12 ms·

Monod, our secure and offline-first Markdown editor, is open source

116 points by couac 10y ago

koolba 10y ago
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?
- skimmas 10y ago
  I guess having a link to share and the "own your own data"
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Both of which you get with $FAVORITE_EDITOR and the syncing sevice of your choice.
- tokenizerrr 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    Sure but that means I also have to create a github account and sign in there too. I have no interest in that.
- jack9 10y ago
  It also doesn't seem to track deletes too well. oijljljh <del><del><del><del><del><del><del><del> Leaves a character or 2 still rendered.
  - willdurand 10y ago
    Fixed :)
skimmas 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.
- raimue 10y ago
  You can easily adjust the font size by zooming in your browser.
rawnlq 10y ago
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
teamhappy 10y ago
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 10y ago
  Theoretically. Unfortunately, Markdown has many potential ambiguities in interpretation, and unintuitive aspects.
  - raimue 10y ago
    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-flavored-markdown/ http://brettterpstra.com/2012/09/16/easy-command-line-github...
    - sevensor 10y ago
      Why not just use Pandoc with GFM syntax options?
      - raimue 10y ago
        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.
    - agateau 10y ago
      I wrote mup [1] to help with this: it is a markup previewer. It support multiple markup formats and for markdown multiple markdown implementations: pandoc, commonmark, kramdown, python-markdown and also previewing using GitHub API (slow but the most reliable for README.md editing) [1]: https://github.com/agateau/mup https://github.com/agateau/mup
stanislavb 10y ago
Nice work. I've added "monod" to the "Editors" list at js.libhunt.com. Cheers!
- couac 10y ago
  thank you!
raimue 10y ago
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.
- sitkack 10y ago
  I cannot vouch for the security the editor mentioned here, but anything that handles external data has security concerns. https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-8218/opec-1/VIM.html https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-8218... https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-3075 https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-3075
- kybernetikos 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    Since the encryption key is in the URL I don't think it's fair for them to claim they can't decrypt.
    - willdurand 10y ago
      It is in the hash/fragment of the URL, that part is client side only and is never sent to the server.
ComputerGuru 10y ago
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.
- Freak_NL 10y ago
  In terms of cross-platform development I understand wanting to use browser technologies, but these off-line web-applications always feel so flaky and unintegrated. The Atom editor for example still can't switch languages for the spell-checker at runtime, even though browsers themselves can. > I don't have any recommendations for Linux, unfortunately. Vim works just fine for MarkDown, Gedit is not too bad either. The whole point of MarkDown is being readable both as text in an editor and formatted by a renderer.
- tasnent 10y ago
  Sublime with MarkdownEditing is what I use. Does everything I need.
- SCdF 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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.
100ideas 10y ago
Using codemirror - I would have thought prosemirror would have been a better fit. Wonder why.
- renke1 10y ago
  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).
woodruffw 10y ago
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.
CameronBanga 10y ago
I'll probably just stick with Sublime or VIM, and not be deploying my own markdown text editor to Heroku. But neat, I guess?
z3t4 10y ago
It would be cool if you could also edit the right side.
niftylettuce 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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?
quantum_nerd 10y ago
why oh why do we need another markdown editor?sigh I personally just use VS Code and it's been working fine.
- dang 10y ago
  Please don't post generic dismissals to HN. The fact that people like to make things is answer enough.
brudgers 10y ago
The recent "Show HN": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11518921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11518921
anderspitman 10y ago
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
ninjakeyboard 10y ago
how do I pronounce Monod?
- couac 10y ago
  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.
d1ffuz0r 10y ago
Please someone build an RST editor
extropic-engine 10y ago
> offline first > site doesn't work if javascript is disabled
Stunner 10y ago
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 10y ago
  it is CommonMark.

116 points by couac 10y ago

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?

skimmas 10y ago
I guess having a link to share and the "own your own data"
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Both of which you get with $FAVORITE_EDITOR and the syncing sevice of your choice.
tokenizerrr 10y ago
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 10y ago
  Sure but that means I also have to create a github account and sign in there too. I have no interest in that.
jack9 10y ago
It also doesn't seem to track deletes too well. oijljljh <del><del><del><del><del><del><del><del> Leaves a character or 2 still rendered.
- willdurand 10y ago
  Fixed :)

skimmas 10y ago

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 10y ago
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.
raimue 10y ago
You can easily adjust the font size by zooming in your browser.

rawnlq 10y ago

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

teamhappy 10y ago

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 10y ago
Theoretically. Unfortunately, Markdown has many potential ambiguities in interpretation, and unintuitive aspects.
- raimue 10y ago
  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-flavored-markdown/ http://brettterpstra.com/2012/09/16/easy-command-line-github...
  - sevensor 10y ago
    Why not just use Pandoc with GFM syntax options?
    - raimue 10y ago
      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.
  - agateau 10y ago
    I wrote mup [1] to help with this: it is a markup previewer. It support multiple markup formats and for markdown multiple markdown implementations: pandoc, commonmark, kramdown, python-markdown and also previewing using GitHub API (slow but the most reliable for README.md editing) [1]: https://github.com/agateau/mup https://github.com/agateau/mup

stanislavb 10y ago

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

couac 10y ago
thank you!

raimue 10y ago

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.

sitkack 10y ago
I cannot vouch for the security the editor mentioned here, but anything that handles external data has security concerns. https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-8218/opec-1/VIM.html https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-8218... https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-3075 https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-3075
kybernetikos 10y ago
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 10y ago
  Since the encryption key is in the URL I don't think it's fair for them to claim they can't decrypt.
  - willdurand 10y ago
    It is in the hash/fragment of the URL, that part is client side only and is never sent to the server.

ComputerGuru 10y ago

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.

Freak_NL 10y ago
In terms of cross-platform development I understand wanting to use browser technologies, but these off-line web-applications always feel so flaky and unintegrated. The Atom editor for example still can't switch languages for the spell-checker at runtime, even though browsers themselves can. > I don't have any recommendations for Linux, unfortunately. Vim works just fine for MarkDown, Gedit is not too bad either. The whole point of MarkDown is being readable both as text in an editor and formatted by a renderer.
tasnent 10y ago
Sublime with MarkdownEditing is what I use. Does everything I need.
SCdF 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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.

100ideas 10y ago

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

renke1 10y ago
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).

woodruffw 10y ago

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.

CameronBanga 10y ago

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

z3t4 10y ago

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

niftylettuce 10y ago

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 10y ago
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?

quantum_nerd 10y ago

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

dang 10y ago
Please don't post generic dismissals to HN. The fact that people like to make things is answer enough.

brudgers 10y ago

The recent "Show HN": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11518921 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11518921

anderspitman 10y ago

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

ninjakeyboard 10y ago

how do I pronounce Monod?

couac 10y ago
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.

d1ffuz0r 10y ago

Please someone build an RST editor

extropic-engine 10y ago

> offline first > site doesn't work if javascript is disabled

Stunner 10y ago

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 10y ago
it is CommonMark.