MacDown: Open-source Markdown editor for OS X

[rodion_89]

Kinda surprised by the rise in markdown editors whose selling point is the live preview mode. I always felt that the best feature of markdown was that the raw text made it somewhat obvious how it should be rendered. If a preview mode is need I almost want to jump straight to a WYSIWYG editor

[gravity13]

It's both a great way to learn markdown and be sure that your output is valid when having to write things in markdown. I can't tell you how many times I've realized I made a mistake when I've already pushed a readme to github and saw the rendered markdown there...

[schuke]

I think there are two kinds of users of Markdown. One is those who don't need or want WYSIWYG. The other still want WYSIWYG but don't want to shift+arrowing around or constantly leaving the keyboard to reach for the mouse. The number of Markdown editors with live preview probably says that the latter group is actually not small.

[hunvreus]

Agreed. We actually wrote a WYSIWYG editor on top of Markdown last year (https://github.com/wiredcraft/moleskin) but never ended up pushing it out: Markdown is simple as it is, syntax highlighting should be enough.

[samuli]

It is probably because live preview is considerably easier to implement than a good code editor like "Markdown completion".

[johnchristopher]

I run a small website that uses markdown files to render content. Users just need to upload those files and the site is updated accordingly. The haroopad editor, mou, and others help them get visual feedback on what they are doing before submitting and refreshing the site.

[tomchristie]

I find having a live preview really gives me a better feel for the flow of the document. I love Markdown for it's simplicity, but that doesn't mean I only ever want to see it rendered in plain text.

[sdegutis]

My biggest use for Markdown is writing my README.md files for my Github projects. And while I do care how it looks plain, I care more about how it looks to users who visit my project's Github page.

[rbritton]

The one place I find that useful is for blog posts. I like having the ability to apply the blog's CSS to the markdown source before posting to make sure it looks right.

[ehPReth]

According to https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&... and a quick Wolfram Alpha hit Mou's asking price is ~US$80,220

[Nemcue]

That's interesting; and way too much for such a rudimentary app -- which probably shouldn't even be a native mac app in the first place.

I wonder how he came up with that price.

[kemayo]

I'm conceptually a fan, but then I noticed its effect on my actual CPU fan. Whatever this is doing for rendering the Markdown is not cheap -- a single keystroke in the editor pane on the sample document triggers 5+ seconds of max-CPU usage.

Typing causing loud fan noises from my laptop is not the most restful experience.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qy6szsbjs7cw3uv/Screenshot%202014-...

[adamnemecek]

I've had the same experience with like all Markdown editors that have a preview function. It does indeed suck.

[stock_toaster]

I think I prefer Marked. It lets me bring my own editor (vim), and simply aut-updates when it detects the file has changed.

[pwenzel]

I use Marked and Sublime Text. Like peas and carrots.

[jmromer]

Mou's live preview was neat for about a week, but eventually I just switched to Sublime Text with the MarkdownEditing, Markdown Preview, and Markdown TOC packages. Powerful stuff, and as-good-as-live preview in your browser.

https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/MarkdownEditing https://github.com/revolunet/sublimetext-markdown-preview http://dotcypress.github.io/GitHubMarkdownPreview/

[beltex]

Nice work!

What about Atom's markdown preview though? I found myself switching over to that from Mou.

https://github.com/atom/markdown-preview

[jasonlaster11]

same!

[webwielder]

I approve of the old school MacName.

[muaddirac]

This is awesome because I like Mou but it had some pretty big pain points:

- Large files caused it to slow unbearably/crash

- Scroll tracking was terrible (TexWorks is the only similar thing I've seen that does it well).

It looks like these aren't necessarily fixed in MacDown 0.1, but at least there's the opportunity to improve it with time.

[jevyjevjevs]

Two solutions that people might also appreciate checking out: LightPaper Marked

[samuelhalle]

Awesome! Just miss a file navigation pane and I can say bye bye to Lightpaper!

[filmgirlcw]

My only real issue with these is that there isn't an easy way to do a RegEX to remove certain types of formatting when copying the HTML. In an ideal world, I'd prefer to not have <p> tags, for instance, because most of the time, the place I'm pasting the content inserts them at any line break automatically. I realize this isn't always the case but it's one of those "frustrating" aspects that makes me continue to use an old-as-hell TextMate bundle a friend customized for me 5 years ago.

[flxfxp]

Awesome! Could use a better icon though :)

Any plans to implement the same shortcuts as Mou?

[shortformblog]

I actually asked the author about this, and at the very least, he plans to add the H1-H6 key commands that made me a fan of Mou:

https://twitter.com/uranusjr/status/481901582104006657

I'm impressed with the early results of this. Considering that Mou hasn't been updated in months, I'm glad to see a successor in active development.

I've tried a lot of Markdown editors, and Mou was the only one in my experience that got the keyboard commands down pat.

[uranusjr]

I’m open to new icons. I put the current one together myself and am certainly not proud of it. I suck at visual things.

[jason_slack]

The icon isnt bad. It fits.

[rubiquity]

Does anybody have any experience with this and LightPaper[0]? I'm curious if I should switch. There's so many markdown editors out there. How can I know that I'm using the best one for me? (joking) Markdown editors feel like it should be the example for the paradox of choice.

0 - http://clockworkengine.com/lightpaper-mac/

[santa_boy]

There are lots of open source editors coming of late.

[Haroopad](http://pad.haroopress.com/) is my favourite markdown editor of late. It is based on node-webkit and is also open source.

The main points I wish it could include is word completions similar to sublime and spelling corrections.

[cabalamat]

One problem with Markdown is that every Markdown app uses a different version of it.

[Malarkey73]

I like Dillinger which is online. It has preview pane and links/saves with your Dropbox/Github/GoogleDrive or a local folder.

http://dillinger.io

[iamtew]

Dillinger is indeed nice, but I would like a native desktop program with the same functionality, as I'm not always connected to the internet.

Of course, I could just run it locally on my laptop, but for some reason I still prefer my web browser for web browsing, and native programs for other stuff.

Or if I could get the same functionality in Sublime Text 3 that'd be even better, but I don't know how to build a plugin to do that, or haven't found one that does.

[btd]

Looks interesting, will give it a try. Also nice project is https://stackedit.io/.

[arikrak]

How do these mac markdown editors compare to in-browser editors like https://stackedit.io/ ?

[talles]

Another Markdown editor for OS X!

Anyone besides me ever noticed how there are many options for markdown editors for Macs, but really few (decent) ones for Windows or Linux?

[filmgirlcw]

Well, historically I think it was because Markdown was created by a Mac user. And most of the early Markdown hackers were Mac users.

Obv. Markdown is now much broader, but I still think the market of people who actively care about a Markdown-based editor for desktop or mobile are more likely to be using a Mac and iOS than Windows/Linux/Android.

If you think about it, however, that's a huge market opportunity for Markdown devs on those platforms.

[tempodox]

This might be useful, but I'd prefer it if there was a way to turn the live preview off. I don't need a new preview with every letter I type.