The article in NY Times spawned a discussion on ./, see this link http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/06/1731247&from=rss
One interesting post of possible interest to use was the following about 'WriteRoom':
I'm Jesse Grosjean, the guy who wrote WriteRoom http://hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom You are not the first to say that WriteRoom == Bad copy of VIM, <snip> .. but I also think that you are not really understanding WriteRoom's purpose. <snip> Instead, it's just meant to provide distraction free writing. <snip> * No distractions. Full screen. Hidden menu bar. Hidden scroll bar. Nothing but text. * In full screen mode text doesn't wrap over the entire screen. Instead your text is formated in a readable column in the center of the screen. * Few important writers statistics (word count) pop up at bottom of screen, but hidden by default. * Lots of control over the look (colors, cursors, and fonts and paragraph formatting, even in plain text mode) * "Normal" app, user doesn't have to know about command line. Maybe some ideas for us. /Christian -- Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44 http://www.md.kth.se/~chr