Show HN: My WWDC-inspired project. A Markdown editor for Lion

Hey cool. Someone else actually knows about My Markdown Editor! I wrote #2. It's got some issues, and according to some feedback, it doesn't work on Lion (I haven't updated yet, so I can't test.)

As for licence, I should really add a note to that page. I guess BSD/MIT will do. Or GPL if you so desire :)

> I wanted to switch over to a parser-based implementation, but at the time all the existing parsers were setup to emit HTML, so getting character-offsets out of the parser wasn't possible without hacking the parser to death.

You might want to try libupskirt [1], library github uses.

[1] http://fossil.instinctive.eu/libupskirt/index

Woot I got one of them!

I'm composing this reply inside of Macchiato. Honestly, I think it's a pretty decent idea, although it might have a hard time to displace Vim, which I alway have tend to have open.

Something that it might easily displace is composing my blog posts, the fact that fullscreen mode knocks out my secondary monitor is probably a good idea, and keeps me focused on the task on hand—writing the blog posts.

On that note, I've switched to full screen. The animation to full screen wasn't the smoothest, and doesn't have the same feel that Apple applications scale up. In addition, while the slight gradient works in a small window, blowing that up to the fullscreen doesn't work very well, and I feel like I looking straight into the middle of the sun.

I realize that you're attempting to be fairly minimalist with your application, but I think that a less-strain theme for fullscreen would be a very good improvement.

I've noticed that while backspacing, especially when typing in a blockquote, the cursor doesn't line up with text you're editing. Small display issue, no biggie.

Another thing that I would think very cool for fullscreen writing applications is to display text with TeX-like text justification, so you don't end up with very staggered paragraphs in the middle of your screen. Probably well outside the scope of your application, but thought for other HN-ers.

I think that's all feedback I can come up with right now. I'll continue to try out the app, and look forward to what updates you have up your sleeve.

EDIT #1: Fixing some grammar. Trying to get the elements right ;)

EDIT #2: Apparently I can't make new comments anymore. Since I comment rarely, I assume this was some change as part of HN's vote-less comments change. May I make a theme request? Yes? Great! I really like the Solarized[1] theme, and think it would be a great addition.

In addition, I think callahad had a really great review on this same thread. I agree with #5 in particular, being able to switch off the preview, should I come about the need, would be really nice, mostly for the same reason callahad mentions. And #7, too.

One last agreement with callahad:

> Hopefully this is helpful and not discouraging! I didn't want to take the promo code without leaving you with some feedback.

[1]: http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized

Wow, all gone in less than 14 minutes! Oh well.

This kind of reminds me of http://www.iawriter.com/

I grabbed the 64AK4K67XPJ3 promo code. I'm a frequent Markdown user, primarily using Vim to edit my text.

Macchiato is a nice start, but I feel like it needs a fair bit of additional polish and consideration before being worth $20, especially in light of the other options mentioned in the comments. Here are a few things off the top of my head:

1. Links don't seem to be styled at all.

2. You're not parsing multi-paragraph list items properly: All subsequent paragraphs are displayed as code blocks.

3. I can't readily tell if lines are soft or hard wrapped, and the 73-character maximum text width isn't visibly demarcated, which feels a bit awkward. Especially in the full-screen mode.

4. I can't customize the styling at all, and I find Courier New and the gradient on the background to be unpleasantly distracting. I wouldn't be worried about this if the default aesthetics were more to my liking, but then again, you can't please everyone that way. :)

Since you're focusing on Lion, Menlo, introduced in 10.6, might be a more sensible font choice, and I think I'd prefer a lightly textured gradient-free background to the current styling.

5. I recognize that you view the unification of styled and plain text representations as a feature, but it personally doesn't work for me. When I write Markdown, I want to ensure that the plain text representation is legible and stands on its own, and I want to make sure that everything is being parsed correctly so that I can easily publish it for consumption by browsers. For me, mixing the two doesn't serve either purpose well.

For instance, it's difficult to tell if I've properly nested everything when I have an ordered list containing multiple paragraphs per item, possibly interspersed with code blocks and block quotes.

6. I somehow trigged a bug where my editing cursor appeared two lines above where text entry was actually happening.

7. It doesn't help me write Markdown, at all. A few places it would be nice:

7a. Hitting return after writing a list item. I'd like it if a new item was automatically created for me, with one backspace removing the new item but not de-indenting my cursor, and a second backspace actually de-indenting.

7b. Writing links would be easier if Macchiato matched braces for me, and possibly did some magic for [reference style][0] links.

7c. Writing code blocks would be easier if Macchiato maintained the same level of indentation after I hit return on each line, instead of needing me to tap out a bunch of spaces.

7d. I can't tell the difference between a space and a tab when I'm writing.

8. If you're limiting line length to 73 characters, why am I allowed to resize the editing window to be significantly wider than that?

There are plenty of nice touches: The support for auto saving / versions seems great, and I rather like the toggle-able word/character count in the title bar. The core of a great product is definitely there, but it needs some more cultivation.

Hopefully this is helpful and not discouraging! I didn't want to take the promo code without leaving you with some feedback.

[0]: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#link

Congrats on the release Kenneth, it looks really great.

Yes I think it should sit at the $5 mark.

The most significant design decision (and something that I think is a major feature over Emdee and Marked (mentioned in another comment) is that there is no distinction between preview and editing modes / views. Your code is stylized as the Markdown it represents, and that's the fundamental idea behind Macchiato.

They are, to a small extent. They look like plain text, but if an item wraps across lines, the indent level is preserved. Note: blockquotes and code blocks should do the same thing, but it hasn't been implemented yet.