Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: GitBook Editor Beta – Markdown WYSIWYG, TeX

gitbook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 39 posts

Re: Show HN: GitBook Editor Beta – Markdown WYSIWYG, TeX

#11

Post by r3bl »

SwellJoe wrote: post #9

I'm working on a new book lately, and I've been trying to settle on the right workflow. I've been posting the chapters as blog entries, as I complete them, but editing in WordPress leaves a lot to be desired, and I don't really think HTML is the right authoritative source for a book. I wrote my first book, and a lot of old documentation in SGML DocBook, and then later converted it to XML DocBook...it had many benefit…

I'm currently writing a book in Markdown. Basically, I enjoy using Atom a lot, and I host the book in a private GitHub repository. Once I finish writing it, I'll just make the repository public and license it under Creative Commons. I have heard of GitBook and tried it out before (their web service that is), but I absolutely don't need it.

Re: Show HN: GitBook Editor Beta – Markdown WYSIWYG, TeX

#12

Post by r3bl »

cshimmin wrote: post #10

This is perhaps a general question about 3rd-party auth, but how am I supposed to trust an app like this when I click "log in with google/github/etc"? I'm simply shown a new pane within the same application that could easily be a phishing attack. There's no way to verify who the hell I'm sending my user/pass to. Is there some way for native apps to launch my preferred default browser to do this task? (Note: this is b…

> This is perhaps a general question about 3rd-party auth, but how am I supposed to trust an app like this when I click "log in with google/github/etc"? I'm simply shown a new pane within the same application that could easily be a phishing attack. There's no way to verify who the hell I'm sending my user/pass to.

I see this happening over and over again on my phone. Especially with Facebook logins.

Re: Show HN: GitBook Editor Beta – Markdown WYSIWYG, TeX

#16

Post by delluminatus »

SwellJoe wrote: post #9

I'm working on a new book lately, and I've been trying to settle on the right workflow. I've been posting the chapters as blog entries, as I complete them, but editing in WordPress leaves a lot to be desired, and I don't really think HTML is the right authoritative source for a book. I wrote my first book, and a lot of old documentation in SGML DocBook, and then later converted it to XML DocBook...it had many benefit…

Are you familiar with Ghost, the open-source Markdown-based blogging platform? It might suit what you're looking for.

Also, I haven't written any books, but I wonder if Markdown is the best choice for a canonical format. The syntax is lightweight but also limited. For example, it doesn't support tables, and doesn't differentiate between source code (which should be syntax highlighted) and literal text (which shouldn't). You could define your own extensions, of course, but that breaks the compatibility feature. I think reStructuredText (for example) might be a better choice, although Emacs' Org-mode is my personal favorite document format. I suppose that in the end, whichever's most comfortable for the author to write in is the best.

edit: I should mention that this is in reference to a technical book because I've been thinking about technical writing lately. It just occurred to me that you could be writing the type of book that doesn't need tables or source code, in which case Markdown is probably perfect.

Re: Show HN: GitBook Editor Beta – Markdown WYSIWYG, TeX

#18

Post by seesharp »

davidandgoliath wrote: post #5
mangecoeur wrote: post #2

Neat editor, I've long felt there's room for a markdown editor geared to writing 'real' documents - been working with Atom which covers a lot of ground with the right plugin - I even wrote a plugin that does something similar to their inline math rendering: https://atom.io/packages/preview-inline

If you're on mac, I'd give ulysses a try – it's pay to play — but well executed.

Agreed! I just wish tables were supported. I actually have to export it to a .docx and then add the tables :/. I asked them a while back and they said they weren't planning on supporting tables any time soon.

Re: Show HN: GitBook Editor Beta – Markdown WYSIWYG, TeX

#19

Post by davidandgoliath »

seesharp wrote: post #18
davidandgoliath wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're on mac, I'd give ulysses a try – it's pay to play — but well executed.

Agreed! I just wish tables were supported. I actually have to export it to a .docx and then add the tables :/. I asked them a while back and they said they weren't planning on supporting tables any time soon.

Well, that's no fun! Tables are handy for writing (particularly of the tech. sort). Hopefully they get to it.

Re: Show HN: GitBook Editor Beta – Markdown WYSIWYG, TeX

#20

Post by steveklabnik »

krisdol wrote: post #13

Rust by Example[0] (and possibly the Rust Book[1]) uses gitbook, for those curious as to how a language reference may look like with GitBook. [0]: http://rustbyexample.com [1]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/

Rust by example does, but The Rust Programming Language does not. The current version uses "rustbook", and the next gen will (probably, we'll see) use mdBook, both similar projects but written in Rust.
Post reply on HN