PyRoom Review - A Surprisingly Fun Distraction-Free Text Editor

good
key review info
  • Application: PyRoom 0.4.1
  • Reviewed on:
application features
  • no visual clutter
  • (4 more, see all...)

PyRoom is the kind of application that you don't ever hear people talking about, but that is completely surprising once you open it. It's a distraction-free text editor that allows writers to focus on the writing and less on anything else.

Some writers need to have a good chair, others need a quiet room, and certain people just can't write if there are no folks buzzing around them. Everyone has their quirks. One of those quirks is the text editor.

For the most part, if you just write, you don't really care about menus, tables, fonts, or anything else. Pretty much everything you can find in a typical writing application, albeit LibreOffice, Microsoft Office or anything else, has way too many options.

It's true that most applications also allow users to have a spartan look for their app. For example, you can make LibreOffice look like a minimalistic text editor, with nothing else but white space in which to write.

This mode has its drawback and some annoying bugs, but there are others out there that have focused simply on writing and not much else. This is where PyRoom fits in. Calling it minimalist would be an overstatement.

Installation

I tested PyRoom in Ubuntu 15.10, it works without a hitch, and it's very likely that the application can be found in other repositories as well. You can use the Ubuntu Software Center to find it more easily, but you can download the source code from the official website.

The only problem with this application is that it's very old, and it hasn't been upgraded in a very long time. It might have needed more features, but nothing has been done.

To get an idea of just old this application really is, you should check the provided PPA, which offers support for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). So, if you happen to notice that PPA on the official website, don't add it. It's interesting to see that it still works perfectly after all this time.

Usage

I stumbled upon PyRoom while looking for something else. I have tested my fair share of distraction-free text editors, and I haven't found one that suits all my needs. Some of them are too complicated for their own good, and others, like PyRoom, are much too simple. In any case, I wasn't expecting much from PyRoom, but I was surprised to see just how warm and friendly it was.

By default, it starts in full screen, and there is no way of disabling this. It also uses a green text over the black background, but I found that to be a bit too much. Since the application is always in full screen, you can't use the mouse to do anything but perform selection on the text. Everything is done with keyboard shortcuts. It's not ideal, but there aren't too many of them. Hitting Ctrl+H will bring up all the shortcuts that have been implemented.

One of the most important is Ctrl+P, which opens a very basic Preferences screen, from where you can change certain aspects, like the background and text color, the type and size of the font, the option to show a border around the text (non-modifiable), line spacing, padding size, and that's pretty much it. As minimalist goes, this is all you get.

You can, of course, save the documents, and you can set the application to automatically save from time to time; redo and undo are also available via keyboard shortcut; and the application even has something called buffers. You can think of these buffers as a new document, which you can create without closing the old one. Only one buffer is displayed at a time, but users can return to previous buffers.


The Good

I found that PyRoom is an extremely relaxing application, and it feels good to write in it. It's totally different from what I have been using until now, and it reminds me of the old days when writing apps were simple and without any interfering options.

The Bad

It's old, and it hasn't been upgraded in a long while. The biggest problem I could find was that it lacked a switch for full-screen. I understand why it is missing, but I still needed it. Plus, there is no spell check, which might be a great thing for R.R. Martin, but not so great for me.

Conclusion

PyRoom deserves to be at least tried. It's a different experience from what most applications offer, and it might still surprise you. Despite its "buffers" and some missing features, I still enjoyed it, and I predict that I'll continue using it until something better comes along.

user interface 2
features 2
ease of use 4
pricing / value 5


final rating 3
Editor's review
good
 
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PyRoom (6 Images)

PyRoom in action
PyRoom in actionPyRoom in actionPyRoom in actionPyRoom in action
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