Show HN: Markdown New Tab – A new tab replacement to jot down notes in Markdown

You realize that all of Pride and Prejudice is ~280KB, right?

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342

:)

I am pretty sure you can ask the user to use more and 5mb is just the mobile default for a site. https://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/offline/quota-resear...

There is a very real problem with this extension that will upset people that use it. It’s using the window.localStorage object that will possibly be cleared out when the browser history gets erased. It asks for the storage permission in the manifest but does nothing with it. To the op, use chrome.localstorage() for any read and write operations(edit note that this is async)... that protects against clearing the history. If you plan on storing images you can just request the unlimitedStorage permission to get a full indexdb instance with the same simple api that is simple to use. (not sure if this perm is valid on chrome)

This works great! I can combine it with Firefox' often-forgotten "Keyword" feature of bookmarks so that typing note in the URL bar automatically opens this. And to save a note I just press CTRL+S

Microscopic tweak: white font on black background

    data:text/html, <body contenteditable style="font: 2rem/1.5 monospace;max-width:60rem;margin:0 auto;padding:4rem;color:white;background-color:black;">

EDIT: Another tweak: give the body focus automatically

    data:text/html, <html><body id='.' contenteditable style="font: 2rem/1.5 monospace;max-width:60rem;margin:0 auto;padding:4rem;color:white;background-color:black;"></body><script type="text/javascript">var div = document.getElementById('.');setTimeout(function() {div.focus();}, 0);</script></html>

Not open source though, as far as I can tell. Also, and I know this is stupid, but any website this fancy for a simple extension makes me a bit suspicious.

Papier is great but it's not markdown

I use IA Writer for my mac which is a great notes app that supports dropbox syncing, focus mode, etc and also offers markdown support.

I use markdown in vim for absolutely all note taking and prose. But no, I don't use any of these little applets, browser or otherwise. I imagine lots of people do, though, if they don't have a text editor religion they subscribe to!

> does anyone regularly use a Markdown notes app/site/extension?

Yes, I've been using my CatWiki software for programming and general notes now for several years. https://github.com/cabalamat/catwiki

CatWiki adds extensions to Markdown including code highlighting and MediaWiki-style links: https://github.com/cabalamat/catwiki/blob/master/data/catwik...

https://hackmd.io/ has changed my life, especially if you need to share notes with a team.

I've been using BoostNote pretty regularly for about 6 months, and I like it fine, but I wish it weren't an Electron App. There's not really any sharing/collaborating as far as I know, and the note structuring/search leaves a little bit to be desired (compared to say, OneNote). The good news is that it's open-source!

And I think one of the reasons I like it is because it is simple..it also has decent support for embedded LaTex, and it handles code snippets well. It does the job well for what I use it for, which is normally lecture notes, TODO lists, and idea captures. I don't really use it for documentation or anything else more formal.

I use Quiver[0] ($10) to store and organize work and personal notes. Their "cells" of content can be written in plaintext, code, markdown, or LaTeX. You can organize with folders, tags, favorites, etc. The different viewing modes are perfectly flexible via toggle-able panes and a "presentation" mode.

The db is just a file you can choose to sync however you want. I use Resilio[1] to keep work/laptop/desktop machines in sync.

[0]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quiver-take-better-notes/id8...

[1]: https://www.resilio.com/individuals/

I used it so much in my text editor, I ended up creating a site that did the same thing but kept things synced

https://todos.md/

I recently started taking notes in markdown. I previously had notes scattered across txt files, Word docs, ColorNote, and emails to myself.

I take journal-type notes about personal things, and I demand that I have them available conveniently decades from now. I strongly prefer a dark theme. I was going to jump ship entirely to OneNote, but I can't get a dark theme on Desktop and mobile.

Moving to markdown has tremendous benefits. You have proper separation of concerns- "how do I edit on X platform" vs "how do I store my notes".

For storage, I've considered a git repo, but I'm using Dropbox for now. It has 30 day history, so I can correct for any mistake I'd care about.

For editing, I pick an editor on my current platform. Atom on Desktop. IA writer on Android.

I don't currently have great search, but I think I can do that with Dropbox. I'm more concern about future-proofing and dark theme.

I try to minimize browser and extension use (I make my own "forks" and vet the code for every extension) so I take my notes using Emacs, placed in a sync folder.

Ease of sharing? I use text files (markdown) precisely because it is the most easily shared and portable format to store notes. As far as search, I have not seen anything come close to Emacs with its combination of regex grep, narrowing, and fuzzy FTS possibilities. Your whole org/markdown root folder can be a projectile project.

