Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Just A Technical Detail

I have really been enjoying my experiment with typing out these passages from The Prophetic Imagination and my comments on them using a simple as hell text editor.   I'm using mostly the free, Linux based Feather Pad though the even simpler Leaf Pad which I like as well is my back up.  Those come without much of any extra features, I haven't used my current word processor (LibreOffice)  even once in the past two weeks.   

Word processing made me lazy, the text editor mixes the ease of typing without the bad habits that things like instant spell check allow you to fall into.   Also without the annoyingly small vocabulary of spell check marking things that you spelled but which aren't in its word hoard.   That's especially the case while typing out the writing of theologians who seem to have a vocabulary far bigger than the average scholar's.  Being forced to re-read, not depending on flagging is a good thing.  Satiation is bad for the soul.

I wonder if I'll ever go back to using a word processor with all of the extraneous coding it imposed on the text.  If I could figure out how to type in accented characters, Greek letters,  from one I'd never have to use a word processor again.

I've never really been satisfied with any of the word processors I've used since I learned how to use one with the simple Professional Write at adult ed more than thirty years ago.   Maybe I shouldn't have bothered with them and all of the frustrations they bring.  Though I used to like macros.  Those were easy to write and use on Professional Write, I have never used them on any of the fancier ones, for profit and freeware, since then. 

I will mention again that I have not for a single second regretted dumping Windows for Linux.  I use Linux Mint and Puppy Linux for a portable, USB drive desktop.  Though I'm not doing much toting around a USB these days,  especially since being exposed to a teacher back in the classroom on a regular basis.  Back to March conditions here.

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