steveylang wrote:

There's a new screenshot showing document metadata and markdown tasks-
https://twitter.com/writemonkey/status/683025575469002752

For a purist like me that's starting to look a bit too busy... Though I imagine a lot of that stuff is going to be optional and customisable anyway, thankfully.

I was thinking the exact same thing, but the current WM is full of various options already (I've never looked at half the tabs in the preference dialog box) so I think we'll be okay.

Maybe he should release a new screen shot of just a blank window to ease our minds... ;-)

Dr Andus wrote:

For a purist like me that's starting to look a bit too busy... Though I
imagine a lot of that stuff is going to be optional and customisable
anyway, thankfully.

My only real concern is speed. There are still plenty of other lightweight editors suitable for smaller writing tasks should WriteMonkey 3 prove to be a little much, but if the bloat slows it down...

shatteredmindofbob wrote:

but if the bloat slows it
down...

...than there is still WriteMonkey 2 ;-)

I'd be surprised though if WM3 got slower, as judging from the screenshots, many of the innovations seem to be geared towards making it easier to work on bigger projects, such as multiple chapters of a book etc., which was a bit of a weakness.

It's still just plain text in the end, so hopefully that shouldn't take too much juice to run.

steveylang wrote:

I was thinking the exact same thing, but the current WM is full of
various options already

It looks to me like WM3 is getting some additional functionality to make it attractive beyond just the core market of writers, such as text editor type features, perhaps also to make it more of a work environment (a bit like Org-mode), with todo lists and such.

Hello all,
just to clarify a few things: Writemonkey3 will be much faster than version 2, especially when dealing with large documents. I tested it with the Bible (almost 900.000 words) and everything runs smoothly. The same goes for startup time - the app (at least at current development state) loads almost instantly.

About the "bloat problem": wm3 will still embrace minimalist approach. All the stuff you are currently viewing on screen shots will be optional. Tasks will be there, but if you don't need them you won't even notice the option is there. The same goes for document meta data etc.

Also: alpha testing will start soon, so if you want to participate, please send me an email (master at pomarancha dot com) and I'll notify you when the first alpha version will be available for download. Since wm2 is windows only an I know majority of users are still on windows, mac users are especially welcome!

iztok

writemonkey wrote:

just to clarify a few things: Writemonkey3 will be much faster than
version 2, especially when dealing with large documents.
About the "bloat problem": wm3 will still embrace minimalist approach.
All the stuff you are currently viewing on screen shots will be
optional.
Also: alpha testing will start soon, so if you want to participate,
please send me an email (master at pomarancha dot com)

Hi Iztok,

All great news! Many thanks for stopping by, and for the clarifications,... and... for the awesome software :-) Looking forward to WM3!

The first really useable beta of Writemonkey 3 is out.

http://writemonkey.com/wm3/

Interesting! WriteMonkey 3 now, too, is an NWJS app (similar to Electron), i.e. it's shipping a minimal browser with the main app in JavaScript on top to perform the cross-platform dance. Am looking forward to see how future betas perform for long documents! At the moment, adding emphasis via shortcuts like ⌘I on Mac appears to cut and replace the text with a noticeable delay. HTML/JS based editors can be fast and reliable, though, so I guess it's just a matter of polish.

At the moment, adding emphasis via shortcuts like ⌘I on Mac appears to cut and replace the text with a noticeable delay.

I personally haven't experienced this in about a week's use on Windows 10 (64 bit, 8 MB memory). It's been quite snappy.

I don't see it supports equations yet . How will it support mathjax?

Mark wrote:

> At the moment, adding emphasis via shortcuts like ⌘I on Mac
appears to cut and replace the text with a noticeable delay.

I personally haven't experienced this in about a week's use on Windows
10 (64 bit, 8 MB memory). It's been quite snappy.

I agree. When I first saw that WM3 was being rewritten in JavaScript (probably using Electron), I was concerned about speed but even an early beta I had on my old PC, where Electron apps were mostly unusable, was snappy and responsive.

Now I just wish working with the file system was more intuitive and that it had a proper installer.

