Hey everyone! We’re running a contest to revamp markdown inputs and add new features. We’ve noticed lots of questions coming in, so here are a few quick answers:
Q: “No third-party frameworks or libraries” – does that mean vanilla JS only?
A: The project is in TypeScript, and you can use any existing dependencies. You just can’t add new ones.
Q: The mockups show folder designs with custom emojis as icons, but the API doesn’t support it.
A: It is okay to show the first custom emoji from the title or a default "folder" icon if it doesn’t have one.
Q: What is a quote?
A:
This. Make sure desktop and mobile users can easily add new lines after it instead of getting stuck inside.
Q: Why rewrite the text editor from scratch? The current one doesn’t look broken.
A: Text editor rewrite is the main reason why we’re having this contest. Here are a few reasons the current setup is tough to maintain:
- All content is treated as HTML string, so every edit triggers re-parsing before you can do any work with it.
- We can’t directly render components, so custom emojis rely on workarounds, and it is problematic to support markdown syntax preview.
- A RegExp-based Markdown parser has too many problems.
- Composer component is bloated, making it hard to reuse in more lightweight places, like editing folder titles or gift messages.
We believe that rebuilding the editor from the ground up is the solution. Three weeks gives you enough time to lay a solid foundation. If you’d rather just patch up the current setup, be aware you’ll be judged against its current flaws. And if you do go for a complete rewrite and really want to stand out, you can further polish current UX to feel similar to standalone editors like Obsidian or Bear.
Keep an eye on this post, as it may get updated with your questions from the comments. Thanks for all your interest, and good luck in the contest!
