Almost anyone who works with computers has experienced the same issue. You are working on something, it’s going great. Then all of a sudden either distraction or that little itch that made us want to tinker with computers in the first place hits. And all of a sudden you are faced with something unbelievable.
The tool you’re using is not quite as perfect as it could be.
Recently this happened to me with Ghostwriter. The Markdown editor I’m using on windows and Linux and altogether a really likable piece of software. Every single conceivable feature for editing markdown with the possible exception of line-numbers is there. Typewriter Scrolling to keep your neck in a more comfortable position. Distraction-free writing to focus and Dark Mode to keep you from breaking that concentration on account of your eyeballs suddenly exploding. A couple of weeks ago however, I noticed that it hadn’t gotten an update for a while, and a couple of things were annoying me.
For a start, the way it handles backups is equal parts great and annoying. As you keep writing it creates and updates a separate file (let’s call it file.md.backup). Even if the original one is nuked from orbit all you have to do is change the extension on the backup and Bob’s your uncle. Unfortunately, when you have a nameless file and are using it as a glorified notepad, the backup for the untitled file is still created, in documents. And no, it doesn’t go away when you `Save As…`, so your documents folder will inevitably fill with garbage backups.
Then, if you save and close a file, and open another, it will just crash. No word on exactly why this is, but it will just do that. Now, neither of these are dealbreakers on any circumstances. But the dopamine hits of tinkering made it so that I began to look elsewhere for solutions. And quickly remembered how is it that I ended on Ghostwriter in the first place.
Perfect Software Does Not Exist
I’m not telling you to not spend hours happily looking the breadth and scope of the internet looking for your ideal software, but once you’re done and realize you’re looking at the same list over and over again, realize this is because no, the tool you want doesn’t exist. No, you’re not going to be able to find it. And you should probably pick the closest before it’s too late.
Before I went into Ghostwriter I spent a lot of time trying to make IDEs work for me as plain text editors, trying to get things like typewriter scrolling and English spell check before realizing that any of their abilities to act as such things are despite their original purpose. Not because of it. Also it made it rather hopeless at code.
So, where does that leave us? Well, for now, it leaves me with a search item six months ago on how to reset VSCode to default settings and with text like this being hammered on in Ghostwriter. All the while hoping that KDE eventually releases an update. In the meantime, the searching shall continue, although perhaps not quite as intensely unless I get bored again.
Epilogue: Just as I was writing this, I opened VSCodium to get some code done and it happily announced that it now supports profiles.
One for code.
One for writing.
Let’s go.
