this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Looking for a good README editor. With maybe git functionality, but not necessary

  • Like adding shields/badges/assets within automatically

  • managing a directory like structure by generating new MD files in a directory like folder structure.

Essentially an IDE like environment just for markdown file management and a WYSIWYG editing experience

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Cant you just use your favorite general purpose editor?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Even if not general purpose, I would think a markdown editor would suffice.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I could have posed the question better. But, I haven't found one that served my needs yet. Nor do I not know of one that may have interesting features that would make it easier to do things, like maybe adding shields/badges/assets within automatically or being able to create a directory like structure by generating new MD files when wanting to create a comprehensive API doc.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What are your needs? You didn't express them...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Updated the comment with an example.

maybe adding shields/badges/assets within automatically, through a GUI or being able to create a directory like structure by generating new MD files when wanting to create a comprehensive API doc.

I do not clearly know as well and wanted to just get an understanding of what everyone uses and be aware at least that such software exists if they use something with more advanced features over a natural text editing environment

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Don't you mean a markdown editor?

Chances are, your favorite text editor can handle markdown well enough... unless you want WYSIWYG, in which case your text editor would still be good enough for the job and you would be wrong :-)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

READMEs aren't necessarily markdown. That is the most popular option, but there's others out there. Here's Github's list of supported README formats for example:

The following markups are supported. The dependencies listed are required if you wish to run the library. You can also run script/bootstrap to fetch them all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, have been using text editor mainly for markdown editing or other lightweight WYSIWYG apps, it's good enough. Felt, there could be more out there that I am missing out on which I am unaware of.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

There are a pletora of markown editors that have a split view w/ live preview (I used various - the one I currently have installed is Ghostwriter), but you can most probably get the same with your programmer's text editor (well, unless your text editing is done in the terminal) and, one way or another, you are not guaranteed that what you see is what will be displayed in github/gitlab/...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

More accurately

what’s a good text editor

Literally whatever you want, dude.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

GNU Emacs of course. I am particularly fond of spacemacs, because I like vim keybindings. For git functionality we have the excellent magit package on our side, which makes Emacs also my favorite git interface.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

VSCODE with markdown extensions

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Haven't thought of this yet, thanks

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

VS Code's extension system makes it pretty easy to build your own code snippet extension. I use my own private extension to easily "generate" different types of markdown files (ie readme vs a troubleshooting guide) from my personalized snippets.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Also has an easy way to jump between different markdowns files using the symbols popup menu Ctrl+T

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Any text editor that can edit markdown files with syntax highlighting? What kind of git functionality do you want? If you want to see the formatting in place as you edit, look for a WYSIWYG editor (Ghostwriter and Typora come to mind). I use Neovim and have lazygit opened in another terminal tab.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Essentially what I was thinking,

Is an IDE like environment just for markdown file management and WYSIWYG editing experience

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well VSCode has a markdown preview extension. Otherwise Obsidian might be what you want

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

yeah VS code with extensions is pretty good enough to be honest. I keep forgetting VSCode has a whole in-depth world of plugins.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Typora is really cool, wish it was OS though. Although the one-time purchase isn't too bad

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that's also why I use Ghostwriter as a Typora replacement. The KDE team developed it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Marktext is my favourite app that is very typora-like

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Apostrophe. It's beautiful.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

A lot of people seem to have misunderstood the question and are offering text editors. Apostrophe as actually looks like it fits the bill for a decent markdown editor, which is what OP seems to have been asking for

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I use Kate as it opens pretty quickly and I've gotten used to using it to make simple bash scripts

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I guess it depends on what you want to use it for.

If it's knowledge management (to manage your own personal notes), you might want to check out logseq.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I like Jennifer the best, but Sally is excellent as well

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I just use whatever text editor I happen to have open - generally that's (neo)vim for me, but I've also used IntelliJ/JetBrains products to do so, along with VSCode on the rare case.

None of them have had the extra features that you mentioned, I don't use emacs but considering its very powerful org-mode I wouldn't be surprised if someone has implemented something similar for Markdown? I haven't specifically seen anything that covers these though (which could just be not looking hard enough, admittedly).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

More like a notes/personal wiki app, than a readme editor.

That said, Obsidian is a diamond in the rough. Building a personal wiki while learning a skill and referencing it later (via search or category) is a true life hack. It feels like augmenting your memory capacity.

Truly invaluable if you need to reference things often but your knowledge base is highly specialized (e.g., I'm a neurology professor)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ghostwriter for KDE, Marker for Gnome, Markor for Android