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olav 37 seconds ago [-]
Why is everybody so stoked about Markdown? Isn't Asciidoc better in about every aspect?
yboris 1 hours ago [-]
Since it's Electron why not have a Windows version of the app too?
jasonpeacock 3 hours ago [-]
There must be something fascinating about writing Markdown apps - either it scratches an itch, or AI is really good at creating them. There's a flood of them on r/macapps and similar places.
podviaznikov 7 minutes ago [-]
yeah, it's easier to made them now then before.
I've made myself two editors recently:
https://wander.md - WYSIWYG editor that works on mac, iphone and iPad and has semantic versioning backend in.
https://original.me - fully native macOS editor that uses Apple Notes as backend.
those are ver interesting to build, but also way more possible. I think it would have take me years before.
orangea 2 hours ago [-]
It's because it's effectively impossible to make a markdown authoring app that meets everyone's needs, and people tend to be picky about what they want in a writing environment. People have strong preferences about WYSIWYG, flavor of markdown (pandoc/quarto/GFM/etc), theming support, some want notes to be able to link to each other, etc. As an example, I require math notation support for basically everything I write which automatically rules out 90% of markdown editors for me.
pbowyer 53 minutes ago [-]
All of this, but underlying it I've come to the conclusion that Markdown isn't a good format for a writing environment beyond just simple prose. There's too much left up to the flavour of it and it's got weaknesses.
I've been experimenting with using Markdown (in Typora) in place of Word, but it (and others I've looked at) have zero support for image positioning or sizing, or a way to have different (pre-defined) styles on different tables.
Which is a shame because I like keeping my documents in plain text, in version control and efficiently read by my LLMs. LyX (https://www.lyx.org/) for LaTeX is the closest to what I'm thinking of that I know of, but maybe something exists for Asciidoc or Typst.
bityard 2 hours ago [-]
In recent years, I've written two!
I wrote my own wiki to use as a personal knowledge base to replace Dokuwiki because I wanted a simpler Markdown-based solution written in Python. I started it during the pandemic times and all of the code in there to date was written by hand. All of it was pretty easy except the CSS/layout parts which I'm just not very good at. It took months of free time to get it where I wanted.
I also recently created a day-to-day notes and daily planner app that's basically a bunch of markdown notes. I spent about a week of free time defining the problem, setting constraints, and refining with an LLM that wrote almost all of the code for me. I've been using it for months and it's working great.
The wiki uses Markdown because I browse it just as often as I edit and I appreciate some modicum of basic formatting. The daily notes app doesn't really _have_ to use markdown, I've just gotten accustomed to writing Markdown pretty much everywhere.
(These are on github, but I'm not posting the links here because I don't want to or care about promoting them.)
illithid0 2 hours ago [-]
Probably a lot of both.
Writing is also a deeply personal exercise for many, and I can say from personal experience that the environment I write in, from the room/place I'm in to the color scheme of my editor, really matters sometimes.
I haven't found a need to build my own editor, but I can see how someone else would.
jonathaneunice 18 minutes ago [-]
Abashedly raises hand as someone who's also written his own. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
danielbilekq 3 hours ago [-]
didn't know about that, but when I looked around, most of them were paid and just didn't really scratch the itch. this really starte as a simple editor for writing blog posts
noelectron 1 hours ago [-]
Electron? No thanks.
nikhila57 3 hours ago [-]
how is it different from obsidian?
pixelesque 2 hours ago [-]
Obsidian's closed-source is it not?
danielbilekq 2 hours ago [-]
it does much less, not really an alternative to Obsidian
swiftcoder 3 hours ago [-]
Honestly the first time I’ve seen an app use the glass aesthetic as a selling point
danielbilekq 3 hours ago [-]
tbh I kinda dig the glass aesthetic. I understand it's not for anyone, that's why you can theme it
ForHackernews 3 hours ago [-]
How does this compare to Typora? That's the leader in this market as far as I can tell.
danielbilekq 3 hours ago [-]
much worse than Typora. this is a very basic markdown editor for writing blog posts in "minimalist" space. and it's just free
nodesocket 56 minutes ago [-]
Paying Typora user here, and wondering the same.
drcongo 3 hours ago [-]
I've started getting warnings from MacDown about how it'll stop working soon because Rosetta or something. I like the side by side view, but sadly this isn't that.
