

Erato - simple and beautiful markdown editor - martinkallstrom
http://9muses.se/erato/

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DanielRibeiro
I've been using dillinger for a while, and I'm very happy with it:
[http://dillinger.io/](http://dillinger.io/)

Also, it is open source:
[https://github.com/joemccann/dillinger](https://github.com/joemccann/dillinger)

~~~
benatkin
It appears to only be distributed as a web app. Apples and oranges. Also the
editor looks like a code editor (Erato also kind of does, but it has a margin
and it doesn't have line numbers by default).

~~~
btipling
I wonder if Erato is also just using the Ace editor as that preview on the
side looks like a webview. If they did that's cool, but then this basically
the same thing as Dillinger.

~~~
9muses
Erato uses a custom editor, not Ace.

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HaNdTriX
Looks like Mou ([http://mouapp.com/](http://mouapp.com/)). Does anyone know
the differences?

~~~
9muses
Erato has a more flexible window layout than Mou, and provides some nice
editor shortcuts that programmers are used to (e.g. better identation features
and block autocomplete).

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masukomi
It would be nice if that was mentioned somewhere. Looking at the website now I
just see a Mou clone with less choice and no customizability.

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flexterra
This has the same design as [http://mouapp.com](http://mouapp.com) which has
been on the market for a long time now.

Mou is donation based so you can try before you donate. The developer is very
responsive and the app is constantly updated.

I really don't get it.

~~~
shortformblog
Chipping in to say the same thing. Mou is a great product and I've convinced a
number of people in my office to start using it.

This feels like a different shade of the same idea.

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arunoda
I use Sublime Text 2 with Markdown Preview[1] + Live Reload[2]

* [1] - [https://github.com/revolunet/sublimetext-markdown-preview](https://github.com/revolunet/sublimetext-markdown-preview)

* [2] - [https://github.com/dz0ny/LiveReload-sublimetext2](https://github.com/dz0ny/LiveReload-sublimetext2)

~~~
hbbio
Same setup. People interested in markdown only editors must be writers which
don't edit any other format.

Otherwise, I don't get why you would bother learning several pieces of
software, and each probably lacking many features of Sublime or other powerful
text editors.

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jacobparker
Does anyone know what happened to the push (primarily by Atwood) to create a
spec for Markdown (possibly with a different name)?

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vially
Apparently it wasn't very successful:
[https://twitter.com/gruber/status/262287246953164800](https://twitter.com/gruber/status/262287246953164800)

~~~
dalai
That was posted the same day Atwood made the suggestion and although it would
be nice if Gruber would play along, there is no need he actually does.

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marban
Erato and Mou are all great but they both lack the single most important
feature: An iPad app with iCloud sync.

I've also stopped using iA Writer for their, at times, weird Markdown
interpretation.

~~~
masukomi
It drives me nuts that iA Writer has created a "Markdown" editor that only
supports a subset of Markdown, despite the fact MD has hardly any features to
begin with.

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speg
All of these (Erato, Mou, MarkdownLive) have noticeable lag while editing. I
get that you have to parse and render the markdown, but with todays computing
power, is it too much to ask to see the text I just typed as soon as I press
the keys?

This is especially bad when there are images on the page. Why not just render
the current block and leave the rest of the page as is.

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Void_
Also check out my fork of Markdown live, which is exactly this + open-source +
bugs + shitty syntax highlighting.

[https://github.com/vojto/markdownlive](https://github.com/vojto/markdownlive)

~~~
eyko
When you say +bugs do you mean you introduced some bugs? :-P

Thanks for the link btw, I've been using Mou and, being as I am, I always like
to read source code while learning, so I really appreciate open source apps.

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benatkin
Why does this, and other markdown editors, use a fixed width font? It would be
nice to have a variable width font by default and a quick toggle button or
menu item to switch to a fixed width font.

~~~
9muses
Erato uses a fixed-width font because it is easy to read and makes formatting
very clear. You can change the font in the Settings. I like your idea of a
toggle though, I'll give it some thought and see how it might work.