I agree with you, if you are taking notes for keeps, why use browser storage? Why not just save directly to a sync folder using your favorite editor?

I guess I'm beholden to 'the man', but I just use google docs these days. I'm not really a fan of markdown. I'd rather write HTML than remember more syntax. Before Google Docs, I just used text files.

I use the desktop apps Quiver and Highland 2 regularly, but both produce files that are just fancy wrappers around what's ultimately accessible file formats if the companies die (macOS package folders with .md or .json contents and image files alongside).

For the similar reasons I don't really use markdown notes apps. Instead I write all important notes to Evernote despite it being rather heavy weight.

When I do use markdown note apps is if I want to quickly jot down an idea or what I just learned. Four months ago I shared this technique with HN [0].

If I were to adopt a markdown app to use regularly, an important factor would be that it is open source. The reason is that, like you, I'd be worried about losing data due to a developer be mistake. Granted, something like Evernote is not open source, but I'm less worried about losing data.

[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16357917

I built my own because I got fed up with Evernote:

https://nanote.co

The most valuable thing hasn't been any individual feature (though those are nice since I can tailor them to me) but rather the fact that if I don't like the way it works, I can just pop the hood and change it myself.

Been using it for about three years now.

vim; I don't need a markdown editor, because markdown is (by design) readable as plain text. I tend to note things in markdown just because it's more readable than "plain" plain text.

Personally, I use the Typora app for taking notes in markdown and sticking everything in a git repo. The main thing I'm missing is some kind of built-in git feature, would have been nice if it auto-committed for me instead of me having to do that manually.

So I'm planning on making my own desktop app that's Apple Notes, but in Markdown, and with some kind of git auto-commit feature. But the nice thing about Markdown + Git is that I'm not locked into using one app! If I ever want to try out another Markdown app in the future I can do so, if I want to make my own I can do so, if I later stop updating my app and need another one I can just switch.

Emacs people kinda figured this out a long time ago with Org-mode.

I use vim to write Markdown documents and task lists since two years or so.

For a while, I had some trouble with the tooling as most stuff is npm based and authors releasing on npm do not embrace system package managers (install locally vs. globally etc.). Recently, Okular (the KDE document viewer) got Markdown support, but I don't really like the default style and the font is the only thing you can change.

Nevertheless, yesterday I wrote a script and a css file to convert my Markdown files to PDF files from the command line easily (and with a style I like). The conversion to PDF is important for me as some of the humans around me do not seem to appreciate my markdown files ;-)

For synchronization across devices I use my Nextcloud.

I much prefer it to a lower contrast setup. And it does mimic a terminal.

I do wonder if it's controlled by the current chrome theme, given that the tab recorded in the window is also dark.

I just tried and appears to work OK (Firefox 61.0.1, macOS)... since it's unsigned I loaded it as a temporary add-on in about:debugging

plibither8, would you mind adding instructions to load this into Firefox in your README as well as Chrome? Also please upload to addons.mozilla.org as well as the Chrome Store.

Nice work!

Hey! I'll try to work on building a Firefox extension too, but until then why not make this: https://mdnt.surge.sh the default page? Thanks a lot!

I made something kinda like this for Firefox for my own purposes, but less of a note-taking app, and more something just to write markdown in columns.

[link redacted]

I don't expect it to be bug-free because it is something I made somewhat haphazardly for myself.

Firefox has something similar as a Test Pilot: https://testpilot.firefox.com/experiments/notes

They even released an Android App to go along with it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.te...

Haven't used the app but the gif in the readme shows you can switch between view and edit mode.

I take notes in Markdown in an editor that formats it automagically called IA Writer. Bullets are indented, headlines bolded and out-dented, etc.

I frequently take notes in markdown even though I rarely view it non-plaintext myself. But I use markdown because it's well-suited to conversion to other formats through pandoc, and I sometimes send notes to others (who don't like plaintext/markdown). It's particularly nice to convert to .doc, .docx, and .pdf (through LaTeX).

Perhaps this is a silly reason, but I use vim and I like my markdown syntax highlighting. I rather like reading my plaintext markdown + (default) syntax highlighting. I suppose it would be possible to write/use some txt syntax+highlighting (or some .note format, etc.), but I reinvent the wheel in enough other places to not want to do that here.

Coming from someone that uses markdown for taking notes on a daily basis, I have spent so much time reading markdown in Vim that my mind now interprets the syntax semantically, besides many text editors provide syntax highlighting that provides contextual clues and hints.

