[HN Gopher] A cross-platform Markdown editor focused on speed an...
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A cross-platform Markdown editor focused on speed and usability
Author : feross
Score : 44 points
Date : 2021-11-29 16:48 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (marktext.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (marktext.app)
| andrewshadura wrote:
| It might be great if it weren't extremely buggy.
| orangea wrote:
| Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be actively being worked on
| and isn't complete enough for me to use personally (custom themes
| aren't implemented, for example).
|
| These are the WYSIWYG Markdown editors that I am aware of:
|
| - Typora (great but somewhat buggy).
|
| - Obsidian is working on a WYSIWYG mode.
|
| - Nota (nota.md) is promising but very beta.
|
| - Zettlr
|
| - Bear is working on a WYSIWYG mode.
| i_am_proteus wrote:
| https://github.com/iamcco/markdown-preview.nvim works for me.
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| Does Notion not count?
| dschuessler wrote:
| I never considered Notion to be a Markdown editor. Is there
| an easy way to open, edit and save Markdown files with
| Notion?
| joconde wrote:
| They have a Markdown-like syntax, but AFAIK it's only for
| notes stored in their cloud service.
| chubot wrote:
| I wish I could consolidate a lot of the apps I use for
| Markdown:
|
| Blog: I used Vim for a long time, now I use the online editor
| https://stackedit.io. I found that composing blog posts
| involves cutting and pasting big blocks of text a lot more than
| coding, which is better done with a mouse. Stackedit has a
| side-by-side view and WYSIWYG.
|
| Github wiki: Good for sketching ideas for blog posts, and
| documentation. Editable by others. (wish list: I kinda want the
| Roam Research bidirectional link thing, I often have that
| problem)
|
| Github issues: similar to a TODO list for many people.
|
| Zulip: Good for chatting with others, and for brainstorming
| ideas. So it overlaps with the Github wiki for that. Not good
| for a TODO list.
|
| So there are all these apps that use Markdown but they are a
| bit disconnected.
|
| Is that what Notion is supposed to be? A bunch of apps that
| interoperate and are unified? I haven't tried it since I mainly
| stick to open source stuff (with the exception of Github,
| though it is built on git)
| brycewray wrote:
| That was pretty much my evaluation of Mark Text, as well:
|
| https://www.brycewray.com/posts/2021/05/trying-mark-text-for...
| smartmic wrote:
| Leaving aside the well-known and commented "features" of
| Electron, out of interest, I looked into the most prominent
| Markdown file in the repository, README.md. Huh? Where is the
| markdown? Scroll, baby, scroll... This is disturbing for a
| _Markdown_ editor and does not leave a good impression, again,
| feels like more emphasis is put on appearance than substance.
| Which brings us back to my entry sentence, Electron and its
| reputation...
| app4soft wrote:
| > _" features" of Electron_
|
| Thank You for TL;DR:
|
| So, nothing new, but just another one Electron-based editor XD
| linsomniac wrote:
| I saw "Typora 1.0" yesterday in the HN firehose, but it didn't
| make it to the main page:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29349690
|
| I've been playing around with it this morning, and ended up
| spending $14 on the license. Used it to go through some of my
| README.md files that I had some mistakes on. https://typora.io/
| cjk wrote:
| "Focused on speed" and written in Electron.
|
| Sigh.
| bestouff wrote:
| Nowadays when I hear "crossplatform" I think bloated electron
| app. That's sad.
| account-5 wrote:
| ghostwriter is a cross platform markdown editor I use that's
| written in c++.
| tempodox wrote:
| The saddest thing is that you're right -- it is a bloated
| Electron app, almost 300 MiB uncompressed.
|
| Compare that to the < 6 MiB for LightPaper, the app that I use
| on macOS.
|
| Not to mention the security holes from the thousands
| (millions?) of Node modules an app like this probably contains.
| NmAmDa wrote:
| Thank you for referring to lightpaper. It really fit my need
| and this was my first time to hear about that app.
| maximus-decimus wrote:
| It's not Electon's fault that all other solutions are not
| cross-platform.
| Nicksil wrote:
| >all other solutions are not cross-platform.
|
| What makes you think this?
| threatofrain wrote:
| Has Dart + Flutter taken off yet? Or does some other
| competitor pop into your mind?
| metalliqaz wrote:
| I could write it in Python, or Java, or C#, and it would
| run everywhere that those environments run.
| pjerem wrote:
| I'm in the same boat but, tbf, as a developer, what are the
| alternatives ?
|
| Multiplatform GUI toolkits are abandoned or still heavily tied
| to C++ or Java
| bachmeier wrote:
| Is there something wrong with running a local web server and
| opening the app in a browser tab? Not my area of expertise,
| so maybe it would have its own set of issues.
