MarkedSL: A Markdown Rendering Tool for OS X Snow Leopard
As many of you know, I am a fan of running old, out of date, and unsupported operating systems. I like the old software and try as they might, I refuse to allow the big tech companies to drag me kicking and screaming into their AI and algorithmic dystopia for a monthly or annual fee. It may be the future of computing, but they’ll have to catch me first! One downside to using these older systems, however, is the occasional loss of modern workflows. For instance, I am a fan of markdown and have been writing in it for the better half of a decade now. While I don’t need an editor that renders in real-time, I do prefer it, and that is where MarkedSL comes in.
Marked is not a markdown editor… heck, it’s not even a text editor. It is a simple markdown viewer. That’s it and that’s all, but it does a fine job at it. The problem is that OS X Snow Leopard is not supported, so the developer introduced a Snow Leopard port: MarkedSL.
How it works
There isn’t a lot to say about using MarkedSL. It’s pretty straightforward. Create your markdown file in whatever text editor or word processor you want, but save it as a plain text (.txt) file. Unfortunately Apple’s native TextEdit application can’t do this basic task, and my preferred plain text editor for Mac – TextMate – does not support Snow Leopard, so I was stuck with Word or Pages for right now. I decided to go with Word for Mac 2011.
Once you’ve saved the text file, open it in MarkedSL and it will render what you have written. As you make changes, the preview does not automatically update. According to the developer, this was intentional so you can focus on your writing and not get distracted with formatting. Simply save your text file and the render will automatically update.
First Impressions
Overall, this wasn’t what I was looking for or really wanted, but I’m glad I found it. My preferred Mac-compatible markdown editors – MarkText and MacDown – will not work on Snow Leopard. I could just use a text editor like BBEdit or something else to write my markdown files, but I like having a (nearly) real-time preview of what I’m writing in case I need to fix anything before publication. So, while I still prefer those other editors, this one meets a need I have quite nicely. I recommend you give it a go if you’re also a fan of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and are looking for ways to use it more often.
