
Monod, our secure and offline-first Markdown editor, is open source - couac
https://github.com/TailorDev/monod
======
teamhappy
I never understood the purpose of markdown editors. Isn't the main selling
point that markdown is a human readable plain text format (i.e., vim will
do/you don't need preview)?

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Theoretically. Unfortunately, Markdown has many potential ambiguities in
interpretation, and unintuitive aspects.

~~~
raimue
Especially for GitHub, I don't want to iteratively push commit after commit to
README.md just to get the correct syntax for their GitHub-Flavored-Markdown.
When editing on GitHub directly, I appreciate the preview to spot mistakes.

However, there are many downsides of using the website for editing (like you
can't combine changes to multiple files in a single commit). I prefer using a
real editor locally, but using any other Markdown processor might give
slightly different results. Therefore I use flavor [1] to filter the Markdown
document through the GitHub API for reviewing it locally before pushing.

[1] [http://brettterpstra.com/2012/09/16/easy-command-line-
github...](http://brettterpstra.com/2012/09/16/easy-command-line-github-
flavored-markdown/)

~~~
sevensor
Why not just use Pandoc with GFM syntax options?

~~~
raimue
flavor also includes CSS rules that closely resemble the design of GitHub, so
I can view the result in my local browser as it would look on the GitHub
website. With pandoc, I only get plain HTML output.

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raimue
At first I was a bit puzzled why anyone would need to describe an editor as
"secure"... but oh well, it is actually a web application. I can see the need
now.

~~~
kybernetikos
Did you read the article? It's an interesting way of making a rich shareable
document that is readable by those you share the link with and not by anyone
else, _including those who operate the server_ , or those on the network route
to you.

Well, that's the principle, I didn't look closely enough to see if their
implementation can be trusted, but it's a fun idea.

~~~
RadioactiveMan
Since the encryption key is in the URL I don't think it's fair for them to
claim they can't decrypt.

~~~
willdurand
It is in the hash/fragment of the URL, that part is client side only and is
never sent to the server.

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ComputerGuru
This obsession with react/electron/etc for the desktop is ridiculous. The OP
acknowledges as much in the title ("secure" \- what do you mean, it's a text
editor, isn't it? Oh, because they decided to go "all web" for this!).

Use MacDown on OS X [http://macdown.uranusjr.com](http://macdown.uranusjr.com)
and MarkdownPad on Windows [http://markdownpad.com](http://markdownpad.com)

I don't have any recommendations for Linux, unfortunately.

Then again, the whole point of Markdown is that it's basic plain-text syntax
that can be prettified as HTML. Its _entire_ raison d'être is that you _don't_
have to learn (or test) another markup language, but whatever.

~~~
SCdF
It's pretty horrible, but it's the future unfortunately.

The web is ubiquitous. Everyone knows it, and so it's much easier to scratch
whatever itch you have in a tech you know than a scary one (C!) that you
don't; building for situations you understand (your fast piece of expensive
apple tech connected to your fast internet) than ones you don't.

~~~
z3t4
When developing in a higher level language like JavaScript you are less prone
to buffer overflow code execution vulnerabilities, witch seems to be the most
common security hole.

~~~
PeCaN
That's a non-point. There's nothing intrinsic about higher level language that
prevents security holes. There are plenty of low-level languages that are
immune to buffer overflows—Ada, Rust, D† (to an extent), Oberon†, Cyclone....

D and Ada have real and important software written in them, Rust has hype,
Oberon is still actively developed, Cyclone influenced new languages
(particularly Rust).

† Garbage collected by default

------
koolba
Bug report for devs:

    
    
        1) Edit a doc in tab A
        2) Open same doc in tab B
        3) Edit in tab B
        4) Edit in tab A
        Result: changes in tab A are not saved and there's no notice/indication/error message.
    

... now bugs aside, why would I want to use a text editor that isn't local?

Even assuming it works fine, what does this get me that $FAVORITE_EDITOR
combined with the plethora of other sync methods (dropbox, google drive,
onedrive, etc) get me?

~~~
tokenizerrr
It would probably be more productive to report this issue on their issue
tracker.
[https://github.com/TailorDev/monod/issues](https://github.com/TailorDev/monod/issues)

~~~
koolba
Sure but that means I also have to create a github account and sign in there
too. I have no interest in that.

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woodruffw
An offline editor for generating HTML (from Markdown) written in a framework
running on top of a browser?

The irony was lost on someone somewhere.

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rawnlq
You guys should sanitize for xss...

<a href="javascript:alert('xss')">test</a>

EDIT: removed example page since it wasn't clear to me that access to link
means you can edit

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CameronBanga
I'll probably just stick with Sublime or VIM, and not be deploying my own
markdown text editor to Heroku. But neat, I guess?

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Stunner
What Markdown standard does this editor use? Commonmark
([http://commonmark.org/](http://commonmark.org/)), Github Flavored Markdown,
or something else? Is it possible to specify which standard to use?

~~~
couac
it is CommonMark.

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stanislavb
Nice work. I've added "monod" to the "Editors" list at js.libhunt.com. Cheers!

~~~
couac
thank you!

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anderspitman
For folks looking for a simple Github Flavored Markdown previewer I've been
very happy with grip:

[https://github.com/joeyespo/grip](https://github.com/joeyespo/grip)

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brudgers
The recent "Show HN":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11518921](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11518921)

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extropic-engine
> offline first

> site doesn't work if javascript is disabled

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100ideas
Using codemirror - I would have thought prosemirror would have been a better
fit. Wonder why.

~~~
renke1
I am currently developing my own Markdown editor and looked into CodeMirror,
Draft.js and ProseMirror and I also plan to base it on CodeMirror. I think if
all you need is "syntax highlighting" (maybe including font sizes for
headlines) you are better off using CodeMirror. Of course, if you want some
WYSIWYG functionality Draft.js, ProseMirror and the like may be more suitable
(or even mandatory).

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z3t4
It would be cool if you could also edit the right side.

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quantum_nerd
why oh why do we need another markdown editor? _sigh_ I personally just use VS
Code and it's been working fine.

~~~
dang
Please don't post generic dismissals to HN. The fact that people like to make
things is answer enough.

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skimmas
it dos use the files as the database right? I like it. The text is a little
too big for my taste. I might actually use.

~~~
couac
Yes, because we had to come up with something quickly (this project was part
of an experiment to learn React.js), it is simple and it seems to work.

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d1ffuz0r
Please someone build an RST editor

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ninjakeyboard
how do I pronounce Monod?

~~~
couac
Like Jacques Monod,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Monod](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Monod).
We don't pronounce the "d" I'd say.

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niftylettuce
If you are interested in a Markdown Editor App for OS X, Linux, and Windows
(not browser based), which also support custom themes, and also supports
emojis, and also supports GitHub Flavored Markdown and proper GitHub styles,
then go star this repository of mine
<[https://github.com/niftylettuce/seuss.md>](https://github.com/niftylettuce/seuss.md>).
While I appreciate that this was built with React.js, it still does not solve
the problem of the need for a better Markdown editor. I'm almost positive Mou
still doesn't have GFM support, and MacDown still has 100% CPU issues.

~~~
cwyers
If you're going to self-promote, maybe have a README.md with useful info? Or
have the repo link to a website that isn't down?

