[HN Gopher] Show HN: A user-friendly UI for viewing and editing ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Show HN: A user-friendly UI for viewing and editing Markdown files
        
       Author : tk_
       Score  : 237 points
       Date   : 2024-03-13 12:47 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (marker.pages.dev)
 (TXT) w3m dump (marker.pages.dev)
        
       | two_handfuls wrote:
       | So, a picture and a download link.
       | 
       | Adding a list of features would be nice. Does it support
       | checkboxes? Mermaid? Folding? Does the editor it comes with
       | support search and replace? Multi-caret editing?
       | 
       | Maybe it's just me, but I have long stopped downloading stuff
       | just in case it's good. You have to convince me first, then I
       | will download.
        
         | neodymiumphish wrote:
         | Agreed! It says editing. Does that include tracked changes?
        
       | jon9544hn wrote:
       | Looks almost identical to [typora](https://typora.io)
        
         | oneeyedpigeon wrote:
         | Worth noting Typora is neither free nor free.
        
           | Zambyte wrote:
           | Yeah, $15 for a markdown editor that's locked to a maximum of
           | 3 devices that I don't even control is a tall ask. OPs
           | program is significantly more attractive.
        
         | kkukshtel wrote:
         | Typora is my go-to markdown editor and imo really worth it.
         | 
         | One really nice feature it has is the ability to paste in
         | images and have them automatically get put in a pre-defined
         | folder, which is pretty crucial to static blog site deployment.
         | 
         | Typora + Blot.im have been hard to beat for me.
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | Isn't the point of markdown that it's a bridge to ordinary text
       | editors?
       | 
       | Programs like TextEdit and Word should have a "save as Markdown"
       | option, but it isn't that important.
        
         | wiremine wrote:
         | > Isn't the point of markdown that it's a bridge to ordinary
         | text editors?
         | 
         | Yes, but visualizing the _rendered_ markdown is very helpful to
         | debug the content.
        
       | Octoth0rpe wrote:
       | I'm _really really_ not a fan of the app insisting on defining a
       | 'project' before allowing you to open a file. I recognize that
       | project-oriented management is probably a requirement for
       | something like this given that markdown files usually do exist as
       | a collection of related documents, but I regularly want to just
       | open a README.md.
        
         | oneeyedpigeon wrote:
         | I'm with you -- same issue as Obsidian.
        
           | jwells89 wrote:
           | Haven't tried Marker so I don't know how it works, but at
           | least in Obsidian "projects" are just folders. At least for
           | my usage, this isn't really an issue because most of the
           | Markdown files I create are going to be in one of a few
           | locations (blog posts, mind dumps, etc).
           | 
           | It's still useful to have a one-off editor but there are
           | several programs that can fill that purpose well.
        
             | oneeyedpigeon wrote:
             | Obsidian isn't _terrible_ , I just wish I could open a
             | single Markdown file. README.md is pretty common; any
             | arbitrary location can contain a .md file that I might want
             | to open.
             | 
             | Marker looks a lot worse, though. I gave my 'project' a
             | name and selected a folder--one containing a big hierarchy,
             | tbf, but the app gave no guidance. All I get now is a blank
             | window, even when I restart. There doesn't seem to be any
             | menu item that will let me create a new project or recover
             | from this state. I guess I'll have to reinstall...
             | 
             | This is the problem with the 'project' (or 'vault')
             | approach, IMO--if I'm just opening a file, I know what that
             | is, what it means. When your app revolves around some
             | bespoke notion of whatever a 'project' is, and that's _the
             | first experience of your app I get_ , that's not great.
        
             | PurpleRamen wrote:
             | Obsidian is vault-centric and has some harsh limitations in
             | what workflows it allows because of this. It doesn't matter
             | whether vaults are folders, because there is more to this
             | than just the folder. This is really annoying, because
             | Obsidian is a one of the best markdown-editors at the
             | moment, with a good plugin-community, unlike others.
        
               | chambored wrote:
               | It is a great editor. Your points are spot on. The vault-
               | centric use of Obsidian is limiting, and has stopped me
               | from using it as my main editor. I use it only for a
               | single synced vault. All other md files are edited using
               | other tools.
        
           | Muller20 wrote:
           | Obisidian is not a text editor, and it never claims to be
           | one.
        
