This is a really nice, simple (really simple), markdown editor/preview that I have installed as an instance if anyone wants access to one. You can use it as a scratchpad to test your formatting when posting markdown elsewhere (like here). All changes are stored in your browser cache - unless you have cleared the cookies it should come back as you left it when you open the page again (you can also download what you have created just in case). If you want more than one active scratchpad, you need more than one browser. Be warned. It's simple. I see this as a good thing.
It has a couple of different markdown parsers, and a couple of different equation rendering engines, so you can check your formatting. It's also extremely easy to self host on any browser based platform - just follow the "Get Source Code" link, copy four files (index.html, style.css, script.js, and the README.md), and then open the index.html in your browser. This may be handy in a corporate environment where you want to check your markdown formatting, but don't have easy access to a markdown supporting editor. As a random example.
This might be useful in conjunction with markdown web clippers like (for your browser) copy-as-markdown or (as a web app) Website to Markdown Converter - just paste your clipped markdown into the scratchpad, and check the formatting.
What is Markdown?
Markdown is a lightweight markup language that you can use to add formatting elements to plaintext text documents. Created by John Gruber in 2004, Markdown is now one of the world’s most popular markup languages.
Using Markdown is different than using a WYSIWYG editor. In an application like Microsoft Word, you click buttons to format words and phrases, and the changes are visible immediately. Markdown isn’t like that. When you create a Markdown-formatted file, you add Markdown syntax to the text to indicate which words and phrases should look different.
For example, to denote a heading, you add a number sign before it (e.g., # Heading One). Or to make a phrase bold, you add two asterisks before and after it (e.g., **this text is bold**). It may take a while to get used to seeing Markdown syntax in your text, especially if you’re accustomed to WYSIWYG applications. The key advantage is that an ordinary text file with markdown markup remains human readable, as well as being able to use any text compatible editor to write markdown code, and in an application that understands the syntax can be used to provide sophisticated formatting for writing/notes/documents.
Markdown is widely used for web and print ready document formatting, including a subset being used to format post here on talkback, and is the most popular format for technical documentation. Talkback is very much a subset of markdown, so you might expect many of the formatting options, but not all, to work here. I aim to move to a fuller implementation over time. I really like markdown.
