So it seems like this blog is just going to be about things I’m doing to write this blog. So in this installment I will lay out why I’m going to write my own Markdown editor.

Since starting to write on my iPad I’ve tried a number of different editors but none have really had everything I wanted in an editor. The apps I’ve tried so far include Ulysses, IA Writer and Drafts. All of them had things I liked and things I really didn’t. For me, IA Writer seemed like the best and it’s the one I’ve paid for. I wouldn’t be surprised if my app comes out with some similar features to IA Writer.

What do I want in an App?

These are the features I’m looking to include:

• Support for the Files app. I want to do as little file management as possible
• Real time preview
• Minimal markup in the editor
• Option to have preview side by side with the editor
• Support for pulling out metadata from multi-markdown headers and displaying a featured_image at the top of the preview
• Open Source

I’m sure as I play with it I’ll add more features.

What I Don’t Want

My app is going to service what I need and so will probably not have many features other apps have. This includes publishing to different platforms, multiple output formats and major document management.

Workflow

I intend to use the app in this way.

1. Pull down the latest version from GitLab using Working Copy and a Shortcut
2. Create a new post using a Shortcut
3. Edit the file in my app
4. Push the changes back up to GitLab
5. Use GitLab pipelines to deploy

Why Open Source

I want to open source the app not because I think there’s a huge demand for it and lots of people will want to contribute but because why not? If it turns out other people are interested and want to contribute that would be great. If it’s just me then that’s fine too.

Alright, off to code.