         | divan wrote:
         | You'll like Drafts app. Open the app and start typing. Only
         | then decide what you gonna do with the text.
         | 
         | It's a native macOS app, so it starts instantly. I use it for
         | everything - from writing articles to comments/messages, where
         | I care a bit more about not making typos or accidentally
         | sending before proofreading.
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | Why not just use Notes instead of paying $20/year? (Not a dig
           | at Drafts, trying to understand the value.)
        
             | bobbylarrybobby wrote:
             | Drafts is really about the automations you can do on your
             | text in order to get it out of Drafts. The idea is you
             | throw some text into Drafts -- because it's quicker to
             | create text in Drafts than in pretty much any other app --
             | and then use an automation to do some minor parsing,
             | reformat, add metadata, etc before sending the data to its
             | final destination.
        
             | chefandy wrote:
             | I haven't looked at Drafts, but I stopped using Notes
             | because I started doing work that requires Windows and it
             | lacks native cross-platform support. The in-browser
             | experience just doesn't cut it for me for something I need
             | as much as a notes app.
        
             | brandonhorst wrote:
             | If you don't want the automation stuff, it's perfectly
             | usable for free.
        
             | divan wrote:
             | I don't use Pro version and never had a need for.
             | 
             | Notes is clumsy - I never can find what I want there. With
             | folders, pinned notes, named notes, synced/unsynced etc,
             | it's just a mess.
             | 
             | Drafts is just a super-reliable and fast editor that is
             | better than any other textbox/editor. So I mostly use it
             | for copy pasting. Even use it for HN comments that are
             | longer than 10 lines.
        
             | tqwhite wrote:
             | Finding stuff in Notes is bad. You cannot scope a search to
             | a subset of the collection. It's terrible. Drafts is very
             | fast and, as plain text, is very simple. The automation is
             | fabulous. Good support for widgets. Its sync is instant.
             | It's a good program.
             | 
             | That said, I have returned to it and am abandoning Drafts.
             | Turns out that, once you have a substantial amount of
             | stuff, finding stuff is just as bad as Notes and I do not
             | actually use the automation.
             | 
             | Also, I want Rich Text, too. I believe in plain text but,
             | in the end, I cannot live without being able to easily set
             | text to be bold, colored or large so that I can see the
             | important parts. Still, I am mad at Notes for not
             | supporting Markdown because I do README and such often.
        
               | CharlesW wrote:
               | > _You cannot scope a search to a subset of the
               | collection._
               | 
               | Since you're back to Notes, you might be interested to
               | know that you can now scope searches in a bunch ways --
               | folders, Smart Folder, tags, kind (i.e. limit to notes
               | with checklists), date range, etc. You can even search
               | "notes created last year" to see all of your notes
               | created last year, etc. https://support.apple.com/en-
               | au/guide/notes/not18ab658ed/mac
        
             | tqwhite wrote:
             | One other, slightly off topic thing... Even if a program
             | has a free version, if I use it in my daily life, as I have
             | done with Drafts, I pay for it.
             | 
             | It is my view that the current market has _coerced_
             | programmers to have free versions even though programmers
             | cannot buy food or pay mortgages with free versions.
             | 
             | I consider it unethical to gain a benefit in my daily life
             | without giving something in return. $20/year is almost too
             | little.
        
         | simonw wrote:
         | Right - one of my favourite things about VS Code is I can just
         | type "code README.md" and start using it - or "code ." to open
         | my current working directory. Effectively it lets me treat
         | directories as projects without fiddling around with any
         | project configuration.
        
         | dyates wrote:
         | I wrote a short blog post[1] about this pattern a few years
         | ago. I still don't understand why so many apps use this
         | workflow, especially ones that previously didn't. Just let me
         | deal with the project creation stuff on the first write instead
         | of requiring all this up-front commitment!
         | 
         | [1]: https://davidyat.es/2018/03/01/project-wizard/
        
       | SirMaster wrote:
       | Been using StackEdit myself but I might check this out.
        
       | josebama wrote:
       | What's the license of the code? I don't see any in the repo
       | https://github.com/tk04/Marker
        
       | michaelbuckbee wrote:
       | This looks like a neat app for non-developers, but for dev's it
       | is really hard to beat the VS Code extensions for handling
       | markdown.
       | 
       | My heavily used ones are: Markdown to HTML (copy), which lets you
       | write and preview markdown and then copy+paste it as html into
       | things like newsletters, CMS, etc. as a single step.
       | 
       | The other one is Markdown to PDF, which lets you organize a
       | series of markdown files into a coherent structure and then spits
       | out an ebook on command.
        