| dspillett wrote:
| The issue for Electron is making sure the right version of
| Node and Chromium are available which is why each app is so
| big: each apps includes the version of both that they were
| last dev&tested against. That is why running several eats a
| fair amount of RAM - they have full Chromiums running, not
| sharing anything between them even if they are the exact
| version.
|
| _> Is there something wrong with running a local web
| server and opening the app in a browser tab?_
|
| For the average user, probably. Though for a developer
| targetted app probably not IMO.
|
| For a dev, running a new enough version of Node (but, for
| not well maintained apps, perhaps having one that is not
| _too_ new around) and making sure you have a recent enough
| browser, is not an issue, but for beginners or completely
| non-technical users that is a barrier to using the app.
|
| As access to local resources from within the browser is
| getting practical, I think the best common ground will have
| to be two versions from (mostly) the same source: a pure JS
| version that someone who can follow the instructions can
| run using already installed node and the same browser
| instance they use for everything else, and a memory hungry
| Electron version for others to install just by downloading
| the huge installer. And of that first version can be run as
| a service, or perhaps there would be a third version with
| extra parts not needed for either local version for that,
| for those who don't want to install at all.
|
| Maybe at some point OSes/distributions/appstores will go
| with "we have _this_ LTS version of Node and _this_ LTS
| version of Chromium, otherwise provide your own". That way
| devs could release a full cross-platform version of their
| app (Electron with all the baggage), and streamlined
| versions (no Node, no Chromium, just the app and any extra
| supporting libs) for Win10, Win11, Debian11, Ubuntu20.04,
| ..., that have been tested against the versions included
| with those OS options. Appstores would always get the
| streamlined versions because they can make sure the right
| version goes to each OS version they service. Perhaps there
| would be a combined installer: still huge as it contains
| everything, but it only installs and runs the app+libs if
| the target 's standard backend & browser are found to be
| compatible.
| tylerscott wrote:
| It is still very new but Flutter desktop support looks
| promising. I've been toying with it in my free time and it is
| very easy to get up and running.
| yingbo wrote:
| We definitely need a better crossplatform GUI framework to
| replace electron. Any promising one?
| [deleted]
| stephc_int13 wrote:
| I just tried it.
|
| Slow, unresponsive, probably Electron based or something similar.
|
| When the app is so unresponsive, no matter how nice it looks or
| how polished the UX is, it is ruined from the first 10 seconds of
| using it.
| slantyyz wrote:
| What I'd love to see is an extension for VSCode that can do
| wysiwym/wysiwyg Markdown editing while keeping the same keyboard
| shortcuts of VSC.
|
| There is a "Typora" knockoff extension for vsc that does some of
| what I want, but it has its own keyboard shortcuts, so multiline
| editing, etc. don't work.
| adamrezich wrote:
| you can split your window and open a Markdown Preview for your
| current file on the other side of the split, what else do you
| want beyond that?
| Findecanor wrote:
| Isn't the point of Markdown that it is supposed to be _regular_
| _text_ , formalising conventions that have been used for
| traditional ASCII text files for decades?
| cmckn wrote:
| Sure, but the point is also to render said ASCII into something
| a bit more slick and dynamic. These editors let you work with
| the underlying markup, while showing you the final product. In
| fact, this is the way I wished all word processors worked--the
| worst thing about MS Word in my opinion is the invisible hand
| of the phantom formatting characters.
| Syonyk wrote:
| > _...the worst thing about MS Word in my opinion is the
| invisible hand of the phantom formatting characters._
|
| WordPerfect says "Reveal Codes!" from the grave...
|
| Formatting is being nonsensical? Jump into Reveal Codes,
| delete all the weird formatting stuff by tag, and solve your
| problem.
| slantyyz wrote:
| > Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers.
|
| The point of Markdown is to write plaintext in Markdown and
| convert to Markup (as in Hypertext Markup Language)
|
| Source: https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
| mfer wrote:
| In one sense this is cross platform and in another it isn't.
|
| Many of the features are for extensions. Extensions that are not
| widely adopted where you might put the markdown
| nielsbot wrote:
| Edit: A commenter below says this is no longer free
|
| Since we're here: I highly recommend Typora for macOS. Truly
| minimal and well-done macOS-native Markdown editor. Previews
| final output inline as you edit without separate markdown/preview
| panes. Beta is free. (Not my project)
|
| https://typora.io
|
| [edit: actually finish the comment]
| MikusR wrote:
| It's no longer free. It's also an electron app.
| nielsbot wrote:
| It looks webview-based, but otherwise it's a native app.
| mastermaq wrote:
| Visual Studio Code is a fantastic cross-platform Markdown editor,
| especially with a few extensions: markdownlint, Spell Right, Word
| Count, Markdown All in One, and docs-markdown.
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(page generated 2021-11-29 23:01 UTC)