Tools can work against you as much as they work with you.

And there I go, finding myself using GNU ed as a slightly powerful discovery writing tool.

Invoke ed YOURFILE, type a then hit return, type your stuff, then type . followed by return, then wq and a final return. Couldn’t be simpler.

The lack of control / alt / escape keys has a pleasing benefit on touchscreens — the editor doesn’t punish the limited input interface found on my phone either. When I want to start a “new page,” I issue a !clear command.

Ed is dead simple. I own the Ed mastery book; it fill in a couple blanks. The GNU Ed introduction & documentation are great teachers too.

I invoke it from a short Python script called log. It is intentionally spartan. Any feature added which doesn’t reduce friction is a feature that reduces my writing productivity.

What is intentionally lacking in my ed-based discovery writing:

1. No quick and easy editing facilities (I’m writing in ed, not editing in ed)
2. No spell check (Spelling is editing; that happens after)
3. No continuous view of the text document (What is now is relevant, not what I typed moments ago)
4. No flashy features (this is supposed to work every time, not woo me into a mood)

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