         | blackhaj7 wrote:
         | Neat. I didn't know about markdown to HTML
         | 
         | Any recommendations for extensions to help with authoring
         | markdown in VSCode?
        
         | inferense wrote:
         | there's a similar app made specifically for devs -
         | https://acreom.com
         | 
         | disclaimer: I am the maker of acreom
        
           | airstrike wrote:
           | that looks so neat! I'm building a modern cross-platform app
           | and aiming for a similar look-and-feel so I'm curious what
           | your stack looks like, especially the UI (it's not a note-
           | taking app but more like spreadsheets and presentations, so I
           | promise I'm not a competitor!)
        
             | inferense wrote:
             | no worries, we use Vue & Nuxt. Good luck with your project!
        
               | airstrike wrote:
               | thanks! I've been making progress with React + NextJS +
               | Tauri but sometimes it's so painful I debate if I should
               | pick a different stack entirely
        
           | dotancohen wrote:
           | That looks terrific and the price is fair. I am concerned
           | about no open source local client - I don't want to rely on
           | the company if it goes belly up (which is why I actually like
           | paying).
           | 
           | I just recently moved to Org Mode but if I were still in the
           | Markdown ecosystem I would give this tool serious
           | consideration.
        
             | inferense wrote:
             | open-sourcing is on our roadmap
             | (https://roadmap.acreom.com), when it comes to the data
             | ownership & privacy, acreom is built on technical decisions
             | to deliver both in full fashion.
             | 
             | it's local-first, all your data is stored on your device as
             | regular markdown (no custom md flavor) and works fully
             | offline.
             | 
             | the (optional) sync is free and E2E encrypted.
        
               | abstractbeliefs wrote:
               | when it's open source, let us know.
               | 
               | Too many companies have it on the roadmap and never
               | deliver.
        
               | dotancohen wrote:
               | Thank you for the update. I'll be watching this.
        
             | arek_nawo wrote:
             | I'm working on something similar (i.e. a content editor for
             | developers) with Vrite, that's already open-source:
             | https://github.com/vriteio/vrite
             | 
             | It's not the same as acreom (leaning more towards a CMS-
             | like platform with API, real-time collab, etc.), but is
             | well-suited for e.g. creating knowledge bases.
        
             | flakeoil wrote:
             | For Org Mode maybe this app would be something similar as
             | it also focuses on projects and tasks on textfile basis:
             | https://easyorgmode.com/
        
               | dotancohen wrote:
               | Interesting, thank you!
        
           | kkukshtel wrote:
           | this looks cool. not to be that guy though, but, why use this
           | over obsidian? obsidian + tana feel like they cover basically
           | all use cases.
        
             | inferense wrote:
             | most of the acreom users who switched from obsidian
             | switched over because of the UI, out of the box tasks
             | implementation, integrations (Jira, Github etc.) and many
             | other features which require plugins are do not provide the
             | best experience.
             | 
             | acreom is designed specifically for devs and makes it easy
             | to bring all relevant context in one place, create and
             | track progress on your projects and capture stuff quickly.
        
           | jaktet wrote:
           | I just tried out the iOS app
           | 
           | Every time I try to move a page to a new folder the app
           | crashes, is this a know issue or do you want more info?
        
             | inferense wrote:
             | thanks for reporting, will look into it, more info would be
             | appreciated!
        
               | jaktet wrote:
               | Basic process in iOS was:
               | 
               | * create folder * create page in folder * create new page
               | while this previous page was open * Observe that new page
               | is not created in current folder. Go find page in all
               | pages and open * Go to page info and try to change
               | location * App crash
               | 
               | Happens every time for me
        
           | dutchbrit wrote:
           | Looks cool but I hate the copy (sorry, just giving honest
           | feedback):
           | 
           | "Ship faster by organizing less acreom is the actionable
           | knowledge base for 10x developers."
        
             | garyrob wrote:
             | I was wondering what it meant to "organize less acreom".
        
           | shinycode wrote:
           | The UI of the Mac app looks a lot like a previous version of
           | craft.do which I love. I found the iOS version of acreom is
           | too light
        
         | freefaler wrote:
         | I still haven't found an extension that will give me the edit/
         | inline preview functionality of obsidian editor.
         | 
         | It'll great if you point me to one of those... Thanks.
        
           | thecatspaw wrote:
           | I just use the preview side-by-side with my document
        
           | lf-non wrote:
           | I use bluestone, it supports inline previews:
           | https://github.com/1943time/bluestone
        
             | a1o wrote:
             | This one looks really good, I will give it a try later.
             | Thanks for linking it!
        
