I was thinking about word processors a lot. Basically, at the moment there are few to none lightweight and productive word processors for people who don’t need the functionality of a full-blown MS Word. Furthermore, there is a problem with formats. There is old RTF which has an open standard, but is not implemented properly even in MS products, the compatibility is still an issue here. There are MS .doc formats which are almost closed and hard to implement. There is OOXML that has an open specification, but a vague and complex one, so implementing it is still hard. And there is ODT, which is open, but is still evolving and doesn’t have a wide adoption yet. Inventing another format may be a bad idea, if it doesn’t rely on existing technologies that can be somehow viewed on most popular OS-es.
So here was my idea for a format. Basically, just use a plain text with a markup done in Markdown (plus some extensions, for footnote support, smartypants, tables, etc), zip it (so that all images used in the document will be stored with the text in a single file). Apply a .text extension, so it can be distinguished.
What’s the point? First, I believe (yeah, I am no coder, but still) that it’s easier to implement the read and write support for a plain text with those tags than it is for any of the existing document formats. You can have two modes in the word processor: the WISYWIG one and something like WordPerfect’s reveal codes mode where the user can adjust the formatting manually (since the markup is really easy here, even easier than in HTML). No XML or anything, so you can actually avoid using heavy technologies which results in a lightweight app.
Then, this markup is pretty flexible. You may add export to (x)HTML and export to PS and PDF options, so a user could actually get the output in a format that is more popular. The fact that Markdown is often used in CMS and blogging engines makes this format easy to integrate in the online publishing solution. You can prepare an article in your desktop app, then easily get it online (there are markdown support plugins for wordpress, for instabce). Finally, when you have to involve somebody into editing this file, you can just send him the .text file, he can unzip it (zip support is available in all major OSes nowadays) and work with the plain text. The markup is humane readable, so chances are, he won’t have any problems here whatsoever. Finally, markdown implementations are available for all major platforms, you just have to be careful about using extensions that are not included into the original Markdown specification and thus are not supported by all implementations.
Markdown sure doesn’t have all the formatting features you can expect from a full-blown word processor like MS Word. But the point here is that such a word processor is not aimed at people who need MS Word. It’s not even for somebody who needs a lot of collaboration in word processing (I believe, there is nothing better than Google Docs for that). It’s for people who need to work content-oriented. Apply some simple formatting that just makes the text readable and its structure clear. Then, get the output in PDF and send it to somebody, who will read (like an editor, for instance. Or a teacher) and is not likely to edit this text. The PDF will be sent (in case with an editor) to somebody who is responsible for formatting it (designers, etc), they will extract the text and disregard your formatting anyways. Or get the output to your blog. Or just get HTML and get it to your homepage. Or publish the PDF there for download. And you have a tool for that. A tool that is fast to start, fast to work, and is stable. Oh, and it’s especially useful for somebody who needs to create a text that will be used by him alone. A lecture note done on a netbook (there is no appropriate word processor for a netbook, actually). Bloggers, students, journalists, writers - those are a target group for such an app.
I was also thinking that it would be cool (as soon as more browsers get HTML5 audio and video tags support) to have the ability to easily get an instant picture, Vorbis voice record or a Theora video to your document using the webcam and mic (especially when we’re talking about a laptop or a netbook). That could be an ideal blogger/podcaster thing, but hard to be used otherwise (you can’t get it to PDF or PS) outside this word processor. It’s something similar to Psion’s Word where you could easily add voice memos to the text without leaving the word processor.
So, what I’m talking about is something more advanced than StyledEdit: a mixture of a word processor and a blogging client. Lightweight and more aimed towards contemporary text processing needs. And since all the technologies here are already existing, there is no reinventing the wheel being done, so one could expect to have some more apps supporting this kind of format on other platforms.
What do you think? I would love it if somebody who is looking for a project idea would like this and try to create something. I cannot code, but I can design the whole interface (I just need to learn the paradigms of BeOS/Haiku interfaces) and provide all the testing (especially the usability) and feedback needed. I believe this kind of app would be a killer-feature for Haiku. I would really most definitely make a switch for such a tool, it doesn’t exist on any platform yet=)
P.S.: sorry for a long post. Thanks to all who have read it.
