Product Launch

anonymous

49 points

32 comments

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

Show HN: Vapor – A notepad that fades away as you type

enda.sh

writing toolsproductivityminimalism

Discussion (32 comments)

Showing 32 comments

beardyw

4 months ago

1 reply

Well ... On my Android phone it just types backward in capitals! Like

EB OT TON RO EB OT

And I had to type that in here because it won't select for copy. Not what I was hoping for!

dduplex

4 months ago

1 reply

Aw, sorry to hear that. I remember encountering that bug a while back and was happy when I figured out a way to squash it. Admittedly I tested this app in browsers on Linux, Mac, and on an iPhone, but not Android. So I'll get a hold of an Android device and figure out a way to re-squash the backwards bug. Thanks for the heads up.

jasonjmcghee

4 months ago

There are classes of bugs that reproduce on Android simulator- might be worth downloading Android studio and checking.

jjj123

4 months ago

3 replies

What’s the reasoning for no backspace? I understand not allowing edits before the current word but I am a very clumsy typer, and this made me pretty frustrated when every other word had a typo.

dduplex

4 months ago

I’ve found that while trying to write down the ideas in my head, it’s very easy for me to lose my train of thought if I edit while I write, which I can’t seem to help but doing. Not being able to go back at all, or to glance at anything I’ve already written, has helped me keep my inner dialogue moving without interruption. It felt odd at first, but I very quickly got used to not editing myself.

jrowen

4 months ago

It may not be for you, then (and I don't think it's for me, either), but that seems consistent with the idea. You're supposed to let go of any kind of editing and just go go go. You can edit it later.

inanutshellus

4 months ago

Just let go bud. Type with your eyes closed, if that helps.

Get the idea written down before it gets lost in the "oops, i misspelled that wait... what was I going to say?" trap.

I find it to be a clever tool for those of us fastidious types that fixate on accuracy and end up failing to complete the larger goal.

caminanteblanco

4 months ago

1 reply

I love the idea, but at least on android the text scrolls backwards as some people have already noticed. Also, my keyboard thinks that wrvy word needs to be capitalized for some reason so I'm typing backwards all caps. And with he no editing, if it was set up in a way that let my phone at least autocorrect my typos, I think that would go a long way to making this more usable.

But kudos for getting something out there, and I'm really excited to get to use it on my laptop where I'm sure it works better.

dduplex

4 months ago

Yeah, I apologize for the Android bugs. I’d mostly intended for it to be a desktop app, and tested it on Linux and Mac, then did a couple mobile additions and tested it on iOS. I didn’t expect that Android would behave so much differently, particularly since it’s all in a browser, so that was pretty naive.

I’ve downloaded Android Studio for testing, so I’ll get to work figuring out where the bug is coming from.

ap_21

4 months ago

1 reply

I love the idea! It just creates a very minimalistic feeling and helps my mind not get overwhelmed with big chunks of text. However, the no-edits thing is a bit frustrating personally. A solution would be to allow edits as long as the text is visible, plus increase the timeline the text stays in the view (the pace in the homepage is ideal i feel).

dduplex

4 months ago

Thank you. I don’t think I’ve landed on the fade duration sweet spot yet. I’ll experiment with much longer times and see how it feels.

jasonjmcghee

4 months ago

2 replies

Any inspiration from https://enso.sonnet.io?

I'm a big fan of everything Rafał Pastuszak does.

They also recently announced a public beta of a rewrite of that product

https://untested.sonnet.io/notes/new-enso-first-public-beta/

Oh - looks like it's been on HN too. Some good discussions...

New version: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44421776

Original: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38025073

dduplex

4 months ago

My initial idea was imagining a typewriter with disappearing ink. Doing some research I came across some apps that use a similar general idea, and Enzo was indeed one of them. But none of them did it exactly like I was picturing, so I decided to make one.

smusamashah

4 months ago

Domain name reminded of Edna which was a show hn here https://edna.arslexis.io/#inbox

ssawa

4 months ago

1 reply

This is so super delightful. I explored a similar space when I was first learning piano and was enjoying how freeing it is to have the melodies and mistakes sort of drift into the air.

In case the work proves useful to your endeavors: https://github.com/cj-dimaggio/transient-words

dduplex

4 months ago

Oh wow, I hadn’t come across this one while researching. As soon as I looked at it I felt pretty bad thinking someone had already built something exactly like mine 7 years ago. But playing around with it, it seems different enough that I don’t feel like I now need to toss mine in the trash. Phew.

treetalker

4 months ago

2 replies

Great name.

I accidentally reloaded the page on my phone, thus losing all my (meaningless, auto-complete generated) text. So maybe an auto-save would be better?

Years ago there was a lightweight app for the then-current version of Mac OS X called Grandview. When invoked, it would fill your screen with a background color and you would see only a huge version of the single word you were currently typing. (I don't remember, but I think it might have displayed the entirety of the last sentence after you ended it too.) It also deactivated your backspace key so you could only keep typing. That was peak focused writing, and it was an awesome app. I miss it, and similar, small apps that did one thing incredibly well.

dduplex

4 months ago

Thank you for the comment. I’ve thought of adding auto save. I think my initial reason for not including it was that, if you can’t see what you’ve written, how would you know if you’re typing into a new blank doc or a previous auto save? It’s something I’ll think more on.

magic_hamster

4 months ago

If this was Windows or Linux you could probably keep using it until the heat-death of the universe. One thing Apple does incredibly poorly is supporting their old software. To me it's a form of instability. You just can't trust any long term process on a mac (well, unless you completely forgo updating your OS).

vishrajiv

4 months ago

1 reply

This is great! It’s the perfect implementation of stream-of-consciousness journaling, especially when you need to get your emotions out on the page. My college English professor used to recommend putting a towel over your laptop to encourage a flow state when writing. This is easier :) Will bookmark this and try it the next few times when I journal. Great job!

dduplex

4 months ago

Thanks! I appreciate it.

ESMP

4 months ago

1 reply

Doesn't seem to play nicely with diacritics. Any accents in a word get repeated like: ´é or ´ó and in the output file they end up even worse with the letter wrapping the text like étouch´é...

dduplex

4 months ago

Thank you for the feedback. I'm having trouble replicating this bug on desktop and iOS. Could you tell me what device you're using?

edit Nevermind, I've found it. I'll get to work on that and have it sorted out.

iamcreasy

4 months ago

Very cathartic - thank you for building. I’d rather not be able to recover that text at all.

krthr

4 months ago

I like the idea!

soocil5

4 months ago

I am thinnking what if we made different variation to choose from like: 1. Sentence mode where after full-stop '.' the sentence fades away. 2. Word mode, yeah for words 4. New Line, after user enter "Enter" 5. Make it able to backspace. 6. ...

what about making this open source?

cvaambikapur

4 months ago

wow i really liked it can you add wind sound as it fades away?

zenethian

4 months ago

I can't seem to enter spaces at all.

s1110

4 months ago

Also for Emacs: https://github.com/KeyWeeUsr/typewriter-roll-mode

I have a txt file with local variables:

  ;; -*- mode: text;  -*-
  ;; Local Variables:
  ;; fill-column: 48
  ;; eval: (typewriter-roll-mode +1)
  ;; End:

KebabKanaken

4 months ago

Cool story bro

slonik

4 months ago

I love this idea. Did you also think about showing the whole line or paragraph instead of just the current word?

MO-379

4 months ago

Would still like to correct mistakes instead of re-writing words again, make the last two or three words editable i guess ? idk... you want to make money ? how ?

very fun idea.

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