George R. R. Martin Still Uses A DOS Word Processor | CONAN on TBS
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as the standard example of a famous writer who prefers an old, distraction-free DOS word processor.
What it is
A short Conan segment in which George R. R. Martin explains that he writes his Game of Thrones books on WordStar 4.0 on a DOS machine.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2014 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Cites ejr · 2014-09 · on “Emacs standing alone on a Linux Kernel”
I imagine there are a number of authors who don't want to be bothered by the extraneous bells and whistles on a new system. It reminds me of this clip of George R.R. Martin. [this video]
Cites FRex · 2017-12 · on “A RAM Edition of Dirty Coding Tricks”
It feels like that dev time cost is instead being crowdfunded by energy, disk, CPU and RAM that every user has to pay with and eventually that cost is paid by Earth itself. An app might be cheap or free but in the long time cheaper for the planet and each user would be an app costing a dollar or two more per install. I was using a 2011 laptop with only an HDD, 2 gigs of RAM and no discrete GPU until it actually went and finally broke last year so it irks me especially when I see this handwaving of "computers are cheap", especially from Westerner millenials or developers from SF. The fact that well off people who change machines every few years can even dare to call less well off people with
Cites irjustin · 2020-10 · on “A tool that increased my typing speed”
Why bring the whole Devorak part into the article? Also, I'm surprised the author didn't go pure stenograph then because that's way faster. WPM is only a good measure of WPM. The best coders don't need to type faster. The best writers still hand write things or type on DOS[0]. Once you hit a baseline competency, other areas of improvement/reward far outweigh the time devoted than to a better WPM. Wanting to type faster is fine, but do not mix it with being more effective aside from being a great typist. [0] [this video]
Cites DanielleMolloy · 2020-11 · on “WordPerfect for DOS Updated”
Necessary pointer: George R R Martin still writes on WordStar 4.0 on DOS. [LINK] Conan clip this refers to: [this video] As I need to write for work I recently got into this topic - this blog post makes some interesting points about how distraction free writing used to be the norm: [LINK] The AlphaSmart Neo devices became tremendously popular among writers recently, apparently many of them can’t stand modern software anymore because it has become too visually distracting for them: [LINK] Distractions certainly are too blame here, but my pet theory is that the added visual input blocks top down imagery in the visual system.
Cites eddieh · 2021-05 · on “WordTsar, a WordStar Clone”
Many authors use WordStar. Here is George R. R. Martin taking about WordStar [this video] I think, and I believe it has been suggested to Robert J. Sawyer, that Emacs keys are very similar to WordStar in the use of cords (or prefixed keystrokes). WordStar has ^Q as a prefix whereas Emacs has ^x, ^c, and ^h, etc. [edit] Add bit about Emacs
Cites chongli · 2021-12 · on “Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?”
Software needs to be maintained to be useful Maybe that’s the problem we need to be addressing. More and more these days I find myself frustrated using modern software when old unmaintained software had already solved the problem. We consider it a novelty when a writer like George RR Martin still uses WordStar on an old DOS machine [1]. Maybe it shouldn’t be a novelty. Maybe it should be the normal thing to do. It’s utterly at odds with a consumer culture though. People don’t seem to want well-made things that last a lifetime. They want shiny disposable crap. [1] [this video]
Cites reaperducer · 2023-04 · on “WordPerfect for Unix Character Terminals”
Do you really thing you would put aside your regular laptop to use an old terminal for writing? Yes. I already do. It provides focus and a chance for me to concentrate on my writing, rather than be distracted not only by a thousand notifications and temptations (Oh, let me just switch over and see if there's anything new on HN...), but also the mild background anxiety that comes from knowing interruption is just a push notification, or a Command-Tab away. I have very little faith that anyone would regularly fire up an old power hungry machine to do one single task Then you have very little faith in George R.R. Martin, who isn't shy about writing on a Kaypro II. [this video]