# typer: my wish for laptoplike device i'd like to exist

i don't usually use laptops, i much prefer the static desktop setups. but i sometimes i do dream about what my ideal mobile computer would be. my problem with most modern devices is that they run these ultracomplicated operating systems running all sorts of processes on it. it bothers me because it uses up energy and battery unnecessarily.

i wish for a machine that could last for weeks or months on a single charge. ideally something that doesn't consume any energy if you don't interact with it. the kindle is almost like this however it's screen has a too slow refresh rate so it's a bit limited for interactive use. and besides, even kindle's system is full of unnecessary stuff. it runs linux which pretty much means it's full of unnecessary stuff.

my primary usecase for such a device would be writing and text editing. so i definitely need a good keyboard as well. phones and tables are out of question. they have their place though: i think kindle is quite good for reading. for keyboard it would be nice if it were splittable just like ergodox. most ideal would be if the two halves could be snapped together to act as a single keyboard like on ordinary laptops too. the screen should be detachable too. it should come with a small tall stand that i could put it on so that i don't need to unnecessary hunch to use it if i have access to a proper desk. by detachable i don't mean wireless: i don't mind having the screen and the keyboard wired.

as for the screen: i don't need colors. i think my ideal screen would be those old monochrome lcd screens that old calculators had. those lasted quite long on very little battery. and those worked quite nice in sunlight without any backlight too. and i don't need a large resolution. something like 640x480 or in that range would be more than enough. hopefully this wouldn't drain much energy in general.

but still, what about the operating system and the cpu? how could i have a very dumb system but at the same time still have access to the modern world of compilers, internet and so on? i think this laptop needs two chips:

• a microcontroller with very low power consumption that could run some in memory filesystem and a text editor. this microcontroller would run pretty much all the time.
• a full blown mini-computer (e.g. raspberry pi zero w). this would be mostly off but i can occassionally turn it on to sync my edits to disk, run a compilation and get back the results, or simply fetch my email from internet. ideally it would also have a 4g modem, so that the device would be internet enabled.

i think this dual system could work quite perfectly. using a dumb microcontroller for the primary interface means that you can really minimize all the unnecessary stuff to a bare minimum without needing to deal with the complexities of a full modern system. and ideally this microcontroller wouldn't consume lot of energy, nor would the keyboard or the screen, so i could easily use this device for a long time. sure, the text editor would have limited features, but that's fine. i don't even need wrapping support thanks to my semantic break style.

i could even code like this. for instance i'd implement some big function. then i'd activate the mini computer. the linux on it would quickly boot up, write my in-memory edits to disk, call the compiler and write its error messages back to another in-memory file, and then simply turn itself off. now i can fix all those errors one by one without running the full computer, without draining the battery. once i'm happy with the changes, i can turn the machine back on to compile again and maybe push the changes to, say, github. ideally the microcontroller would be programmable, so, for example, i should be able to run a light c syntax checker on it to save me activating the full computer before i fixed all the dumb errors.

even email reading would be quite nice (assuming people do plaintext emails). the process would be this: turn on the mini computer, it fetches the emails and writes them to the in-memory fs, and then it turns itself off. now i can read them at my pleasure, maybe even prepare some responses.

and since the battery could last for weeks maybe i could go into the woods for a week long fasting retreat into a forest or onto a boat for maximum silence and this little device (along with a kindle) could keep me quite entertained without the need of a big energy source.

and i suspect it wouldn't be too complicated to build such a device. maybe one could hack it together with some preexisting components. but to be fair, i don't have any hardware experience, and i don't really have a big need for such a device (i'm not mobile -- i spend almost all my life sitting at home) so i'm unlikely to ever attempt to create such a device. i'm just saying it would be nice if it existed.

published on 2020-12-11

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