         | FooBarWidget wrote:
         | What about non-devs? Not long ago I helped a non-technical
         | friend make a website, a static one using Vuepress and Markdown
         | files. One of the first things I did was pick a Markdown editor
         | for her. I settled on Macdown but it's not fully visual. A
         | fully visual one would have been much nicer for her.
         | 
         | But for some content I had to use escape hatches and use raw
         | HTML. I wonder whether this app supports raw HTML.
        
         | littlestymaar wrote:
         | > it is really hard to beat the VS Code extensions for handling
         | markdown.
         | 
         | YMMV, I always been pretty disappointed with VS Code's handling
         | of markdown coming from Atom.
        
       | alalani1 wrote:
       | Does this support MDX? Would be very curious to try it out if
       | that's the case
        
         | arek_nawo wrote:
         | MDX, with the custom content involved, is though. I've been
         | working on a hybrid WYSIWYG editor for MDX at Vrite
         | (https://vrite.io).
         | 
         | Currently supports custom block elements and JSON-serializable
         | attributes. Now looking into inline content and building an
         | extension system to render custom previews for the nodes.
         | 
         | Check it out if you're interested - it's also open-source.
        
       | AiAi wrote:
       | I used to use Marktext and Typora for this.
        
       | gavi wrote:
       | This is great. Please check obsidian which I think is excellent
       | also.
        
       | nico wrote:
       | Looks really nice
       | 
       | Slightly on a tangent, anyone knows of a good markdown reader
       | library for the terminal in python?
       | 
       | Here's a Go example: https://github.com/charmbracelet/glow
       | 
       | Btw, the Charm/charmbracelet projects are fantastic, wish there
       | was something like that but in python
        
         | weakfish wrote:
         | I love glow from charm, it'd be cool to see a python wrapper
         | around it
        
         | chambored wrote:
         | Glow is great! Love all the charm.sh projects. Only gripe is
         | that I don't seem to be able to use tab autocomplete with glow.
        
       | henrun12 wrote:
       | The design is super clean
        
       | herdcall wrote:
       | There is "pandoc" if you folks haven't tried it, it is amazingly
       | simple and effective and will convert from a ton of input formats
       | (including markdown) to a ton of output formats (including html,
       | word, whatever).
        
         | kps wrote:
         | I use Pandoc to view markdown in a terminal using `less` (see
         | `lesspipe(1)`), either through html and `elinks` or through a
         | custom writer ([2] forked from [1]).
         | 
         | [0] My `.lessfilter` configuration:
         | https://gist.github.com/kpschoedel/62888f552dc9d920d600166e5...
         | 
         | [1] https://github.com/Orange-OpenSource/pandoc-terminal-writer
         | 
         | [2] https://github.com/kpschoedel/pandoc-terminal-writer
        
         | a1o wrote:
         | Oh yeah, I use pandoc + lua in Continuous Integration to build
         | docs from their sources and it's pretty effective!
        
       | rubymamis wrote:
       | Looks really cool! For anyone looking for a very similar UI but
       | an editor that also supports complex blocks (like Kanban, images
       | etc) you can check out my note-taking app Plume with a block
       | editor[1] (beta is out in about a month, sign up for the
       | waitlist!). Every note is a simple plain text string (with
       | Markdown syntax) that is rendered via Qt C++ and QML.
       | 
       | [1] https://get-plume.com/
       | 
       | EDIT: Added the app isn't out yet (about a month more of hard
       | work!)
        
         | syncbehind wrote:
         | Not a dig at you, but I see you plugging this on everything
         | even remotely similar to your app. With the caveat that your
         | product is not even out? Is the intention just to build hype?
         | 
         | Seems a bit disingenuous is all.
        
           | rubymamis wrote:
           | > Is the intention just to build hype?
           | 
           | No, the intention is to build a waitlist to get feedback from
           | target users. I'm following sort of a similar plan the Linear
           | guys went with[1].
           | 
           | EDIT: It also gives me a lot of motivation to see people
           | liking what I build and waiting to use it - which takes
           | tremendous tall on me since I'm working on it 24/7 every day
           | for the past 7 months.
           | 
           | [1] https://linear.app/blog/rethinking-the-startup-mvp-
           | building-...
        
             | syncbehind wrote:
             | I think my reason for commenting was because the way you
             | comment makes it seem like the product is out to try /
             | "check out my product!" but the product doesn't even exist.
             | 
             | It feels dishonest? Like a bait and switch.
             | 
             | That being said, good luck.
        