Has anyone been using WriteMonkey 3 beta here on a consistent basis?

I'm still on v. 2.7, just wondering if there is a benefit to switching over to v. 3 at this point:

http://writemonkey.com/wm3/

No, the last update (September 2017) still felt like it needed a lot of work to me.

Dr Andus wrote:

Has anyone been using WriteMonkey 3 beta here on a consistent basis?

I'm still on v. 2.7, just wondering if there is a benefit to switching
over to v. 3 at this point:

http://writemonkey.com/wm3/

Version 3 is a whiff of good things to come, though it still has way too many sharp edges to use on a day-by-day basis. The Sublime Text-like menus, for example, are totally inaccessible unless you know the "magic" keystroke to invoke them. And I'm concerned that the developer isn't serious, or at least not diligent, as the last update to v3 was back in September, and the user forums are mostly moribund, with many questions and comments unanswered. A real shame, because WriteMonkey v3 has so much potential.

I've been keeping an eye on v3B for months. Testing it with a few dark themes, looks good. It is not in my top 15 regularly used wares across genres I use on different OSes. It is not even in my fifty or so I check for log changes in history vers to see if anything exciting has been added. I can convert anything within those fifty or so apps across genres to any other within those fifty. The instructions for all is about 70 pages and also chopped into bits and placed in each source folder for that software. This inter-changeability is where WM has problems.

V2 is useless to me. V3B has all the infrastructure to be a great contender for me to maybe even include in my top 15 regularly used software. BUT he has no export. It really needs an OMPL or OTL export. The preview is supposed to theoretically export to markdown but it does not so far for me. I can get it to convert to anything but it takes a bit of work because some indents are tab indented and some sub-levels are spaces and hence a mix of both tab & spaces. Using my 70 pages of instructions, I can convert it to other formats using various wares or regexp but it is not worth my time. Not when I have dozens of others across genres, outliners visual-boards listers note-takers etc. which convert anything to anything using my own instructions in no time at all.

It is a shame, he has done all the hard work with v3 with multi panes, command palette, so many plugins, etc etc but has not yet done a basic OPML or OTL or even MD export that works from a menu. Needs OPML import or at least tab indented nodes/subnodes import too. He says he is working on his export templates. Once that is done, import should be quick too. All I can assume is that he is probably too busy in his real life to have spare time to full-steam ahead on the v3B. But he has good ideas and is stylish too, not to mention multi platform and free. So will be watching that space. Good luck to him.

Thanks all for the update re v. 3. I'll be sticking with v. 2.7 then until v. 3 gets a bit more ready.

Hmm. I took WM 3 beta for a spin, but didn't get very far (on Win 7, 64-bit). For some reason (might be a bug?) whenever I try to add a space to type the next word in a sentence, WM keeps indenting the line instead. Back to WM 2.7...

Two years on, what's the verdict on WM 3? Anybody has been using it consistently?

I'm still on 2.7, which is working fine on my system (still Win7), just wondering if I' missing anything.

I never used earlier versions enough to be able to advise you on changes, but the latest version is supposed to run on Mac. However, my attempts to fire it up and get it working have come to nought, so I’m a bit disappointed. The developer does promise a proper executable at some point in the future, but the collection of files currently supplied doesn’t work for me – and I don’t have time/inclination to “build” it for myself.

But there are lots of positive noises about 3.2 (which I believe is the latest version), so you might want to check it out.

Dr Andus wrote:

Two years on, what's the verdict on WM 3? Anybody has been using it
consistently?

I'm still on 2.7, which is working fine on my system (still Win7), just
wondering if I' missing anything.

I use it consistently. Also have 2.7, but the features of 3 suit me much better (folding is infinitely more flexible iirc). I keep all my documents as attached files as well as in the database. This means I can use simultaneously with Obsidian, ProWritingAid, Typora etc etc.

Just to say that the latest update to WM3 came out in January.
Works well for me.

Dormouse wrote:

Just to say that the latest update to WM3 came out in January.
Works well for me.

Thanks. Helpful write-up here:

https://github.com/writemonkey/wm3/wiki/Documentation