I suppose I'd better weigh-in while I still have the chance on the issue of a full-screen mode.

To avoid [Tuesday Whipper-Snapping][1], I'll just tell you why fullscreen is important to *me*. I'll leave it up to you to interpolate other uses for fullscreen.

An interesting, and relevant, discussion has been going on over at [Subtraction.com][2] where talk is brewing of an app that actually blocks all network traffic while using it. A quote:

what better way to thwart a computer than to step away from it completely? There's no email to check on a typewriter, no beeps and pop-up reminders from other applications, and no access whatsoever to the Internet and its tantalizing abundance of productivity-killing diversions.

[...] At some point, it occurred to me that it really shouldn't be necessary to purchase another piece of hardware to accomplish the same things that writers look to manual typewriters for: the ability to focus without distractions.

And that's exactly what fullscreen is all about, killing distractions and making you forget that your computer can do anything but process text.

"HA!" I can hear so many of you saying, "All you need is some will-power! you don't need fancy tools." Indeed, you don't need fancy tools at all. For goodness sake, the greatest masterworks of writing of the human race were created with nothing more than ink and paper.

But I ask you this, what lengths did those people go to to kill distractions? Truman Capote was known to only be able to *really* write away from everyone he knew, away from his own life. Writers often take sabbaticals to other countries to finish their works. Killing distractions is a way of life. I'll say that again,

Killing distractions is a way of life.

For me, anything that helps me do this is a tool I want to use.

[1]: http://inessential.com/?comments=1&postid=3291 [2]: http://www.subtraction.com/archives/2006/0509_blockwriter.php