Writing

Productivity

markdown editor

SHOW HN2017

Writing

A lightweight distraction-free editor (MathJax and Markdown)

github.com

#markdown editor#mathjax#distraction-free editor#latex math

133points
48comments
#303of 2,242 in 2017
Top 14%of 2017 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

10 positive, 4 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 5 critical, out of 21 comments about the project. Thread score +0.24.

Design: 2 for, 5 againstIdea: 5 for, 0 againstPerformance: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Fast, responsive live rendering

    From 3 comments
    • Awesome! Super responsive and fast.
      nthompson on HN
    • For me, the speed of rendering is fantastic. But, the TexRoman font, the lack of lockstep scrolling, and the non-compartmental MathJax rendering causing the entire document to…
      xdeqx366 on HN
    • I'm a fan. This is really cool and I like the Markdown parser that was chosen. The HTML output looks really damn clean (especially for code blocks). The `ctrl+s` shortcut is…
      antjanus on HN
  • Computer Modern font and LaTeX alignment support

    From 1 comment
    • I'm so glad it uses Computer Modern, and supports \align environments etc. I know the latter is just MathJax, but Computer Modern is a detail that every other Markdown/LaTeX mix…
      singhrac on HN
  • Ctrl+S shortcut and clean HTML output

    From 1 comment
    • I'm a fan. This is really cool and I like the Markdown parser that was chosen. The HTML output looks really damn clean (especially for code blocks). The `ctrl+s` shortcut is…
      antjanus on HN

Objections

  • No separate preview or lockstep scrolling makes long documents hard

    From 3 comments
    • a separate preview is unnecessary for some users, it's true. but when you're using a full range of complex features, it is. and when something isn't displaying the way you…
      accordionclown on HN
    • One cool feature would be to scroll-lock the input with the output when scrolling the output pane. Obviously the challenge is that they don't correspond line-to-line. Embedding…
      always_good on HN
    • For me, the speed of rendering is fantastic. But, the TexRoman font, the lack of lockstep scrolling, and the non-compartmental MathJax rendering causing the entire document to…
      xdeqx366 on HN
  • Math font rendered is not Computer Modern for some users

    From 2 comments
    • Funnily the math it renders doesn’t use Computer Modern at all.
      kccqzy on HN
    • I see this: https://imgur.com/a/vvYpW The symbols and letters are so wrong. Inspecting the element shows that the font family is STIXGeneral. On the other hand I find it amusing…
      kccqzy on HN
  • Preview text looks blurry

    From 1 comment
    • Nice update speed. But the font in the preview panel looks really blurry -- both regular and bold...
      voiper1 on HN
  • No dark mode

    From 1 comment

Requests

  • HTML export

    From 2 comments
    • I'm a fan. This is really cool and I like the Markdown parser that was chosen. The HTML output looks really damn clean (especially for code blocks). The `ctrl+s` shortcut is…
      antjanus on HN
    • Thanks! HTML export would be cool, I agree. The shortcut "CTRL+D" will toggle to preview only (not exactly a quick way to view HTML but at least you see preview only), code only…
      josephernest on HN
  • Org mode support

    From 1 comment
    • Very cool! It would be nice to see an Org mode version of this. Org syntax for the uninitiated: http://orgmode.org/worg/dev/org-syntax.html It's very similar to Markdown if using…
      kaushalmodi on HN
  • Vim keybindings

    From 1 comment
    • One text editor I have always wanted is a word processor with first class vim keybindings support. I don't need too many fanciful features but the most important features would…
      Immortalin on HN
  • Lockstep scrolling between input and preview

    From 1 comment
    • One cool feature would be to scroll-lock the input with the output when scrolling the output pane. Obviously the challenge is that they don't correspond line-to-line. Embedding…
      always_good on HN

Questions

  • Does it handle long multi-page documents and page breaks in print

    From 2 comments
    • Quite neat. I wouldn't use this myself as I prefer to have an environment which is crash proof and I would be too scared to close the window, however I think this could be quite…
      yoz-y on HN
    • I might use this instead of LaTeX for short communications , but I wonder if this could work for longer work with several pages.
      sixti60 on HN

Alternatives named

  • Typora

    From 2 comments
    • For me, the most satisfying markdown editor is Typora(https://typora.io/), which doesn't need a separate preview pane to show the rendered contents. But I haven't tried the Math…
      searene on HN
    • I wholeheartedly agree, Typora is my favourite markdown editor. For those few times you really need to just edit the markdown you can quickly turn off rendering and switch into…
      patmurraydev on HN
  • HackMD

    From 2 comments
    • For me, the speed of rendering is fantastic. But, the TexRoman font, the lack of lockstep scrolling, and the non-compartmental MathJax rendering causing the entire document to…
      xdeqx366 on HN
    • This is very neat! It made me think of hackmd.io which offers similar features though maybe less minimalist/distraction free but with collaboration. Thanks for sharing!
      myopicgoat on HN
  • VNote

    From 2 comments
    • Why not give VNote(https://github.com/tamlok/vnote/) a try? :)
      tamlok on HN
    • Nice and simple job! Guys that do not want an extra preview panel could take a look at VNote(https://github.com/tamlok/vnote/).
      tamlok on HN
  • Spongedown

    From 1 comment
    • This is not flesh out, but it does support vim keybindings. http://ivanceras.github.io/spongedown-editor/
      ivanceras on HN
  • Boostnote

    From 1 comment
    • You can look into Boostnote, it has that feature built in.
      sxldier on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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