Why I Use Vi (not Vim) to Write My Novels and Crumbs

AlfredoLlaquet

AlfredoLlaquet

I write my crumbs and novels using FreeBSD vi because coming from a lifetime using non-modal editors, it’s a good exercise for my brain; because it’s one of those instances of time travel that is within everyone’s reach; because it’s good for one’s prose to be able to focus strictly on it, without having other things like formatting get in the way; and because I prefer spell and grammar checking to be a separate operation that I do once the substance of a paragraph or several ones satisfies me.
 
See, I would've thought this would have been a discussion about workflows (silly me). Glad to see its about Licensing though (wasn't nvi a bug-for-bug rewrite?).

In my vim I type words, then I do: ":set spell" (which toggles on the spell checker). Would that suffice for your needs, or do you need/like/prefer the airgap? -i.e., What tools do you use?
 
JohnK said:
See, I would've thought this would have been a discussion about workflows (silly me). Glad to see its about Licensing though (wasn't nvi a bug-for-bug rewrite?).

In my vim I type words, then I do: ":set spell" (which toggles on the spell checker). Would that suffice for your needs, or do you need/like/prefer the airgap? -i.e., What tools do you use?
Click to expand...
I like nvi. My workflow doesn't need anything else. I am very comfortable and I do everything I want to do very quickly. Thanks, John.
 
wut?

For the record, one of us is very confused at this point.
As far as I know, nvi(1) doens't have a spell checker so you would have to use something like spell(1). I was literally asking if you use spell(1) or something else. I can barely spell my own name so I, personally, *require* a spell checker (why I like *my* workflow) but if what you're telling me is that you personally can do the spelling/grammar check without any tools then that's impressive.
 
My workflow (I'm replying to JohnK here, I forgot to press reply):

I have a script called c that sends what you pipe to the clipboard.

If I want to send several paragraphs from vi to the clipboard, I do, for instance: !3jc⏎

Note: For me, a line is a paragraph, because I wrap them.

If I want to send only the current paragraph, I just press q, which is a macro that does !!c⏎

Then, I press Super+Left Arrow to change to Firefox (thanks to krohnkite tiling extension on KDE Plasma), where I have ChatGPT on my English-language project .

On my project I type a dot, a space, and paste the text. A dot triggers the grammar + naturalness check on my ChatGPT project, which does many other things. For instance, if I paste:

. Crumb 2240: The High Priest: The High Priest descended to the village and was appalled by the squalor and dirt. He said, “If you want me to ever come to to visit you again, you’d better tidy up this mess,” but he didn’t lower the smothering taxes.

ChatGPT returns something like this:

Z
  1. Crumb 2240: The High Priest:
    There are no errors.
  2. The High Priest descended to the village
    There are no errors.
  3. and was appalled by the squalor and dirt.
    There are no errors.
  4. He said,
    There are no errors.
  5. “If you want me to ever come to to visit you again,
    🔴 “to” is duplicated. Correction: “If you want me to ever come to visit you again,
  6. you’d better tidy up this mess,”
    There are no errors.
  7. but he didn’t lower the smothering taxes.
    There are no errors.
I
  1. Crumb 2240: The High Priest:
    Everything else checks out.
  2. The High Priest descended to the village
    Everything else checks out.
  3. and was appalled by the squalor and dirt.
    Everything else checks out.
  4. He said,
    Everything else checks out.
  5. “If you want me to ever come to to visit you again,
    Everything else checks out.
  6. you’d better tidy up this mess,”
    Everything else checks out.
  7. but he didn’t lower the smothering taxes.
    Everything else checks out.
Z = grammar. I = naturalness.

Then I press Super+Right Arrow to go back to nvi and I apply the corrections.

Afterward I repeat the process until ChatGPT thinks there are no more errors.
 
Ah I C.

So, I do my own editing for content/style/structure/etc.. After that I use the spell checker for my proofreading step (spell checking is only one aspect of proofreading phase so this is/has been a problem).

It sounds like you're doing that in one step.

NOTE: Writing is very difficult (especially technical writing)--probably because I dislike it-. I took some courses in school, of course, but that only made me aware of how hard it really is. I know a few of the tricks you are "supposed to do" (like: read the text backwards to catch spelling errors) but in reality, I never do them. ...I thought this thread was about the writing process, which is why I initially found it interesting.

I apologize for the hijacking. Feel free to go back to discussing char encodings, lic, model editors or wherever the convo takes you.
 
JohnK said:
I apologize for the hijacking. Feel free to go back to discussing char encodings, lic, model editors or wherever the convo takes you.
Click to expand...
No hijacking at all. This thread can be about whatever you and the other posters want it to be (probably about not much else; I think it's coming to an end).

The writing process for me is something very natural. I was writing stories when I was 4 years old. So I'm afraid I cannot give any advice in that respect.

Well I can: If I didn't like to write I would try to use very short sentences and not care about repetitions at all. That should make the writing clear, which is the most important part of any technical writing. Also, if every paragraph or section describes an idea well, and you address all the ideas you wanted to address, the result should be decent.

So the method could be:

1) List all the ideas to address.

2) Describe every idea using short sentences without caring about repetitions.

3) Put it all together.

4) End.
 
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