Syntax highlighting in markdown

Thanks.

I ended up selecting MacDown’s Github 2.0 CSS (under ~/Library/Application Support/MacDown/Styles if you have it installed) in DEVONthink’s preferences and then adding and linking the Prism files as required, seems to work OK.

So the main issue still, as mentioned above and in this post from a year ago, is the preview window not updating as a user types.

Looks like DEVONthink has some really powerful features but update cycles and apps generally looking dated has definitely been a concern while assessing and a concern expressed by numerous others, including some prominent reviews, apparently over many years. Not sure why this hasn’t been addressed?

The only thing is the preview window doesn’t update as I type.

It’s neither an omission nor an option to be enabled. It’s currently not supported. It may be in a future release.

Wow! Wasn’t expecting a reply so quickly.

Realised I’d forgotten that issue’s already been mentioned in this thread, updated my previous post.

Really hope it is, seems like an obvious quick win.

Doing a bit more research, I found this thread which mentions the Command-Shift-o shortcut, a reasonable workaround for now.

but update cycles and apps generally looking dated has definitely been a concern while assessing and a concern expressed by numerous others, including some prominent reviews, apparently over many years. Not sure why this hasn’t been addressed?

I’m not sure what you’re referring to. DEVONthink 3 was completely redesigned and we have frequent updates.

PS: An interface is not indicative of the power or capability of an application. It’s easy to design something that merely ”looks cool” but that doesn’t make it powerful.

2 Likes

DEVONthink 3 looks great and has definitely caught my attention again…veering off-topic but…

The thing is I’ve actually been thinking about DEVONthink for a while to solve a couple of minor ongoing issues with my current application but every time I’ve checked it’s always looked few years behind in terms of UX; reviews, like this, praise the power but also highlight “long update cycles”; and that sentiment is echoed by quite a few user posts and reviews.

I’m sure some users are going to have a very particular set of requirements and only DEVONthink will do but, like I said, it gets mentioned.

I’d imagine there are a lot of potential new users out there, like myself, that are just looking to resolve some fairly minor issues with apps that are otherwise pretty good. But, if it’s not love at first sight, I’ll ignore any minor issues because my existing tool generally serves my needs and still feels good enough to use. There are probably loads of DEVONthink features I don’t even know I want but the likelihood is most people won’t invest any more time unless something immediately grabs their attention, or they’re already sufficiently motivated to do so: first impressions, etc.

An interface is not indicative of the power or capability of an application.

This is 100% true but the power of perception, not just first impressions but also general presentation, and the feeling from using a particular tool, even though it’s just a tool, cannot be underestimated: this has been at the very core of Apple’s philosophy since the beginning and a major factor in their success.

These days, it’s fairly typical to have tools that look great and feel good to use; and we should, especially if “it’s easy”.

Anyway, I’m closer than ever to switching but I still have some concerns:

  • Will DEVONthink continue to be kept current and provide a frictionless experience?
  • DEVONagent looks amazing but, again, I wondered why the interface hasn’t been updated
  • What about DEVONthink To Go?
    • How much parity with desktop?
    • Is the interface consistent, including dark mode?

As I’m actively thinking about switching, I might raise all of these as separate threads in due course. Just thought it was worth mentioning on this slight detour.

Also, worth mentioning, I wouldn’t have spent so much of my time giving my honest feedback unless I care about these projects, want the best for their creators, and the community. I know DEVON’s been around a long time and done some great work over the years.

but the likelihood is most people won’t invest any more time unless something immediately grabs their attention, or they’re already sufficiently motivated to do so: first impressions, etc.

We have no control over this. Usually when people are merely looking for ”attention-grabbing”, they are also inclined to leap from app to app to app, chasing the shiniest, newest fad. We are not looking for a cash-grab on whatever fads suddenly arise and peter out. We are also not trying to be “all things to all people”. We are excelling at what we do. We have been around for 18+ years, following our path and providing power and capabilities to thousands over the years. It is our intent to be around for a long time to come.

Also, the length of our trial period is very generous and gives sufficient time to determine if DEVONthink is a good fit. If it’s not shiny enough, doesn’t scratch an itch, doesn’t fit somehow, etc., then it shouldn’t be purchased. But at least we’ve provided time to determine that.

PS: No, I’m not in Sales, nor do we try to sell people things they don’t need. I’ve suggested freeware in some situations. I’ve talked some people out of a purchase, even of the Server edition, because they just didn’t need it. (I’ve also had people buy the Server edition anyways because I treated them honestly and they liked the potential it offered and wanted to support us.)
Check out our business principles sometime.

this has been at the very core of Apple’s philosophy since the beginning and a major factor in their success.

It’s also a factor in much of the criticism toward them nowadays. Removing functionality and focusing on bright and shiny instead of powerful and robust. Also lacking in quality control in favor of meeting unreasonable development timeframes.

  • Will DEVONthink continue to be kept current and provide a frictionless experience?

”frictionless” cannot be objectively defined and yes it’s actively developed.

DEVONagent looks amazing but, again, I wondered why the interface hasn’t been updated

Look at DEVONthink again and consider it’s not an ”update” from version 2, but a rewrite and redesign.

