> I'm a bit surprised that there isn't currently a Linux distro that focuses on curses/ncurses apps.
Is there a need for one? You can use all distributions without a graphical UI.
> And if anyone is looking for the gap in the curses market there's no word processors
Yeah, I've been wondering about that. People (including not-so-casual writers like GRRM) still swoon about programs like Wordstar, but it seems all Linux terminal users are content with using vim/emacs/nano/… with TeX (or lately Markdown).
I think that the reason nobody's built a curses word processor is that if you're not getting a WYSIWYG editing experience, you may as well go all the way to a full markup language.
Such programs being successful was initially due to more graphical options not being available, and later due to the graphical ones being impractical if you had older hardware (and of course because you were used to the text based app and hadn't found time to learn an alternative).
I doubt the niche for rich-UI text based apps like that and it's ilk (Lotus 123 anyone?) exists for enough people to make writing/maintaining one worth while - you'd either be happy with less (markdown and a post processor) or end up wanting more than such a UI could practically provide, I expect.
Though I'm sure you'll find a WordPerfect mode for emacs somewhere, if you are feeling nostagic!
Is there a need for one? You can use all distributions without a graphical UI.
> And if anyone is looking for the gap in the curses market there's no word processors
Yeah, I've been wondering about that. People (including not-so-casual writers like GRRM) still swoon about programs like Wordstar, but it seems all Linux terminal users are content with using vim/emacs/nano/… with TeX (or lately Markdown).