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This is really cool, I love this. I do most of my work in browser tabs, but often need a "scratch pad" to paste or type things in, like snippets of code or a s

This is really cool, I love this. I do most of my work in browser tabs, but often need a "scratch pad" to paste or type things in, like snippets of code or a short todo list. And I use TextEdit on my Mac, but I'd prefer a browser tab so this is wonderful. Four requests, from most to least important: 1) Let me choose the font and font size? For code snippets, I really want monospace. And make sure the preference persists 2) Keep current contents in local storage, so it survives a browser restart? (Or maybe you do already?) 3) Having tabs feels redundant with my browser tabs -- I'd rather get rid of the extra bar at the top and just have a 100% clean typing space, with just the (wonderfully unobtrusive) menu bar. (I understand their utility in a PWA though, maybe a menu option to toggle the tab bar? Also full screen mode to hide the menu bar for a pure editing experience?) 4) Get a proper domain name. :) So I can start typing "note" in my address bar and it will autocomplete. Surely "notepadjs" is available for some TLD? Or "notepadx" (for cross-platform) or "notepage" (for webpage) or similar? But this is a great idea. I'm surprised I've never come across something like it before, it seems so obvious in hindsight. I love it.

petemir 2y ago
hm, perhaps you like edna? https://edna.arslexis.io/ https://edna.arslexis.io/ https://edna.arslexis.io/help https://edna.arslexis.io/help https://github.com/kjk/edna https://github.com/kjk/edna
vallode 2y ago
For what it's worth, I have a bookmarklet with these contents: data:text/html,<body contenteditable style="line-height:1.5;font-size:22px;max-width:75ch">type here... I use this _all_ the time for very quick note taking and writing that will later be copied elsewhere, think one to three sentences and then offload.
- crazygringo 2y ago
  Oh thanks, that's genius! I just modified it to be monospace and I can guarantee you it'll be my new favorite bookmark. Too bad its contents won't persist across a restart or accidental close tab, but as a scratch pad it's fantastic.
- pferde 2y ago
  I just hit Win+K, and my OS runs a simple text editor of my choice for me. Maybe I'm getting old, but using a browser for something you have available natively seems like an antipattern to me.
  - stronglikedan 2y ago
    Those type of people live and work in the browser. Everything's a PWA. Little to no native app use. Like to manage apps (windows) by browser tab management instead of OS management. At least it's consistent across devices!
    - TeMPOraL 2y ago
      I'd consider doing that if I could rely on the browser not losing state after OS restart, browser restart, unexpected forced browser restart because of some autoupdate bullshit, accidental refresh, automatic unloading of tabs, badly thought-out shortcut for closing the browser window, unexpected update of the web page/PWA into which I typed something, accidental cookie wipe, certificate expiry, lack of reliable form of local storage[0], and a bunch of other things that make me consider everything in the browser ephemeral unless stored on a server. (I'm not a browser fan, but even in my weaker moments, this one thing is what stops me from fully embracing living in browser.) -- [0] - AFAIK there's still nothing in the browser one could reliably use to get the equivalent of persisting data to a hard drive. There's like 5 different mechanisms that could allow it, if you could rely on any of them, and of course none of them are user-inspectable except through dev tools.
      - crazygringo 2y ago
        But literally everything you describe is worse outside of the browser. My browser does a better job of retaining state than most of my apps. My desktop apps have clunkier auto-update than my browser. My browser apps auto-save to the cloud, my desktop ones often don't auto-save at all.
        TeMPOraL 2y ago
- dspillett 2y ago
  Nice. I'll have to look into how localStorage works in such contexts, and if that is not badly maybe knock together a bookmarklet that does that but keeps text in case I accidentally close the window before I should (or Windows, when I'm using that, decides to reboot, as it is wont to do).
poisonborz 2y ago
What I learned: do not use ephemeral tools like this as scratchpad. You never know when you will need this data and as soon as you start saving these snippets it becomes tedious. Also unsaved tabs block software updates etc. Use something like Obsidian or default Notes on macos.
1f60c 2y ago
I like Sindre Sorhus' Scratchpad (syncs across Mac, iPad and iPhone using iCloud).

petemir 2y ago

hm, perhaps you like edna? https://edna.arslexis.io/ https://edna.arslexis.io/ https://edna.arslexis.io/help https://edna.arslexis.io/help https://github.com/kjk/edna https://github.com/kjk/edna

vallode 2y ago

For what it's worth, I have a bookmarklet with these contents: data:text/html,<body contenteditable style="line-height:1.5;font-size:22px;max-width:75ch">type here... I use this _all_ the time for very quick note taking and writing that will later be copied elsewhere, think one to three sentences and then offload.

crazygringo 2y ago
Oh thanks, that's genius! I just modified it to be monospace and I can guarantee you it'll be my new favorite bookmark. Too bad its contents won't persist across a restart or accidental close tab, but as a scratch pad it's fantastic.
pferde 2y ago
I just hit Win+K, and my OS runs a simple text editor of my choice for me. Maybe I'm getting old, but using a browser for something you have available natively seems like an antipattern to me.
- stronglikedan 2y ago
  Those type of people live and work in the browser. Everything's a PWA. Little to no native app use. Like to manage apps (windows) by browser tab management instead of OS management. At least it's consistent across devices!
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    I'd consider doing that if I could rely on the browser not losing state after OS restart, browser restart, unexpected forced browser restart because of some autoupdate bullshit, accidental refresh, automatic unloading of tabs, badly thought-out shortcut for closing the browser window, unexpected update of the web page/PWA into which I typed something, accidental cookie wipe, certificate expiry, lack of reliable form of local storage[0], and a bunch of other things that make me consider everything in the browser ephemeral unless stored on a server. (I'm not a browser fan, but even in my weaker moments, this one thing is what stops me from fully embracing living in browser.) -- [0] - AFAIK there's still nothing in the browser one could reliably use to get the equivalent of persisting data to a hard drive. There's like 5 different mechanisms that could allow it, if you could rely on any of them, and of course none of them are user-inspectable except through dev tools.
    - crazygringo 2y ago
      But literally everything you describe is worse outside of the browser. My browser does a better job of retaining state than most of my apps. My desktop apps have clunkier auto-update than my browser. My browser apps auto-save to the cloud, my desktop ones often don't auto-save at all.
      - TeMPOraL 2y ago
dspillett 2y ago
Nice. I'll have to look into how localStorage works in such contexts, and if that is not badly maybe knock together a bookmarklet that does that but keeps text in case I accidentally close the window before I should (or Windows, when I'm using that, decides to reboot, as it is wont to do).

poisonborz 2y ago

What I learned: do not use ephemeral tools like this as scratchpad. You never know when you will need this data and as soon as you start saving these snippets it becomes tedious. Also unsaved tabs block software updates etc. Use something like Obsidian or default Notes on macos.

1f60c 2y ago

I like Sindre Sorhus' Scratchpad (syncs across Mac, iPad and iPhone using iCloud).