Yeah, it's an electron app. Is it causing a "not good" feeling on its own, or do you have another suggestion?
timw4mail 2 hours ago [-]
That's the app I'm looking for a direct replacement for as well.
hartator 2 hours ago [-]
I wish we can have a good markdown support with images ala GitHub (good days).
cxr 1 hours ago [-]
But GitHub has _bad_ Markdown support. GFM is the reason why so many projects on GitHub are besot with Markdown that's unreadable in a text editor.
Sha1rholder 2 hours ago [-]
ANOTHER.md
YETANOTHER.md
YETANOTHERAGAIN.md
cube00 3 hours ago [-]
I'm not sure people seeing "Made for Apple silicon" will expect an Electron app.
00deadbeef 55 minutes ago [-]
It's 2026, I always expect an Electron app, unfortunately
danielbilekq 3 hours ago [-]
That's fair enough. I'll change that, so it doesn't seem misleading
yboris 1 hours ago [-]
I recently migrated a few of my Electron apps to Tauri -- was easy and fast in my case -- went down from 130mb installer to 3mb installer. Worth considering!
Shame, too. I've been looking for a new text editor. Someone else in this thread recommended SubEtha. I'll take a look there, instead. Happy to keep my Mac Electron-free.
delduca 1 hours ago [-]
I can recommend Bear (https://bear.app) been using for ~6 years or more. Truly native and 100% macOS-ish.
tccole 2 hours ago [-]
Out of curiosity; how come?
bityard 2 hours ago [-]
A web browser is one of the most complex pieces of software developed by human civilization, there should be no need to ship one with each and every trivial to semi-trivial app.
tetrisgm 2 hours ago [-]
Some people think it’s bad performance and bloat. They learned it ten years ago and haven’t questioned it
tccole 1 hours ago [-]
So what’s the alternative, Tauri?
2 hours ago [-]
reaperducer 39 minutes ago [-]
Out of curiosity; how come?
Speed. Efficiency. UI consistency. Cross-program features that nearly every "framework" fails at.
On my macOS machines, I make an effort to only use native apps. I can't speak for what Apple ships with the OS, but AFAIK, everything I've added is native.
Perhaps it's just a placebo effect, but everything on my five-year-old personal M1 MacBook Pro feels just as snappy as the mixed bag on my two-year-old work M4 MacBook Pro.
crosskayla 2 hours ago [-]
[dead]
brycewray 56 minutes ago [-]
There's also MarkEdit[0], which is essentially "TextEdit for Markdown" and is definitely _not_ Electron-based:
> For perspective: at just 4 MB, MarkEdit is much smaller than Electron apps. Handling a 10 MB file with ease puts it ahead of TextKit-based editors. Performance-first editors built with Rust lack native features, while correctness alone rules out editors that rely on regex-based Markdown parsing.
small bit of feedback, "Rice it until it
feels like yours." is pretty jargon heavy for a landing page, i don't think all that many people outside linux/tech use that term, why not "customize"?
danielbilekq 2 hours ago [-]
think that's valid. gonna change that. thanks!
brendoelfrendo 2 hours ago [-]
It's funny that you say not many people outside of Linux/tech use that term when "ricing" started in car mod culture. It was used to describe the act of customizing your (typically Japanese import, hence the term "rice") car with an abundance of cosmetic mods, without investing in performance mods. So your car would look really sleek and custom on the surface, but it would still drive like a stock '94 Honda CR-X del Sol.