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nickzoic
You see, on the one hand I think this is kind of admirable. Yay, I type my
markdown over _here_ and I can instantly see the bits I got wrong over
_there_.

But I also can't help thinking, if you're going to all that effort why not go
full WYSIWYG, with Markdown as the file format? (You'd need some kind of
support for merge markers I suppose, I guess that'd be kind of tricky.)

You know what it reminds me of? Wordperfect 5.1's Reveal Codes :-)

~~~
masukomi
You mean something like this? [http://www.texts.io/](http://www.texts.io/)

~~~
Direct
Trying this out now, It's actually pretty nice. I get that It's a visual
editor that uses Markdown as a storage format, but it still would be nice if
it would actually let me type Markdown - interestingly it seems to be pretty
indecisive on whether or not I should be able to that.

I can type a # and it will automatically turn the text into a Title which is
nice, but any other Markdown-like syntax is printed verbatim, which is odd
because when I save and reload it will suddenly render it as Markdown just
fine.

If I could write Markdown in this and had some way to refresh the editor to
visualize it as an alternative to the insert bindings, personally I'd be sold
on this for sure.

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antihero
Something I've been looking for for a while: A Markdown WYSIWYG. I personally
dislike WYSIWYG, but for clients, it cannot be beaten. Now, most things that
clients do in CMSs can be done with Markdown, and it avoids complications with
weird HTML output, them trying to do unconventional styling (aka "ruining the
website). So something like CKEditor or TinyMCE but outputting Markdown, and
constrained to Markdown's limitations.

Does such a thing exist?

~~~
masukomi
yes, it's here: [http://www.texts.io/](http://www.texts.io/)

~~~
tutuca
This needs a linux version... Great looking tool!

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cwt137
For Linux folks out there, try ReText
[http://sf.net/projects/retext/](http://sf.net/projects/retext/) It is an
editor for Markdown and reStructuredText. There is syntax highlighting and a
live preview mode. The app is written with the Qt library (so it probably
looks best in KDE), but it works and looks fine in Gnome.

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Wintamute
FYI a search for "Erato" in the UK App Store is yielding no results. But the
App Store link on your site works ...

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9muses
It seems the App Store is slow to index apps, so it will be searchable in a
few hours.

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irickt
Here's a worthy contender:
[https://github.com/rvagg/morkdown](https://github.com/rvagg/morkdown) Open
source, Node.js and Chrome based, Github flavored.

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btipling
This is nice. I use Byword which doesn't have monospaced fonts for code
blocks, but does the preview right in the editor. It's nice for non-code
related markdown stuff.

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noptic
Can you change the title to: Erato - simple and beautiful markdown editor for
Mac Markdown is used on many systems and not everyone is intrested in reading
about Mac software.

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miles
Out of curiosity, why not support 10.6? Are there some features that rely on
Lion or ML? If 10.6 had been supported, I would have purchased a copy.

~~~
9muses
In short: yes. The step from Snow Leopard to Lion was huge API-wise and a lot
changed in how document based applications work.

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jameswyse
I use Mou and am pretty happy with it, though I'll switch in an instant if
this support Github Flavoured Markdown..

~~~
9muses
GH Flavoured Markdown is on the roadmap. Sign up for the newsletter at
[http://9muses.se](http://9muses.se) to get notified when it arrives.

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grimborg
I'd love to see something like the editor in Medium, but implementing the
whole markdown and that can run offline.

~~~
marban
Not directly related but I'm adding offline editing/export to the editor of
[http://postagon.com](http://postagon.com) in the near future.

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jawngee
Does this support/show Github's extensions to markdown. In particular, syntax
highlighting for languages?

~~~
9muses
It does not at the moment. Support for some GitHub extensions is planned for
the future though.

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omegote
For this I use grunt-markdown and grunt-watch (that integrates LiveReload).

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Nekorosu
I don't feel the difference between Erato and Mou is worth $5.99.

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sneak
Are chromeless markdown text editors the new static site generators?

