I want to open up a design discussion with you all before we settle Lettera’s typewriter mode, because I think the usual implementations are subtly wrong and I’d like to know whether you agree.
What typewriter mode actually is
Two separate things, usually shipped as one switch:
Overscrolling: you can scroll past the top and bottom of the document, into empty space. Without it, the last line of your text is glued to the bottom edge of the window, and once you’ve filled the window you’re forever typing at the very bottom of the screen.
Focus lock: the line you’re editing is held at a fixed position relative to the window. Type a new line, and the text scrolls instead of the cursor moving down.
You can have the first without the second. Lettera does both at the same time now.
I mention the split because I suspect some of you want overscrolling always and focus lock only sometimes. Tell me if that’s you. I explain why I think that may be the case and can use your help, dear user of Lettera, to make the best typewriter mode possible.
Improve what’s already perfect?!
Lettera’s current implementation is locking focus strictly: Press ↓ once to check the line below and the whole document moves. Click into a paragraph two lines up and it lurches again. These staccato movements or focus jumps, I think, are one reason people don’t like typewriter mode.
But maybe you think this is fine – then please do share!
A change (and maybe improvement) would be a dead zone: Small movements within a boundary don’t scroll. The world only moves when you genuinely run out of room.
Another approach could be to apply focus lock only when typing, and allow free cursor movement and clicking without scrolling otherwise.
Let’s hear from you!
What kind of typewriter mode do you know and use, and why do you like/hate it? What made you a typewriter mode convert in your past?
I like having both. The first is essential; the second may disturb some people, but I find it really useful. I don’t remember the first app I used that offered typewriter mode, but it was a big change for me.I often write articles that are around a thousand words long, And it’s really annoying to have to manually scroll as you type further down on the screen.
I do find what you call focus jumps to be very jarring. In some editors, it can be hard to double-click to select a word or more text because it moves too quickly; that’s not the case with Lettara. This said, I would agree that having a “dead zone” might be nice. Why should the whole page scroll if I select or edit some text a few lines above the center of the screen? It’s especially annoying when I’m line-editing something, such as when I cut some text in one area to paste it in another on the screen (ie, that doesn’t require scrolling). I have to turn off typewriter mode.
I am not sure what is meant. In Bear as in Lettera when I go past the last visible line in the editor the cursor jumps to the middle and I see blank space under the cursor resp. the last line. Do you mean that behavior with overscrolling? If so then I am confused because that feature exists anyway. Probably you mean something else?
Actually that’s what I expect from typewriter mode. The idea is that you can type without looking and keep your head straight.
Hello. Yes! I totally get this. I always want overscroll and sometimes want focus. (I also want to be able to set the focus to the top ~35% of the screen). Dead zones sounds like a good solution to the jumping problem.