What about DEVONthink To Go?
How much parity with desktop?

iOS is not macOS so parity can only go so far.
You can download the manual and read up on it.

Is the interface consistent, including dark mode?

I’m not sure what you mean by ”consistent”.
Dark mode will be supported in a future release.

3 Likes

Usually when people are merely looking for ”attention-grabbing” , they are also inclined to leap from app to app to app, chasing the shiniest, newest fad.

I’m not referring to that kind of user. I’m still talking about people that want a tool to get a job done.

For example, the original Macintosh professional user still needed to get a job done, they just chose a Mac to do it because the original Mac OS and MOUSE (original acronym, not shouting) not only allowed them to get the job done but also created a stronger connection between the user and their work. It doesn’t make the tool less powerful, actually the opposite: the more a user feels a desire to use a tool, the more powerful it becomes.

I’ll use an extreme analogy to drive my point home, pun intended (NB not drawing a precise parallel to DEVON’s apps, just illustrating my point).

You need a hammer to hammer in some nails.

One hammers in a nail every ten seconds but feels absolutely fantastic to use, you really love picking up that hammer. The other hammers in a nail every five seconds but it has nails sticking out the handle (want to make sure no one suggests wearing gloves), you should probably avoid people that love using this hammer.

Obviously, virtually everyone that wants to hammer in a nail chooses the first hammer unless, possibly, the first hammer had an even greater issue, eg, it needs to be replaced after hammering every nail.

But, I say “possibly”, because one’s a financial constraint and the other’s emotional: most people that can afford it will probably resign themselves to buying a lot of hammers; at least until, one day, someone produces a hammer than can hammer a nail in every five seconds and feels absolutely fantastic to use.

I wholeheartedly agree that substance is greater than style, but they’re not mutually exclusive, far from it. The latter amplifies the former.

Again, DEVONthink 3 looks fantastic now and I’m seriously assessing the entire ecosystem to see how many nails it can hammer in for me.

Hope my feedback comes across well and that there are similar changes coming to bring the rest of the product line together.

PS Great company principles, very admirable.
PPS To make a full assessment, is there a DEVONthink To Go trial?

One more vote for simple highlighting in the markdown editor view (not just preview).

Something akin to how Drafts handles it (or Atom, or Ulysses, or Byword, or IA Writer, or StackEdit). /docs.getdrafts.com/docs/editor/syntaxhighlighting

Having slight separation of headers from body text, even just with color, but also having lists do indenting in the editor would be huge. 90% of the time, I don’t need/care about the Preview rendering and would rather stay in editor only mode (way too many panes open most of the time), but having a little more delineation between the elements in the text would be super valuable and would greatly simplify my use of DevonThink, and seems to be exceedingly common amongst most every editor that fully supports Markdown.

2 Likes

Welcome @ptrbkr

The request is noted.

Even bare bones syntax highlighting would be nice (and maybe even preferable to anything fancier since it wouldn’t interfere with the text); something akin to what you get with a Markdown syntax highlighter in vim. All the markup is still visible (e.g., **word** is bolded but the ** markup is still visible), but colors and font styles break up the text a bit and make finding sections, links, etc. much easier. Prism supports Markdown, so just providing an option to run the text through that before rendering in the editor might be an easy win (assuming styling the editor text isn’t super difficult :smiley:).

1 Like

Welcome @jason0x43

You are describing a hybrid rendered. There are currently no plans to implement such a renderer, but the request is noted.

Ah, yes, I see that mentioned earlier in the thread. Just to be clear, I’m suggesting purely highlighting and basic font style manipulation (bold and italic) without concealing any markup, changing font sizes, adding visual indents, or anything like that. I’ve used editors, like Slack’s message input, that try to replace marked up text with the styled content rather than just highlighting the text, and that can certainly be annoying, particularly if you’re trying to edit styled text.

In any case, thanks for noting the request!

The next release’s editor will e.g. support bold, italics, underlined, strike thru & highlighting that way.

7 Likes

I really like your focus towards markdown. Thumbs up.
Does the syntax features also come to the annotations inspector? If not, it would be nice to have that in future releases :slight_smile:

The Document > Annotations inspector already supports highlighted text, the next release will also support the syntax of Roam/Obsidian/iAWriter.

2 Likes

I don’t mean the document inspector but the annotations (& reminders) inspector.

Obviously there are too many inspectors :slight_smile: Yes, the Annotations & Reminders inspector will support this too, actually I just added this yesterday.

2 Likes

I think it’s more an issue of unambiguous names

  • annotation (record) vs. (PDF) annotation
  • indexed (text content) vs. indexed (external files)
  • columns (divider text in menu View) vs. columns (View > Columns)

I can imagine it’s hard to find good names in such a feature rich app, however apart from misunderstandings this also leads to limited usefulness: The doubled “Columns” menu name seems to make it impossible to change columns via Keyboard Maestro because the “Columns” divider text is matched before the actual “Columns” menu. Would be great if we could have unambiguous names there. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

The “Columns” menu could be renamed to List Columns or List View Columns, what do you think?

4 Likes

Sounds very good :slight_smile: