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FoldingText for Atom text editor
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Posted by Lucas
Jun 27, 2015 at 08:02 PM
FoldingText has been discussed here before. Looking for progress recently, I was, at first, disappointed to discover that more than a year had passed without updates to the Mac version, but then I was pleased to learn that a new version of FoldingText has been designed as a plugin for the Atom text editor:
http://www.foldingtext.com/foldingtext-for-atom/
Atom, incidentally, has just reached version 1.0:
I have tested the plugin only minimally so far— I just wanted to share the info for others who might be interested. But I do think there is a lot to be said for this particular category of outliner software: plugins for text editors. And I think developers could go much further: one idea that occurs to me would be to create smart folders and/or filters to isolate particular lines within a text-based outline.
Posted by jaslar
Jun 27, 2015 at 11:34 PM
I tried this back in January, but was disappointed. No spell check, no word count, folding by level of indent, not heading. I also had trouble CLOSING the program (Windows). But I’ve been playing with Haroopad, Smartdown, and Editorial, all excellent long form writing tools that allow me to edit the same files across platforms and Dropbox. All markdown based.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jun 28, 2015 at 10:30 PM
Caution: Rant Alert!
Let me start this small rant with this: Jesse Grosjean of Hogbay Software is entitled to run his business anyway he wants. HOWEVER, as someone who has purchased FoldingText and TaskPaper (as well as the iOS version of TaskPaper), that is, as a customer, I am very frustrated with his priorities. He dropped the iOS apps 15 months ago saying he was going to focus his efforts on TaskPaper, WriteRoom and FoldingText. TaskPaper and WriteRoom have not been updated in three years. FoldingText did get an update a year ago, but since then nothing, and it is not like the software is without flaws. It’s nice if he wants to make FT work with Atom, but 90% of the people who’ve bought FT do not use Atom and never will. It seems he is focusing his development efforts to benefit an ever narrower customer base, and forsaking those who have supported him with their dollars up to now. Personally, I find this in extremely bad faith, and will think long and hard before ever buying another app from him.
Okay, that’s the end of the rant.
Steve Z.
Posted by jaslar
Jun 28, 2015 at 11:27 PM
A reasonable rant, if such a thing is possible. I’ve bought WriteRoom, Plaintext, taskpaper, and was also irritated when such promising beginnings seemed to fizzle out. Even Oakoutliner seemed incredibly promising, then just got abandoned, apparently.
But I have to say that Editorial is my current favorite, offering everything I liked about the others, and some intriguing new workflow functions.
Posted by Lucas
Jun 28, 2015 at 11:40 PM
Good points. I held off on buying FoldingText and for now I’m just free-riding on the Atom plugin while it’s in beta. (With the added benefit that text files mean no lock-in). But I’m well aware of the issues raised here and certainly they would have to inform any consideration of making a purchase.
Indeed, I still pine for the same developer’s other long-lost project: Mori. That’s a piece of software I would be willing to pay for again.