               | rubymamis wrote:
               | Oh, gotcha, I edited the comment to add that the app
               | isn't out yet. Thanks.
        
         | davidcollantes wrote:
         | When will we see an alpha release which we could use to play
         | around? I like what I see!
        
           | rubymamis wrote:
           | Thanks! In about a month!
        
         | a1o wrote:
         | Recently Trello has restricted the kanban guests to ten people.
         | If your kanban functionality has some simple file in the
         | background that is easy to share it could be used to hack an
         | alternative to it.
        
           | rubymamis wrote:
           | The Kanban syntax is simple, Markdown headers and Markdown
           | to-do items encapsulated with very minimal custom syntax like
           | so:
           | 
           | {{kanban}}
           | 
           | # Todo
           | 
           | - [ ] todo 1
           | 
           | - [ ] todo 2
           | 
           | # In Progress
           | 
           | - [ ] todo 1
           | 
           | - [ ] todo 2
           | 
           | {{/kanban}}
           | 
           | Currently, Plume doesn't support collaboration. How do you
           | think it can be an alternative to Trello?
        
       | dunno7456 wrote:
       | There is also ghostwriter which is quite good
        
       | tinycombinator wrote:
       | At first, I thought this was another repo called Marker, also a
       | markdown editor: https://github.com/fabiocolacio/Marker
        
       | cuuupid wrote:
       | As a huge asterisk this is a Tauri wrapper around Tiptap that
       | does filesystem management. You can use Tiptap yourself easily as
       | it's open source:
       | 
       | https://tiptap.dev/
       | 
       | https://github.com/ueberdosis/tiptap
       | 
       | Tiptap is immensely popular, supports both Vue and React, is
       | super lightweight and has a huge community of extensions. I've
       | been using this since 2019 and can't recommend it enough. A
       | number of comments here are asking for functionality that is
       | built in, easily available as an extension, or easily add-able!
        
         | MarkSweep wrote:
         | Why do you need a huge asterisk about the editor control
         | library this app is using? Many text editors follow this
         | pattern:                   Notepad++ : Scintilla
         | Notepad.exe : Win32 EDIT control         TextEdit.app :
         | NSTextView
         | 
         | It's not like you can download and run Tiptap as an
         | application, right?
        
         | tobr wrote:
         | > this is a Tauri wrapper around Tiptap that does filesystem
         | management
         | 
         | Isn't Tiptap a wrapper around ProseMirror that does SaaS
         | pricing?
        
         | arek_nawo wrote:
         | Why is it a "huge asterisk"?
         | 
         | I'm also working on a WYSIWYG editor and using TipTap. It's
         | great, but on its own, it's not a ready editor, but a great
         | framework.
         | 
         | There's a lot you can do with TipTap (and ProseMirror) to make
         | your editor stand out and fit your use case better than others.
        
       | eviks wrote:
       | You could partially match the output by tuning your syntax
       | highlighting rules to make various markup invisible, thus leaving
       | you with only the bold word without the asterisks.
       | 
       | Though still won't help with search ignoring markup
        
       | cwoolfe wrote:
       | The app isn't part of the developer program so when you try to
       | open the app, MacOS says "You should move this app to the trash"
       | haha! Workaround via running: xattr -c /Applications/Marker.app
        
       | whalesalad wrote:
       | Looks like logseq
        
       | jasonjmcghee wrote:
       | s/Secure/Local
       | 
       | It's TipTap + Radix wrapped in tauri. No encryption / security
       | features AFAICT.
        
       | samstave wrote:
       | Hehe - just to note, the logo icon "download" button is for
       | windows: https://i.imgur.com/QqQKFWE.png - isnt it? typical the
       | apple is on the download button for mac?
        
         | hougaard wrote:
         | Came here to say the same, kinda misleading :)
        
       | codazoda wrote:
       | Looks interesting. I don't love the title, subtitle business. I
       | assume it will add yaml content to the top of the post. I'd like
       | to hide that as I don't add yaml to my markdown files.
       | 
       | There may be a config option for this but I didn't keep it
       | installed long enough to find out.
        
       | tqwhite wrote:
       | When I download the version for M1 Macintosh, it tells me the
       | application is damaged. FYI.
        
       | l3x wrote:
       | Anyone know of a collaborative markdown editor? Like a Google Doc
       | but where everyone can write in markdown?
        
