Qute - an experimental text editor built with Chromeless
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Felix Breuer
Jul 1, 2011, 4:07:45 AM7/1/11
to mozilla-labs
Hello everyone,
I have written a small text editor using Chromeless. It is called Qute
and you can find it at:
http://www.inkcode.net/qute-html5
The idea behind Qute is that every paragraph has an "edit view" in
which you can edit markup and a "display view" in which you can see
the fully typeset output. Qute can handle rich text in Markdown syntax
and formulas in TeX syntax. On top of that, Qute comes with several
themes that give it a more adventurous look than any other word
processor I know.
Working with Chromeless during the development was a pleasant
experience. It is simply great to able to bring all those web
technologies to bear on writing desktop applications. In conjunction
with all those Javascript libraries out there, Showdown and MathJax in
particular, you can get an amazing amount of functionality really
quickly. Also, I enjoyed using CSS to style a text editor. (I have
long wanted a text editor that looks as pretty as some of the websites
out there.) And, of course, Chromeless' "file" module was
indispensable for writing a text editor. I have to mention, though,
that I am really looking forward to more sophisticated debugging tools
for Chromless!
If you got curious, please check out Qute and let me know what you
think!
Cheers,
Felix
I have written a small text editor using Chromeless. It is called Qute
and you can find it at:
http://www.inkcode.net/qute-html5
The idea behind Qute is that every paragraph has an "edit view" in
which you can edit markup and a "display view" in which you can see
the fully typeset output. Qute can handle rich text in Markdown syntax
and formulas in TeX syntax. On top of that, Qute comes with several
themes that give it a more adventurous look than any other word
processor I know.
Working with Chromeless during the development was a pleasant
experience. It is simply great to able to bring all those web
technologies to bear on writing desktop applications. In conjunction
with all those Javascript libraries out there, Showdown and MathJax in
particular, you can get an amazing amount of functionality really
quickly. Also, I enjoyed using CSS to style a text editor. (I have
long wanted a text editor that looks as pretty as some of the websites
out there.) And, of course, Chromeless' "file" module was
indispensable for writing a text editor. I have to mention, though,
that I am really looking forward to more sophisticated debugging tools
for Chromless!
If you got curious, please check out Qute and let me know what you
think!
Cheers,
Felix
Mike Hanson
Jul 1, 2011, 1:42:31 PM7/1/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com
Nice! I'm using it now. I particularly like the fullscreen + Paper theme.
The formula rendering looks quite good as well.
I'm finding that pasting a chunk of Markdown into Qute doesn't work well - but that if I save the same chunk and open it as a file it works perfectly. Perhaps there are issues with how text-input-from-paste is being handled? I'll open an issue to track it. Since I often find myself copying .md files from the web into an editor, this would be a nice use case to smooth out.
Great stuff, Felix.
m
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Julian Viereck
Jul 2, 2011, 3:28:51 AM7/2/11
to mozilla-labs
Hi Felix,
this is awesome. I've been building something similar to store some of
my lecture notes (also building on top of MathJax), but I didn't came
around some of the UX issues, that you've solved (just click on an
block and start editing ;)).
Giving the editor a short try I've noticed it's quite slow for me. Is
that a known issue?
Looking at the code you use tabs and spaces for indention. What's the
one you accept patches with?
Best,
Julian
this is awesome. I've been building something similar to store some of
my lecture notes (also building on top of MathJax), but I didn't came
around some of the UX issues, that you've solved (just click on an
block and start editing ;)).
Giving the editor a short try I've noticed it's quite slow for me. Is
that a known issue?
Looking at the code you use tabs and spaces for indention. What's the
one you accept patches with?
Best,
Julian
Felix Breuer
Jul 2, 2011, 4:35:28 AM7/2/11
to mozilla-labs
Hi Julian!
Yes, building a TeX editor around MathJax sounds just too good not to
try it. :)
Regarding the user experience, I am very happy that I managed to keep
the UI button-free so far. I am going to try hard to keep it that way
as functionality is added.
I have not noticed speed issues yet. Is Qute slow while typing or just
when switching paragraphs from edit to display mode? Are you having
similar speed issues in other Chromeless apps?
I have to admit that I had not thought about the tabs versus spaces
issue. I have just decided to use only spaces for indentation and
converted the source accordingly.
