A Markdown File Should Just Open
Markdown has been around for over 20 years and is everywhere—READMEs, docs, AI responses—yet most computers still show raw syntax instead of a formatted document. The author argues operating systems should treat .md as a first-class format: headings that look like headings, links that work, and files you can edit in place. The standards already exist (CommonMark, GitHub Flavored Markdown), so the pieces are in place; only the will is missing.
We should not need artificial intelligence to understand how to display a heading written with a hash symbol. The operating system should already know how to do that.
- FreakyT
While I do agree with the author's overall point, I think that he inadvertently stumbles on the probable reason here:
> If I want to see the original Markdown syntax, I should be able to switch to that view just as easily.
This doesn't really map well to existing document opening conventions, so the author's hypothetical built-in Markdown viewer/editor doesn't really fit into any existing system app. For example, if Apple modified TextEdit.app to open Markdown files in the same way it handles RTF documents, it would cover the formatted display case, but not editing the source. They would have to add some third mode (or build an entirely separate app) to handle switching between Markdown source and formatted views, deal with displaying malformed syntax, etc. Not to mention handling the various differences between Markdown flavors.
- zahrevsky
I want any browser to render MD content natively. Imagine just dropping .md files to your server and having a working website.
Of course, there are services that do that for you, ranging from Hugo to Obsidian Publish. But they all add a level of complexity that you have to manage.
Also, this makes user-level styling much simpler. This is what any “Reading mode” does, but without reverse-engineering the content from a soup of tags and classes.
- graemep
You can do this on KDE. Just set Okular as the default app for markdown files, If you want editing too LibreOffice instead (and on any OS and DE). The only problem is that it is a viewer not an editor. There are editors with preview which solve that. Even editors without preview will highlight, and, there is already software that provides exactly what the author wants (notepad, which the article mentions) or visual editing of markdown (Libre Office)
I am not sure its that important that its a default. Markdown is primarily and editable format that is easily converted to a readable one - its the inverse of PDF which is a readable format that is hard to edit.
- whh
Every time I install Xcode it decides that it's the default markdown reader. If anybody at Apple could fix this, that'd just be swell.
- tuvix
Just recently created an md live viewer/pdf exporter after feeling some of these same frustrations[0]. Always wanted something that allowed me to use vim while viewing the markdown exactly as it would render to pdf, kind of like overleaf.