[HN Gopher] Show HN: Marksmith - a GitHub-style Markdown editor ...
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       Show HN: Marksmith - a GitHub-style Markdown editor for Ruby on
       Rails
        
       Author : adrianthedev
       Score  : 141 points
       Date   : 2025-02-03 12:53 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (avohq.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (avohq.io)
        
       | sscarduzio wrote:
       | This is exactly what I needed, but I need JS or Python backend.
       | Any chance to make it work?
        
         | adrianthedev wrote:
         | The JS side is made in StimulusJS. You can take it, it's MIT. I
         | haven't worked with python and don't have plans to port it to
         | React or anything else. If you do start work on it, I can guide
         | you though the process if you need a hand...
        
           | adenta wrote:
           | If I was to build out a react integration, would you
           | recommend:
           | 
           | A. Rebuild the stimulus portions in react B. Write a react
           | wrapper around the stimulus
           | 
           | I use rails for everything I do, but like to use vite_rails
           | on the front end for react. Excited to use this library!
        
             | adrianthedev wrote:
             | Hmmm... My responsible developer gut tells me to redo it in
             | React so you don't import StimulusJS just to render one
             | editor. It's like having jQuery as a dependency in a React
             | project.
        
           | adenta wrote:
           | Another question:
           | 
           | Does this integrate with action_text? Wasn't that a big thing
           | in rails 6/7, with like... trix?
        
             | adrianthedev wrote:
             | In theory it does. The thing with ActionText is that it
             | adds some HTML to the content, but in theory it should
             | work.
        
       | Lio wrote:
       | Nice work Adrian.
       | 
       | Out of interest are there any plans to support embedding Mermaid
       | diagrams in the same way as Github supports?
        
         | adrianthedev wrote:
         | Let's open an issue and discuss it there. I never used diagrams
         | and that library, but if I see a couple of other
         | implementations, maybe it can be a drop-in...
        
       | sagasu007 wrote:
       | look good ~
        
       | Bergrebell wrote:
       | avo is just great! we have used it in 3 projects by now and
       | couldn't be happier with the product and community!
       | 
       | nice to see that they are starting to push the whole ecosystem.
        
         | adrianthedev wrote:
         | Thank you for your kind words. A rising tide lifts all boats!
        
       | briandear wrote:
       | Do normal people use Markdown? Or is it a dev/"techie" thing?
        
         | vallode wrote:
         | I've had good success teaching markdown to a fair few non-
         | techie people. At the end of the day it better serves as a
         | machine-readable middleground between a user-facing WYSIWYG
         | (markdown-powered) editor and the server responding to it.
        
         | Bluestrike2 wrote:
         | It's common enough that a bigger percentage of normal people
         | than you'd think probably find themselves using it on sites at
         | least occasionally (Reddit, etc.), even if they don't
         | consciously think of it as Markdown or know all the particulars
         | of the syntax.
         | 
         | The GitHub-style editors are nice in that when a user sees the
         | syntax directly when they press a formatting button in the
         | markdown-toolbar-element, it makes associating a hash symbol
         | with a headline or two asterisks surrounding a word with bold
         | text pretty straightforward. In that sense, they teach you
         | through using it since the syntax is fairly simple for the
         | basics for someone seeing it the first time. Use it a couple of
         | times, and you'll skip touching the buttons--at least for the
         | basics.
         | 
         | That said, I think a Writebook-style editor[0] mentioned
         | elsewhere may have some advantages for people with less
         | computer experience, but I don't think a straight GitHub-style
         | one like this is bad in those circumstances. It's quite good,
         | especially if you pair it with some instructions (whether they
         | be in a modal or whatever have you).
         | 
         | 0. https://once.com/writebook
        
       | shafyy wrote:
       | This looks great! I'd also love a non-Markdown view for less
       | technical folks. Or can you write in the "preview mode"?
       | 
       | I read that 37signals will also spin-off the markdown editor they
       | built for Writebook (https://once.com/writebook), so nice to have
       | different options.
        
         | adrianthedev wrote:
         | I'd use the Rhino Editor for that. It's based on TipTap and is
         | very extendable. I used it in a few projects and loved it.
        
       | timsco wrote:
       | Thank you so much for this.
        
       | xutopia wrote:
       | The Ruby world is feeling a revival for the last year. More and
       | more people using it and lots of new libraries coming out or
       | being updated.
        
         | adrianthedev wrote:
         | Yup. I agree. It's going to be hard to make a dent in the JS
         | world, but it's coming back!
        
           | teaearlgraycold wrote:
           | Ruby needs a type system comparable to TypeScript to compete.
        
       | downrightmike wrote:
       | We are in 2025, can we please start using dark mode as the
       | default on websites?
        
         | andrewmutz wrote:
         | Any stats on how many people use dark mode in the OS vs light
         | mode? My sense was that dark mode was less popular.
        
         | sevg wrote:
         | Why do you assume everyone prefers dark mode? :)
         | 
         | It's hard to know how popular dark vs light is among people who
         | work in tech, but in my anecdotal data the majority of
         | people/coworkers I've seen use GitHub have it in light mode.
         | 
         | There may be an argument to default to "system".
        
       | adrianthedev wrote:
       | So awesome to see this on the first page. Thanks everyone!
        
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       (page generated 2025-02-06 23:01 UTC)