         | matrss wrote:
         | https://hedgedoc.org/
        
         | arek_nawo wrote:
         | Are you looking specifically for Markdown or e.g. a WYSIWYG
         | with Markdown shortcuts support?
         | 
         | I'm building something in this space and I'm curious what's the
         | appeal of the former vs the latter?
        
       | jdcampolargo wrote:
       | It would be cool if you can more functionality like adding images
       | easily and so on.
       | 
       | Look at this:
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1751350002281300461
        
       | godelski wrote:
       | Isn't this obsidian? It looks very much like it. Not that there's
       | much to go on.
       | 
       | https://obsidian.md/
        
         | better_sh wrote:
         | lol yeah that was my first thought. UI looks pretty similar
        
       | lf-non wrote:
       | I tried this out. I think this app will benefit from a clear
       | identification of purpose and target user base and tailoring its
       | features around that.
       | 
       | Eg. If it is trying to be a generic markdown file editor, I
       | wouldn't want it to insert yaml frontmatter without being more
       | explicit about it. If it is trying to be a note taking tool, I'd
       | expect to be able to interlink local markdown files and navigate
       | files through them (I couldn't get that to work). If non
       | technical users are the primary audience, the git integration may
       | not be ideal sync solution for them. If it is for technical
       | users, we would likely want to be able to edit the front matter
       | ourselves (to add options specific to jekyll/pandoc or whatever
       | else will use that markdown) etc.
        
       | maigret wrote:
       | One thing I've not found yet is a quick, preferably mobile also
       | MD editor for my static blogs/websites. That would mean
       | connecting the editor to GitHub so it can commit or create a PR
       | when I press on publish, and being able to define repos and
       | locations for editing content.
       | 
       | Moving notes to published articles would then be easy on the go,
       | when the inspiration often comes.
        
       | mfer wrote:
       | It is NOT open source. If you look, there is no license file or
       | license stated otherwise.
        
       | AceJohnny2 wrote:
       | Tangential: anyone remember WordPerfect on DOS, and how you could
       | switch between WYSIWYG mode and "markup" mode, where you could
       | delete style markers?
       | 
       | The more things change...
        
         | codelobe wrote:
         | Indeed. When I ask (now retiring) office workers they typically
         | agree that WordPerfect 5.1 is the best document editor our
         | Earth has to offer.
        
           | wduquette wrote:
           | It was pretty good...but I don't miss having to manually
           | manage printer drivers for it.
        
       | w10-1 wrote:
       | 175 stars, first commit 14 days ago, no real docs or other
       | activity outside HN.
       | 
       | No acknowledgement of predecessors or collaborators - or license?
       | 
       | And now, as I finish typing this comment, stars up to 189.
        
         | aredox wrote:
         | HN as an attack vector.
         | 
         | Definitely a good way to get reach.
        
         | whynotmaybe wrote:
         | Not sure I get your point.
         | 
         | It now has 196 stars.
         | 
         | Is it good or bad?
        
         | bluish29 wrote:
         | I, for one, use GitHub stars as a way of bookmarking projects.
         | Which means I will star a project that I want to look into
         | later. And most of the time I completely forget about it.
        
       | thangalin wrote:
       | Of possible interest is my Markdown editor, KeenWrite:
       | 
       | https://keenwrite.com/
       | 
       | It features math, interpolated variables, theme-driven PDF
       | output, and is cross-platform. Have a peek at the screenshots and
       | tutorials:
       | 
       | * https://keenwrite.com/screenshots.html
       | 
       | * https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9...
       | 
       | Document meta data and all variables are stored in an external
       | YAML file. These variables can be edited directly within the
       | editor. Variables can be used within the document and within
       | text-based diagram descriptions (such as GraphViz and anything
       | else supported by https://kroki.io/).
       | 
       | There's also a command-line interface for integrating into CI/CD
       | pipelines or similar workflows.
       | 
       | https://gitlab.com/DaveJarvis/KeenWrite/-/blob/main/docs/cmd...
        
         | djbusby wrote:
         | Have you thought about YAML headers in the doc? Lots of site-
         | generators (eg Hugo) do that.
        
           | thangalin wrote:
           | Yes, I have. I disagree with adding YAML headers into
           | documents because it inevitably mixes presentation with
           | content. KeenWrite takes a different approach in keeping
           | presentation completely separate, allowing the content to
           | vary independently. Aside, KeenWrite generates XHTML
           | documents as an intermediary step towards producing PDF
           | files, making it an alternative site generator.
           | 
           | Nonetheless, if someone wants to use an existing site
           | generator, they can do so while keeping their Markdown
           | documents free of presentation logic. In Linux, it can be as
           | simple as:                   cat header.yaml source.md >
           | combined.md
           | 
           | Then run the site generator on the combined output file.
           | 
           | In the screenshots, the theme-driven PDF output shows the
           | same content presented in two different PDF files: one with a
           | ToC and one without. Whether a table of contents is included
           | is presentation logic, dictated by the typesetting engine
           | configuration. If you place the ToC controls in the YAML
           | header for the document, then it means having to change the
           | content to add or remove the ToC. That then presumes the type
           | of transformations the Markdown will undergo, which, IMO,
           | defeats the purpose of a plain text document.
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | KeenWrite is not a WYSIWYG editor like Marker, is it?
        
           | thangalin wrote:
           | IMO, there's no such thing as a WYSIWYG Markdown editor.
           | Markdown is a plain text format that defines neither
           | presentation logic nor formatting instructions. Markdown
           | editors typically convert documents to HTML and then display
           | the HTML with CSS to adjust the look and feel.
           | 
           | KeenWrite is what-you-see-is-what-you-mean editor, similar to
           | LyX. The preview panel shows the content having been
           | converted to XHTML and formatted with CSS. When producing a
           | PDF file, the XHTML is sent through the ConTeXt typesetting
           | software and formatted according to the instructions
           | associated with a user-defined (or user-selected) theme.
           | While the XHTML preview is rendered in real-time, the
           | typesetting is not real-time.
        
             | layer8 wrote:
             | Well, Markdown as a format is intended to be viewed
             | rendered as HTML (or equivalent), and WYSIWYG means that
             | the editing takes place in the rendered representation.
             | Markdown is only a storage format then, that merely happens
             | to also be human-readable. That the is rendered
             | representation itself is not fixed and can be styled or
             | themed independently is not a contradiction IMO. But call
             | it what you want.
             | 
             | The main reason I'm interested in WYSIWYG editing for
             | Markdown is that I find monospaced fonts to be too hard on
             | the eyes for editing prose text of any length. But due to
             | lists and code fragments and the like, just switching to a
             | variable-width font in a plain-text editor is also not very
             | practical.
        
       | miramba wrote:
       | I am trying to replace google docs with markdowns, but it's
       | difficult to find a suitable editor, so I gave this a try. Here
       | are a few observations on a M1 Mac:
       | 
       | * very clean interface: But too clean for my taste. I like
       | WYSIWYG controls like BIU and I like to apply styles directly
       | (like in Word/gdocs) as opposed to many md-Editors with a
       | code/preview split.
       | 
       | * the HN-title implies that I can quickly edit a .md file, but it
       | asks me to define a project first - no direct file opening.
       | 
       | * I opened an existing file with a h1-header on top, the app adds
       | a title and subtitle on top anyway - not wanted. I couldn't find
       | a way to remove them either.
       | 
       | * It seems I cant move the window by "pulling" the area where the
       | titlebar would be. The window is stuck on a center-top position.
       | 
       | So far, the markdown editor that comes closest to my requirements
       | is the vscode plugin "Markdown Editor"
       | (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=adameros...)
       | 
       | Thanks for your work and good luck!
       | 
       | Edit: Attempt to style my comment for better readability.
        
         | chambored wrote:
         | If you haven't tried Obsidian, I would. It has the features you
         | were looking for. The downside being it is directory (vault)
         | based as well and doesn't really offer the ability to edit one
         | off files.
        
           | anigbrowl wrote:
           | Exporting from Obsidian is so easy though. I forget how the
           | defaults are, but installing hte Pandoc plugin makes it a
           | zero-effort option.
        
         | a1o wrote:
         | Try this one later, of all linked in the thread, it looked very
         | clean to me
         | 
         | https://github.com/1943time/bluestone
         | 
         | https://www.bluemd.me/
         | 
         | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bluestone-markdown/id645139147...
         | 
         | I myself am currently playing with WriterSide from JetBrains
         | but it's still in experimental stage.
        
         | Emphere wrote:
         | You may like Typora.
        
       | juujian wrote:
       | Does it support using different engines for the preview? I have
       | been looking forever for an open source markdown editor that
       | allows me to use pandoc as the backend.
        
