I've just discovered the amazing Skein Notes, a free app programmed by Tomasz in Brighton (UK). Skein Notes and his pure markdown editor Lede can be downloaded from the Mac App Store, but so can a couple of paying apps, Verso and Nought, that can edit .docx and .xlsx files respectively – without disrupting them.

Skein Notes and Lede are aesthetically gorgeous (IMHO) and appear to work really well. I haven't experimented with Nought and Verso yet, but if they're up to the same standard, they're something of a bargain.

Lede appears to be the markdown editor from Skein Notes separated out and offered on its own. Good call – it's a lovely editor, and on Mac at least a good alternative to Typora.

The various websites are at:
- Skein Notes: https://www.skeinnotes.app
- Lede: https://www.skeinnotes.app/lede
- Verso: https://www.versowriter.app
- https://www.nought.app

Wow! I just came from commenting on Darren's post about Ahti (and Draftline, Kindling…), and you, MAD, present a set of applications that are also very interesting.

Some initial observations:

- It seems like the revolution of small developers vs. big companies is brewing: how many note-taking or writing apps will appear? How many will survive? What does this explosion mean?

- I have a feeling that all the apps look very similar (visually). What do you think?

By the way: I want to try Skein; it could work as a mini-Obsidian for some very specific tasks.

Cheers.

Skein can use any folder as a starting point, which means you could pick a subfolder of an existing Obsidian vault as the starting point for a new Skein vault. Obsidian won't get upset.

I'm late to the party! Are there any further observations about Skein?

I see that large projects were reported to open slowly. That was for a 5500 note project, and it sounds like that's been resolved.

I will just say that Tomasz is very responsive to feedback, which is always nice!

I reported lack of smart punctuation (elegant apostrophes, quotation marks – one of the things I believe should just be there in a writing app) in Skein and Lede, and he changed that immediately. I also reported a minor issue with .docx files in Verso (ToC links didn't work) and he corrected that immediately, too.

One of the big advantages of dealing with a single developer or small team!

Amontillado wrote:

I'm late to the party! Are there any further observations about Skein?

I see that large projects were reported to open slowly. That was for a 5500 note project, and it sounds like that's been resolved.