KeenWrite Alternatives

KeenWrite reviews and mentions

• Ask HN: Tell us about your project that's not done yet but you want feedback on
  68 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 16 Aug 2023

  KeenWrite is my free, open-source, cross-platform desktop Markdown editor that can produce beautifully typeset PDFs. I started working on it years ago to help write a novel that has a complex timeline and I couldn't find a text editor that would allow me to integrate a character sheet with the story itself.

  https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

  Tutorials:

  * https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9...

  Here's what I mean by using variables directly:

  * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFCqe3A5dFg

  CommonMark doesn't propose a standard for bibliographic references. Would anyone find the editor more appealing if it had cross-references and citations?

• Documentation as Code for Cloud Using PlantUML
  8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Jul 2023

  My cross-platform desktop text editor, KeenWrite, allows users to define variables in an external YAML file. The editor calls out to Kroki[1] to convert text-based diagrams to SVG. The diagrams can reference variables and are rendered using EchoSVG[2].

  KeenWrite[3] can produce PDF documentation from Markdown documents that has PlantUML diagrams with elements stored in an external, machine-readable file. Here are screenshots showing variables on the left, diagram text in the middle, and a real-time render on the right:

  * https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DaveJarvis/KeenWrite/main/...

  * https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DaveJarvis/KeenWrite/main/...

  KeenWrite supports all diagrams offered by Kroki, which includes "diagram-plantuml".

  [1]: https://kroki.io/

  [2]: https://github.com/css4j/echosvg/

  [3]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

• On why Markdown is not a good, or even a half-decent, markup language
  9 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 19 Jul 2023
• MdBook – Create book from Markdown files. Like Gitbook but implemented in Rust
  30 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 29 Jun 2023
• KeenWrite 3.3.2: MermaidJS diagrams (with caveat)
  1 project | /r/Markdown | 24 Jun 2023
  1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 24 Jun 2023
• Interactive CommonMark Tutorial
  2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 24 Jun 2023

  Although not interactive, I've created a video series that shows advanced usage of Markdown. Namely R, external variables, diagrams, math, annotations, and a different approach to metadata:

  * https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9...

  Tutorial 4 shows basic Markdown:

  * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNbGSiRzx-0

  The top-right of each video shows keyboard and mouse clicks to help follow along.[1] My desktop text editor, KeenWrite[2], is used in the tutorials.

  [1]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/kmcaster

  [2]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

• “Exit Traps” Can Make Your Bash Scripts Way More Robust and Reliable
  6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 20 Jun 2023

  https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/main/scripts/bu...

  My template script provides a way to make user-friendly shell scripts. In a script that uses the template, you define the dependencies and their sources:

      DEPENDENCIES=(

• EchoSVG: SVG rasterizer library supporting level 4 selectors (Apache 2)
  4 projects | /r/java | 8 Jun 2023

  I didn't create the fork, nor am I affiliated with the project. I use it in my text editor, KeenWrite to rasterize SVG.

• Millions of dollars in time wasted making papers fit journal guidelines
  5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 8 Jun 2023

  KeenWrite Themes[1] are instructions that tell ConTeXt how to typeset XHTML documents (content) into PDF files (presentation). I made a tutorial that shows how my FOSS desktop text editor, KeenWrite[3], allows users to write in Markdown to typeset a document against a particular theme.

  Before it can be used for scientific papers, it needs cross-references, which, unfortunately, aren't part of the CommonMark specification.

  I posit that the vast majority of LaTeX users don't grok how to separate content from presentation. When I asked a question on TeX.SE about how to adjust the line spacing between enumerated items (spanning a couple dozen enumerated lists), the vast majority of people voted for the answer of using `\itemsep0em` to tweak each list ... individually.[4] The correct answer, IMO, is to fix the problem globally, and not waste time tweaking individual lists.

  [1]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes

  [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QpX70O5S30

  [3]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite

  [4]: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/6081/reduce-space-be...

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  www.nutrient.io | 14 Mar 2025

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