Linked List: March 5, 2021

Friday, 5 March 2021

Jason Snell on iOS Markdown Editors ★

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:

The App Store is littered with Markdown text editors, but not all Markdown implementations are created equal. I expect my Markdown editor to show me every single keystroke I enter, which means any attempt to hide hyperlinks will be met with immediate rejection. (Sorry, Ulysses and Craft.) I do appreciate syntax coloring and styling where appropriate — so that bolded text is bolded, and headings are prominent… so long as the app doesn’t swallow the markup that makes them so.

Maybe I don’t know much about Markdown, but my understanding is that the whole point of it is to provide a syntax where the most common HTML tags for prose can be replaced by simple punctuation characters that are meant to be visible to the writer. I want to see the characters so I know I’ll get exactly the HTML output I think I’m going to get, but those punctuation characters shouldn’t distract from the readability of the prose. I created Markdown to use in BBEdit without any syntax coloring at all, and to this day, I do most of my Markdown editing in MarsEdit, which doesn’t color or style Markdown syntax at all. (It should though! Markdown is even better with some syntax coloring and styling.)

I have no idea why there are now apps that use Markdown as their back end storage format but only show styled text without the Markdown source code visible. Hey World, for example, gets this right: they just do simple WYSIWYG editing where bold is bold, italic is italic, and links look like links and the linked URL is edited in a popup. If you want WYSIWYG, do WYSIWYG. If you want Markdown, show the Markdown. Trust me, it’s meant to be shown.

Apple Now Has a Feature to Transfer Your iCloud Photo Library to Google Photos ★

Apple support document:

You can request to transfer a copy of photos and videos you store in iCloud Photos to Google Photos. Transferring photos and videos from iCloud Photos doesn’t remove or alter the content you store with Apple, but sends a copy of your content to the other service.

The transfer process takes between three and seven days. We use this time to verify that the request was made by you, and to make the transfer.

Some data and formats available in iCloud Photos — such as Smart Albums, Live Photos, or some RAW files — may not be available when you transfer your content to another service. More information about what data is transferred is listed below.

Would be cool if Google provided a feature to go the other way. (Via Juli Clover at MacRumors.)

Utah Legislature Passes Bill Mandating Porn Filter on All Phones and Tablets ★

Gustavo Turner, reporting for XBiz:

Utah’s controversial “porn filter” bill passed the State Senate this afternoon on a 19-6 vote (with four absences), a Salt Lake City capitol source told XBIZ. The bill, introduced into the Utah Senate last month by staunch anti-porn crusader Wayne A. Harper, is now headed to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.

On February 19, the Utah House of Representatives passed an amended version of the controversial bill that would mandate a default “porn filter” on any phones, computers, tablets or any other electronic devices sold in the state starting in 2022.

HB 72, sponsored by Rep. Susan Pulsipher (R-South Jordan) — a realtor with no technology experience — was speedily passed by the House only hours after it had cleared the committee stage by the narrowest of margins (a 6-5 vote).

Good luck with that — Utahns love porno.

(If you think this is a silly thing for an individual state to attempt to mandate, keep it in mind if you find yourself rooting for any of the various state-by-state attempts to regulate iOS and Android.)

Amazon Basics Ripped Off Peak Design’s Everyday Sling ★

Amazon even called their rip-off the same name — “Everyday Sling” — although they’ve since changed the name to “Camera Bag”. The crew at Peak Design did the right thing in response: they mercilessly mocked Amazon in this video. (Via Core77.)

Hey World Blogging Goes Live ★

From idea to a shipping feature in just a few weeks. Here’s a simple search on Twitter to see all the Hey World posts that have been tweeted so far.

Everyone knows friction in software is harmful. But I think we all continually underestimate just how big an influence friction is on what people actually do and use. People don’t write long multi-tweet threads because it’s a good way to post a short essay, they do it because it’s so low friction. That’s what makes Hey World such a great idea. If you’re using Hey for email, there’s literally nothing you need to do to set it up.

Can you edit your posts? Yep. Creating a new post is exactly like sending an email to the magic [email protected] address, but once sent/posted, Hey treats such messages differently than regular emails. You can see all your Hey World posts in a list by themselves, accessed from a new item in the main Hey menu, and if you open a post, you can edit it.