Cheers,
Felix
Yes, building a TeX editor around MathJax sounds just too good not to
try it. :)
Regarding the user experience, I am very happy that I managed to keep
the UI button-free so far. I am going to try hard to keep it that way
as functionality is added.
I have not noticed speed issues yet. Is Qute slow while typing or just
when switching paragraphs from edit to display mode? Are you having
similar speed issues in other Chromeless apps?
I have to admit that I had not thought about the tabs versus spaces
issue. I have just decided to use only spaces for indentation and
converted the source accordingly.
Cheers,
Felix
Felix Breuer
Jul 2, 2011, 4:42:25 AM7/2/11
to mozilla-labs
Hi Mike,
I am glad you like it!
While I myself am using mostly the "white text on dark background"
themes, I realize that a few more options in the "black text on light
background" department are needed. One of the design issues I have
been having with that, is that a "white drop shadow" or "white halo"
often looks weird. Coming up next is a "bright white sheet of paper on
wooden desk" kind of theme.
All the kudos for the formula rendering go to MathJax and Gecko's
MathML renderer. :)
Thanks for reporting the copy and paste problem! I have added a
comment to the github issue.
Cheers,
Felix
I am glad you like it!
While I myself am using mostly the "white text on dark background"
themes, I realize that a few more options in the "black text on light
background" department are needed. One of the design issues I have
been having with that, is that a "white drop shadow" or "white halo"
often looks weird. Coming up next is a "bright white sheet of paper on
wooden desk" kind of theme.
All the kudos for the formula rendering go to MathJax and Gecko's
MathML renderer. :)
Thanks for reporting the copy and paste problem! I have added a
comment to the github issue.
Cheers,
Felix
Ya Knygar
Jul 2, 2011, 11:41:06 AM7/2/11
to mozilla-labs
Felix Breuer,
i like it too)
could be great - if it would generate the format like http://ochook.org/
(for example.. maybe http://idpf.org/epub/30/ if it's ready)
for it to be embedded to some blog systems,
with ability to download and work with "source"
in stand-alone Qute,
if not the cloud Qute like a wordpress from start
(you have a great stand-alone approach - can't say cloud Qute as web-
app
would really benefit.. but - could recommend http://monocle.inventivelabs.com.au/
as a nice JS kind of html-pub/zhook viewer - at least - author - the
same)
-
Can't resist to ask - do you have any plans to
combine Qute with InkBoard, compile
it all with Chromeless for Android/WebOS/MeeGo
maybe bringing the power of WebGL/CL(why not) to the mobiles and
tablets with your wonderful editors? )
I think - portable graphics and math are the particular areas where
WebGL/CL
acceleration shows the most promising benefits.
i like it too)
could be great - if it would generate the format like http://ochook.org/
(for example.. maybe http://idpf.org/epub/30/ if it's ready)
for it to be embedded to some blog systems,
with ability to download and work with "source"
in stand-alone Qute,
if not the cloud Qute like a wordpress from start
(you have a great stand-alone approach - can't say cloud Qute as web-
app
would really benefit.. but - could recommend http://monocle.inventivelabs.com.au/
as a nice JS kind of html-pub/zhook viewer - at least - author - the
same)
-
Can't resist to ask - do you have any plans to
combine Qute with InkBoard, compile
it all with Chromeless for Android/WebOS/MeeGo
maybe bringing the power of WebGL/CL(why not) to the mobiles and
tablets with your wonderful editors? )
I think - portable graphics and math are the particular areas where
WebGL/CL
acceleration shows the most promising benefits.
Felix Breuer
Jul 2, 2011, 6:37:11 PM7/2/11
to mozilla-labs
Hello Ya,
thanks for the links! I had not seen ochook before.
Publishing content in Markdown/TeX format is definitely something I
will have to address. The format is standard enough, of course, but
requiring users to find a separate Markdown processor to publish the
text they wrote with Qute is not a good solution. I had thought to
simply use Gecko's printing function to that end (even though I am not
sure whether Chromeless exposes that yet), but considering EPUB (or
Zhook) is a good idea. (I still have to do some research on MathML in
EPUB, though...)
A cloud version and/or Wordpress integration is definitely something
to consider. I am going to focus on Chromeless for the time being, but
that could change, so I will try not to tie Qute too closely to the
Chromeless platform. If someone wanted to use Qute, e.g., as an
editing plugin for Wordpress, I would be all for it.