       | caxco93 wrote:
       | In case you are wondering, this is using https://tauri.app/ which
       | allows it to be web based inside a native app. I was not familiar
       | with that project, but taking a peek at the Activity Monitor, it
       | seems to spin up 2 processes, one for tauri itself which I
       | presume is a small static file server (around 60MB memory), and
       | one for the main UI window (around 30MB memory).
        
       | tamimio wrote:
       | At least add a screenshot to see it without installation, since
       | the whole selling point is the "user-friendly UI"..
        
       | kushan2020 wrote:
       | If some of you want to try out a fully web based approach to
       | markdown editing checkout https://bangle.io
        
       | neilv wrote:
       | For also viewing and editing these Markdown files from Emacs, you
       | can get semi-WYSIWYG there. Especially if you take advantage of
       | Emacs "fill" features, such as for making nested
       | bulleted/numbered lists readable.                   (setq-default
       | fill-column 79)              (global-set-key (kbd "C-'") #'imenu-
       | list-smart-toggle)              (autoload 'markdown-mode
       | "markdown-mode" nil t)              (autoload 'imenu-list
       | "imenu-list" nil t)         (autoload 'imenu-list-minor-mode
       | "imenu-list" nil t)         (autoload 'imenu-list-noselect
       | "imenu-list" nil t)         (autoload 'imenu-list-smart-toggle
       | "imenu-list" nil t)              [...]              (custom-set-
       | variables          [...]          '(markdown-hide-urls t)
       | [...])              ;; Note: These face colors assume black-on-
       | white normal colors.         (custom-set-faces          [...]
       | '(markdown-blockquote-face ((t (:inherit nil :background "gray95"
       | :foreground "gray25"))))          '(markdown-bold-face ((t
       | (:inherit nil :slant normal :weight bold))))          '(markdown-
       | header-delimiter-face ((t (:inherit markdown-markup-face))))
       | '(markdown-header-face ((t (:inherit nil :weight bold :family
       | "sans"))))          '(markdown-header-face-1 ((t (:inherit
       | markdown-header-face :height 2.0))))          '(markdown-header-
       | face-2 ((t (:inherit markdown-header-face :height 1.6))))
       | '(markdown-header-face-3 ((t (:inherit markdown-header-face
       | :height 1.2))))          '(markdown-header-face-4 ((t (:inherit
       | markdown-header-face :height 1.1))))          '(markdown-header-
       | face-5 ((t (:inherit markdown-header-face :height 1.0))))
       | '(markdown-highlight-face ((t (:foreground "blue" :underline
       | t))))          '(markdown-html-attr-name-face ((t (:inherit
       | markdown-markup-face))))          '(markdown-html-attr-value-face
       | ((t (:inherit markdown-markup-face))))          '(markdown-html-
       | tag-name-face ((t (:inherit markdown-markup-face))))
       | '(markdown-inline-code-face ((t (:inherit nil :foreground
       | "green4"))))          '(markdown-italic-face ((t (:inherit nil
       | :slant italic :weight normal))))          '(markdown-language-
       | keyword-face ((t (:foreground "gray80"))))          '(markdown-
       | link-face ((t (:inherit nil :foreground "blue3"))))
       | '(markdown-list-face ((t (:inherit nil :weight bold))))
       | '(markdown-pre-face ((t (:inherit markdown-inline-code-face
       | :background "#f4fff4"))))          '(markdown-reference-face ((t
       | (:weight bold))))          '(markdown-strike-through-face ((t
       | (:inherit nil :strike-through t))))          '(markdown-table-
       | face ((t (:inherit nil :background "#fafafa"))))
       | '(markdown-url-face ((t (:inherit markdown-markup-face))))
       | [...])
        
       | jiehong wrote:
       | Reminds me of iA Writer [0] which started in 2010.
       | 
       | [0]: https://ia.net/writer
        
       | noiv wrote:
       | I really like Markdown, but I wish it would support inline
       | images, perhaps using base64 encoded ones to keep all in one
       | file.
        
       | Retr0id wrote:
       | What makes a markdown editor secure?
        
       | pknerd wrote:
       | Markdown is usually used by developers. Almost all IDEs now have
       | support for it. I wonder why one needs a separate MD editor.
        
       | syockit wrote:
       | I've tested so many Markdown editors with WYSIWYG or instant
       | preview, but this is the first one with only 4MB download size!
       | Is using Tauri the secret sauce to this magic?
       | 
       | Too bad it doesn't have built-in math editor.
        
       | anigbrowl wrote:
       | What differentiates this from (say) Obsidian?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-03-13 23:01 UTC)