I checked the properties of a file I made with Windows Notepad, and noticed that the contents (not the type) are a "Troff document." What does "Troff" mean? As you'd expect for a file made with Windows Notepad, it's plain text--or supposed to be, anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troff - I'm none the wiser though!

See this as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groff_(software)

What are the first lines of the file?

Because it's a personal journal, the first lines are:
.LOG


2008-08-21 22:47:04

It's just a plain text file. If you put .LOG at the start, then every time you open it it automatically puts the time and date on it.
About the only useful feature of Notepad.

Troff looks a bit like that. I suspect it is simply a mis-identification of the file, based on the file contents.

If it is any consolation, troff was designed and written a long time before notepad. An example troff document can be seen here.

[mock outrage] I beg your pardon. Notepad did the job for me for many years before I discovered Linux. (I did, however, discover that there is a file size limit when .LOG is used. I think it's around 30K; after that, the file can still be added to, but the datestamp won't work.) I could never understand why, as I saw, some people used Microsoft Word to take plain text notes. Fortunately, KWrite is comparably minimalist, and someone here told me how to make a datestamp and timestamp in it.

May Gates & Ballmer forgive me for insulting Notepad, Amen. I'm Windowless now (it's not as dark as I thought it would be), but I used to use EditPad Lite when I had XP. Better than Notepad in most ways, but it couldn't do that automatic datestamp thing. Ah well, nothing's perfect.

If you really want to go to the dark side, you could use emacs. If you name a file ChangeLog there's some auto-dating thing. emacs is not for everyone though!

Troff is referred to in man.config and various other places in /etc (including mime.types)

No need for sarcasm. Notepad doesn't particularly deserve insults, but insult it all you like.

The thing is, when you're dealing with a bare-bones text editor like Windows Notepad, you have so few features--and, if you're putting it to its appropriate use, you need so few features--that how can a comparable editor be "better" without soon becoming a kludge?

I don't know what you need to do with your editor, but I wrote plain text with no formatting; I saved it; I used word-wrap sometimes, I datestamped it when writing in my journal, and that's really it. I never needed more features than what Notepad had, and I appreciated its spartanness. KWrite is good enough, but it's slightly more cluttered: a toolbar that I never use (I assume I could remove it, but I don't care enough), and options like "show dynamic word wrap marker" and "code folding" (???), that I can't imagine using, in the menus.

Most or all of my notes from college, especially those from liberal arts courses (I was an English major), are plain text. I didn't even need a laptop in class; I had one, but eventually realized it was the biggest waste of money I ever committed, and for my last two years of college, got by well enough with an "Alphasmart"--an electronic keyboard with a small amount of memory that plugs into a computer to transfer what I typed.

(Why didn't I simplify even more, and use pen/pencil and paper? I'm handicapped with motor coordination problems, so my handwriting is slow and labored. I was never able to write fast enough, when it was an issue.)

troff/nroff/groff are all descendents of the original runoff (aka roff) text formatter. Troff did typesetting for some machine I had never heard of but with the proper filters it would turn out postscript and make real nice documents. Nroff was for typewriter like (monospaced) devices. We used to use it to turn out documentation on daisywheel printers.

In these programs the formatting is specified by short commands that start a line with a period. For example a paragraph might be .P (in the mm macro package). That is why file thought your file looked like troff.

If you want a simple text editor for Windows with no toolbars, etc, try DarkRoom:

http://they.misled.us/dark-room

For Linux, Nano might suit your needs better. KEdit has less features than KWrite, too.

Excuse me for intruding on this topic.
It happens I have a relative in the same situation as you. And he also uses a computer at school instead of writing most of the time.

I am responsible for setting up the PC for him. So far, I put a regular Gnome destop with a tiny menu/task-bar at the bottom mostly for the teacher, and huge drawers on the side for his applications (Writer…)
As for user input, I only slowed key-repeat and the mouse cursor, as well as chose a big mouse pointer.

And I keep wondering if it would be wise to enable Accessibility settings (such as sticky keys), or an easier and more complete layout (such as Dvorak, which would result in less "key-chording"); or if this would only make him less adaptable to computers not his…

I would welcome your input on the matter if you don't mind. I can be reached at
g a b l i n - s o l @ i f r a n c e . c o m

Yves.