it's a KDE application (I am more of a GTK and Gnome guy.) and it has some features that I would like to add into my Emacs configuration.
That being said, I also am not liking some parts of this application and today, I want to take you with me to yap about this, and how I can benefit by using this app to introduce new types of things onto my Emacs setup.
First of all, the UI
For the first time, I am in love with a KDE gui. No, I am not kidding but I also am kind of confused. It certainly isn't like the other applications, it doesn't have a big and bulky appearance, or a big and detailed settings menu.
On the sidebar, you have 4 navigations. Outline, session statistics, document statistics and a markdown cheat sheet. And what I like is it's certainly simple to understand, and works out of the box.
That being said, you have two main windows divided vertically on your screen, one of which is the editing window, and the other one is preview. I never worked like this, neither in Obsidian, Vim nor Emacs. I like it - it looks cool and since this is a software only intended for writing things, I can understand it. Where in Emacs, I don't think I can get away with it since I generally have 2 or 3 windows open there. Of course you have the option to disable it on and off.
See, that is what I talked about when I said specifically intended for writing.
However, I also don't like some "features". For example, poor, really poor key binds support. From what I understand, the basics are this only formatting, for example, bold, italic, etc. Which is ok I guess.
The other thing is, this program has one really annoying feature. When you type H1, it is all caps in the preview, it sucks, makes the document look like it came out of a newspaper, and I hate it. Luckily, I don't use H1 that much.
You simply write.
You need to understand that Ghostwriter is not a complex app like Obsidian, you don't have an option to open a folder, or categorise things. You only have one (1) file in front of you and that's it. Hence why you don't have much things to care about. App also has a lot of features that make you feel like you are a writer too. For example, it has something called "distraction-free" mode, which I am using right now. It highlights the sentence that you are working on and it looks so beautiful, I don't know if it really has benefits but it looks cool, like IA writer.
When I first downloaded this program, I didn't felt the need to change or configure something like I did in Emacs. Which is always a plus.
One more thing I really like is how it auto-closes parentheses, or any form of formatting you typed.
What will I add to Emacs?
I would really like to have a better spell-check option on Emacs, and I would also like this focus-mode thingy. Maybe it's a minor mode but I will look out for this feature.
Auto-closing is one thing I definitely want. But this one hour randez-vous with Ghostwriter made me rethink my relationship with Emacs. Should I use Emacs for all of my writing jobs?
I really can't say a single word about this because my Emacs configuration isn't done. But even if I complete it, this program is still a great alternative that I may use when I want to write some blogs, or transcripts, whatever.
That being said, I recently saw Sal's response to my recent Emacs post.. I was really shocked when I saw one of the bloggers I keep up with mentioning me on their posts, and I really am grateful (I certainly don't know the right word to use here, look at me go and eat that CPE exam I guess) and I will definitely continue to write about Emacs because I hate love it. Lol.
Other writing apps
Ghostwriter is just one of the markdown apps that I want to try. There is so many programs like Ulysees, Typora, Zettel. One thing is, I don't want to pay 15 USD (yet alone 40+... looking at you, IAwriter) on a markdown app. I don't have to worry about that with Ghostwriter which is fully open-source! Yey!
Thanks and closing.
Once again, I want to thank you gays guys for listening (or reading I guess) to me yap about things with my tiny vocabulary. See you next time! Always remember that you can e-mail me, and subscribe to my RSS/Atom and my e-mail list! (Check the footer)
I also added some new things to my blog, for example the search option and changes in the footer etc. I would really appreciate some feedback but I guess 2 people read my posts. LOL.