Regarding the relation of Qute to my other projects, I can only say
that I am not sure how (and if) they will fit together in the end. :)
Just two remarks:
1) Wacom has a promising web browser plugin, so I will definitely add
some ink support to Qute. The main reason is that I have been writing
my notes using Xournal in the past and I do not want to forgo hand-
drawing sketches or notes. I have a couple of UI ideas in that regard,
but nothing definite yet. Merging InkBoard and Qute is not on the top
of my list.
2) I would love to port all the new functionality of Qute for PC to
Android. But my time is limited, so I don't see this happening soon.
If Chromeless got an Android backend though, things would get much
easier... :)
Cheers,
Felix
On 2 Jul., 17:41, Ya Knygar <kny...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Felix Breuer,
> i like it too)
>
> could be great - if it would generate the format likehttp://ochook.org/
> (for example.. maybehttp://idpf.org/epub/30/if it's ready)
thanks for the links! I had not seen ochook before.
Publishing content in Markdown/TeX format is definitely something I
will have to address. The format is standard enough, of course, but
requiring users to find a separate Markdown processor to publish the
text they wrote with Qute is not a good solution. I had thought to
simply use Gecko's printing function to that end (even though I am not
sure whether Chromeless exposes that yet), but considering EPUB (or
Zhook) is a good idea. (I still have to do some research on MathML in
EPUB, though...)
A cloud version and/or Wordpress integration is definitely something
to consider. I am going to focus on Chromeless for the time being, but
that could change, so I will try not to tie Qute too closely to the
Chromeless platform. If someone wanted to use Qute, e.g., as an
editing plugin for Wordpress, I would be all for it.
Regarding the relation of Qute to my other projects, I can only say
that I am not sure how (and if) they will fit together in the end. :)
Just two remarks:
1) Wacom has a promising web browser plugin, so I will definitely add
some ink support to Qute. The main reason is that I have been writing
my notes using Xournal in the past and I do not want to forgo hand-
drawing sketches or notes. I have a couple of UI ideas in that regard,
but nothing definite yet. Merging InkBoard and Qute is not on the top
of my list.
2) I would love to port all the new functionality of Qute for PC to
Android. But my time is limited, so I don't see this happening soon.
If Chromeless got an Android backend though, things would get much
easier... :)
Cheers,
Felix
On 2 Jul., 17:41, Ya Knygar <kny...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Felix Breuer,
> i like it too)
>
> could be great - if it would generate the format likehttp://ochook.org/
>
> for it to be embedded to some blog systems,
> with ability to download and work with "source"
> in stand-alone Qute,
>
> if not the cloud Qute like a wordpress from start
> (you have a great stand-alone approach - can't say cloud Qute as web-
> app
> would really benefit.. but - could recommendhttp://monocle.inventivelabs.com.au/
> for it to be embedded to some blog systems,
> with ability to download and work with "source"
> in stand-alone Qute,
>
> if not the cloud Qute like a wordpress from start
> (you have a great stand-alone approach - can't say cloud Qute as web-
> app
Julian Viereck
Jul 3, 2011, 2:44:38 AM7/3/11
to mozilla-labs
> I have not noticed speed issues yet. Is Qute slow while typing or just
> when switching paragraphs from edit to display mode? Are you having
> similar speed issues in other Chromeless apps?
Disabling the shadowing on fonts and the background-image makes things
> when switching paragraphs from edit to display mode? Are you having
> similar speed issues in other Chromeless apps?
speed up. Before these changes, by CPU usage for simple cursor
movements was about 80-90%, now it's down to 7%. Is that build using
xulrunner 1.9.2 or 2.0 or even 5.0?
Best,
Julian
Dietrich Ayala
Jul 3, 2011, 4:22:14 AM7/3/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com
Wow, that's a big difference. Julian, can you tell if the CPU usage is
related to Qute's usage of shadowing, or of the platform
implementation itself?
related to Qute's usage of shadowing, or of the platform
implementation itself?
Julian Viereck
Jul 4, 2011, 3:58:32 AM7/4/11
to mozilla-labs
Dietrich, I'm not sure I can follow. What I've done to reduce the CPU
usage was disabling the `text-shadow` property in the CSS file, which
got the CPU usage down to 50% and later removed the `background-image`
in the css file.
If you can give me a guideline, I can do other tests as well.