Before anyone asks: "race inspired cosmetic enhancement" is a backronym, not the origin of the phrase.
reaperducer 2 hours ago [-]
i don't think all that many people outside linux/tech use that term,
The term is quite a bit older than today's tech bubble.
It came out of hotrod car modification clubs that specialize in Japanese brands. Some consider it pejorative. (See: "rice rocket.")
OvidStavrica 2 hours ago [-]
SubEthaEdit is still around and open source. It supports Markdown side-by-side view along with numerous other languages. Excellent lightweight (26mb, native) editor, available directly via the macOS store at no cost.
For Macs, there is iA Writer already. Why don't you make something equally polished for other platforms? I am genuinely interested, I always wanted iA Writer for Linux. Everything I tried falls short.
I've made myself two editors recently:
https://wander.md - WYSIWYG editor that works on mac, iphone and iPad and has semantic versioning backend in.
https://original.me - fully native macOS editor that uses Apple Notes as backend.
those are ver interesting to build, but also way more possible. I think it would have take me years before.
I've been experimenting with using Markdown (in Typora) in place of Word, but it (and others I've looked at) have zero support for image positioning or sizing, or a way to have different (pre-defined) styles on different tables.
Which is a shame because I like keeping my documents in plain text, in version control and efficiently read by my LLMs. LyX (https://www.lyx.org/) for LaTeX is the closest to what I'm thinking of that I know of, but maybe something exists for Asciidoc or Typst.
I wrote my own wiki to use as a personal knowledge base to replace Dokuwiki because I wanted a simpler Markdown-based solution written in Python. I started it during the pandemic times and all of the code in there to date was written by hand. All of it was pretty easy except the CSS/layout parts which I'm just not very good at. It took months of free time to get it where I wanted.
I also recently created a day-to-day notes and daily planner app that's basically a bunch of markdown notes. I spent about a week of free time defining the problem, setting constraints, and refining with an LLM that wrote almost all of the code for me. I've been using it for months and it's working great.
The wiki uses Markdown because I browse it just as often as I edit and I appreciate some modicum of basic formatting. The daily notes app doesn't really _have_ to use markdown, I've just gotten accustomed to writing Markdown pretty much everywhere.
(These are on github, but I'm not posting the links here because I don't want to or care about promoting them.)
Writing is also a deeply personal exercise for many, and I can say from personal experience that the environment I write in, from the room/place I'm in to the color scheme of my editor, really matters sometimes.
I haven't found a need to build my own editor, but I can see how someone else would.
edit: Oh, electron?!
But Macdown is a universal binary? https://github.com/schuyler/macdown3000 So it should just keep working
YETANOTHER.md
YETANOTHERAGAIN.md
https://github.com/whyboris/Simplest-File-Renamer <- 130mb to 3mb from Electron to Tauri
Whoops! Thanks for the warning. I'm out.
Shame, too. I've been looking for a new text editor. Someone else in this thread recommended SubEtha. I'll take a look there, instead. Happy to keep my Mac Electron-free.
Speed. Efficiency. UI consistency. Cross-program features that nearly every "framework" fails at.
On my macOS machines, I make an effort to only use native apps. I can't speak for what Apple ships with the OS, but AFAIK, everything I've added is native.
Perhaps it's just a placebo effect, but everything on my five-year-old personal M1 MacBook Pro feels just as snappy as the mixed bag on my two-year-old work M4 MacBook Pro.
> For perspective: at just 4 MB, MarkEdit is much smaller than Electron apps. Handling a 10 MB file with ease puts it ahead of TextKit-based editors. Performance-first editors built with Rust lack native features, while correctness alone rules out editors that rely on regex-based Markdown parsing.
[0]: https://github.com/MarkEdit-app/MarkEdit
Before anyone asks: "race inspired cosmetic enhancement" is a backronym, not the origin of the phrase.
The term is quite a bit older than today's tech bubble.
It came out of hotrod car modification clubs that specialize in Japanese brands. Some consider it pejorative. (See: "rice rocket.")
https://subethaedit.net