The syntax is easy to type, it's not verbose, and it actually makes sense in plaintext. Then if I ever want to I have the option to open it in a full-fledged markdown viewer, and sometimes I even copy/paste sections into actual markdown-compatible apps.

It provides a standard method of plain text note organization. If I want to create a list or a subheading, I now do it the same way every time, so I'm internally consistent with all my notes.

Nit: Markdown was designed to look good both when displayed as Rich Text, and when displayed as plain text.

The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.

As falcolas pointed out (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17507718), Markdown was designed to be readable in source.

In fact, for certain types of greyhairs like myself, it is extremely readable in source because it is based on the conventions people used in Internet forums that didn't support rick text.

BBS's, Newsgroups, all of the social "networks" adopted a core set of syntaxes that people still use today, such as _emphasis_.

The history behind that is interesting. We started with underlines to suggest emphasis because that was something you could do on a physical typewriter: Back up and add underscores to what you'd already typed.

When typesetting arrived, we switched to italic because it's way easier to read. But _emphasis_ stayed as a way to suggest _underline_, even if we prefer to render it as italics.

There are similar stories behind other formatting choices, like

  > Some quoted text

It resembles a way that people typeset quotations, and people got very used to reading that in newsgroups and email editors before it became a thing to create rich email ransom notes in Word.

You should try Dropbox's Paper. It is one of the most enjoyable writing experiences I have seen.

It's markdown compatible so you write in markdown and the text is automatically formatted while you type. It's really clever fix for the problem you are describing

They do it because they don't know about org mode

Your presumption is that you only ever view them as plaintext. I author using plaintext, but one reason I use Markdown is that it is easy to make uniform looking notes. When I later view, especially longer ones, I do so rendered.

Even if you only did view them as plaintext, it sure is a handy format for a static blog generator in case you'd like to turn some of your notes into a blog post one day.

Wait, so if I do this in macOS, do I get formatted notes when I sync them to my iPhone if I use markdown syntax?

Haha, I did recently as well. Cool concept though

Not to diminish the usefulness of this extension, but aren't all browsers incredibly bloated software nowadays? (especially chrome)

Apparently, the Firefox API is now similar to Chrome's, if you use that. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17507819)

The documentation states that the notes are saved in localStorage.

If you like things like that, try out the Momentum extension.

It's focused on short lived todo lists but also has some amazing random scenery pictures.

I've never had a more pleasant and welcoming new tab window.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/momentum/laookkfkn...

just fork it and add your "quick access" at the top of the page?

i've been using a custom new-tab-page extension for a long time, it even comes with an integrated alarm-clock!

It reminds me the times when we were happy to install all desktop extensions, tray tools and destroy the wallpaper with ms plus. Anything but doing something structured and useful (hey, we were kids back then!)

Think about "Why text files won for programming source code."

Rich formats like Smalltalk's images are vastly superior as long as you stay within the ecosystem. But plain text is "worse is better" at scale. You get more tools, more interoperability, more of everything.

Markdown is the plain text file winner for uncomplicated words. It's somewhat portable between a myriad of tools. When you drop into a "Better" tool like OneNote, you get all sorts of amazing wins... Provided you stay within the walled garden it provides.

Speaking as an author, I blog in markdown, I take notes in markdown, and I publish my books from markdown source for this very reason.

Heck, being able to put my books in GitHub and do pull requests is enough reason all by itself!

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If you meant, "Why a tab instead of a separate app that works with Markdown," none of what I wrote above applies. I was speaking strictly to why Markdown instead of some proprietary-format notes app.

Or because I usually have a gazillion tabs open.

Isnt't "All rights reserved" typical language, even with open source licenses?

Open source license does not mean giving up intellectual property rights. You can only license the work if you own the rights to the work.

MIT License starts with copyright notice:

    Copyright (c) <year> <copyright holders>

    Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
    obtaining a copy of this software and associated 
    documentation files (the "Software"), to deal ....

MIT is how the work can be used by others. This is basically saying "hey, I claim all the intellectual property rights granted to me by law. However, if you use this software strictly under these terms (MIT), I will not consider it to be infringing upon my rights."

It's standard to use both “All rights reserved” along with explicit permissions to be explicit that all rights under copyright not explicitly granted are reserved. It is, in intent, a disclaimer of additional implied permissions, though IIRC the “All rights reserved” in practice has no legal effect.

I too was considering to remove that, I probably will!