Julian
usage was disabling the `text-shadow` property in the CSS file, which
got the CPU usage down to 50% and later removed the `background-image`
in the css file.
If you can give me a guideline, I can do other tests as well.
Julian
Felix Breuer
Jul 4, 2011, 8:00:44 AM7/4/11
to mozilla-labs
I have not noticed these speed problems on my system. With activated
text shadows and background, cursor movements take about 10% CPU usage
on my system.
As editing relies solely on contentEditable and Qute does nothing at
that time (Javascript-wise), I guess this is a platform issue.
Qute-0.1 is built using xulrunner 2.0.
Is there any way I can tell Chromeless to build the app using
different versions of xulrunner for testing purposes?
Thanks,
Felix
On 3 Jul., 08:44, Julian Viereck <julian.vier...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
text shadows and background, cursor movements take about 10% CPU usage
on my system.
As editing relies solely on contentEditable and Qute does nothing at
that time (Javascript-wise), I guess this is a platform issue.
Qute-0.1 is built using xulrunner 2.0.
Is there any way I can tell Chromeless to build the app using
different versions of xulrunner for testing purposes?
Thanks,
Felix
On 3 Jul., 08:44, Julian Viereck <julian.vier...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
Felix Breuer
Jul 10, 2011, 9:10:46 PM7/10/11
to mozilla-labs
Hello everyone!
Thank you all for your feedback on Qute! Your suggestions have been
very valuable and I have tried to implement the most pressing in Qute
0.2.
Qute 0.2 has just been released. Besides a few minor tweaks, the
changes are as follows:
* copy and paste work properly now (in particular, there is a
convenient "copy everything" menu entry)
* printing has been added (though this feature is not as polished yet
as I would like)
* there is a new "desk" theme without text shadows (and with black on
white text)
* keyboard shortcuts for navigating paragraphs have been added
* preferences are now stored across sessions
* finally, there is a new experimental two-column mode with live
preview (for those who like source and preview side-by-side)
One thing I did not address is the speed issue Julian raised (as I
could not reproduce it). The new "desk" theme without text-shadows may
be a workaround. On the other hand, if speed is a problem on your
system, you should avoid the two column mode. In contrast to the
standard single-column mode, it has a live preview which is very
resource intensive.
On the whole, I hope Qute is now usable for all who wish to experiment
with it!
Cheers,
Felix
Thank you all for your feedback on Qute! Your suggestions have been
very valuable and I have tried to implement the most pressing in Qute
0.2.
Qute 0.2 has just been released. Besides a few minor tweaks, the
changes are as follows:
* copy and paste work properly now (in particular, there is a
convenient "copy everything" menu entry)
* printing has been added (though this feature is not as polished yet
as I would like)
* there is a new "desk" theme without text shadows (and with black on
white text)
* keyboard shortcuts for navigating paragraphs have been added
* preferences are now stored across sessions
* finally, there is a new experimental two-column mode with live
preview (for those who like source and preview side-by-side)
One thing I did not address is the speed issue Julian raised (as I
could not reproduce it). The new "desk" theme without text-shadows may
be a workaround. On the other hand, if speed is a problem on your
system, you should avoid the two column mode. In contrast to the
standard single-column mode, it has a live preview which is very
resource intensive.
On the whole, I hope Qute is now usable for all who wish to experiment
with it!
Cheers,
Felix
Jeff Grossman
Jul 10, 2011, 9:20:05 PM7/10/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com
Where can I download Qute?
Felix Breuer
Jul 11, 2011, 7:26:55 AM7/11/11
to mozilla-labs
The Qute website can be found at
http://www.inkcode.net/qute-html5
On the top left are links to the Qute binaries that are hosted on
github.
Cheers,
Felix
http://www.inkcode.net/qute-html5
On the top left are links to the Qute binaries that are hosted on
github.
Cheers,
Felix
Felix Breuer
Jul 17, 2011, 1:13:51 PM7/17/11
to mozilla-labs
Hello everyone!
Qute 0.3 is out! Get it from
http://www.inkcode.net/qute
This is mainly a bugfix release, but it also features new keyboard
shortcuts and export options.
Cheers,
Felix
Qute 0.3 is out! Get it from
http://www.inkcode.net/qute
This is mainly a bugfix release, but it also features new keyboard
shortcuts and export options.
Cheers,
Felix
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