In an email thread, Dave Winer asked me about dearth of decent third party editor apps for WordPress. That got me thinking about those I could think of and those I've used:
- MarsEdit
- Ulysses
- iA Writer
- Byword
- Drafts (if that counts)
I've had a brief look at MarsEdit in the past but never used it in anger. Other than that, there's a definite pattern: they're predominantly markdown apps. I have blogged in Markdown for years because it is simple and (mostly) predictable — as long as you know which variant you're targeting.
I'm really the wrong person to ask about this as I stopped using WordPress almost three years ago. I've said this before — I found it too heavy for just writing. It's not a blogging platform any more, not really, it tries to be everything to everyone. I hated that it threw in so much superfluous HTML in what should have been a simple post.
WordPress as a platform is a moving target as they keep refining Gutenberg and adding new block types. Maybe that's why there aren't an abundance of popular apps — it's too much to keep up with and try to implement.
As soon as Gutenberg was launched I stuck with the Classic Editor plugin to keep it simple. Even that was annoying which is why I eventually created a number of custom page templates so I could do everything without ever needing to go to wp-admin.
This approach has carried through which means I am fully browser based and no longer use writing apps of any kind. Yes, this means that I am tied in to my site but that's the way I choose to work.
I rarely write anywhere else now so, while I support Dave's call for people to be able to use the writing app of their choice, I don't personally need one that will post anywhere. I cross-post to micro.blog (as simple as supplying your RSS feed) and Bluesky (via the API) but that's it.
Textcasting as a concept, however, is what really interests me — shared standards for how text is handled so it can go from A to C via B and still look the same as when it started. If something doesn't quite match up then it should fail gracefully and sensibly so as not to trash the text. Sadly, we're a long way off this type of interoperability.
@colinwalker I don’t think this accurate. By default, MarsEdit is a rich text editor. It does have a plain text mode that has some support for markdown highlighting, but I think being a rich text editor is something MarsEdit is pretty heavily focused on. That said, none of these try and replicate the block-based editing experience on Wordpress.
That's why I said predominantly 😉
@colinwalker I think the lack of block-style editors is also worth pointing out with Ghost. Ghost implemented a totally fresh API that no apps use because its content is stored in a format for its web editor — Lexical, an open source Meta tool. Lexical is an impressive JavaScript editor. But having to use a Lexical format in a new API is rough for third parties.