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Show HN: NotepadJs – A cross-platform love letter to Notepad

(github.com)
145 points itkeman | 12 comments | 22 Jan 25 11:59 UTC | HN request time: 1.248s | source | bottom

As a native Windows user who switched to macOS a few years back, one thing I never got over was the simplicity and usefulness of the old school Notepad app. This app aims to recreate that very same experience, cross-platform and easily installable as a PWA.

I've been using this for personal use for around 2 years and I figured it was time to share it with the world. Criticism, issues and PRs are welcome. Thanks!

1. crazygringo ◴[22 Jan 25 13:10 UTC] No.42792416[source]▶
This is really cool, I love this.

I do most of my work in browser tabs, but often need a "scratch pad" to paste or type things in, like snippets of code or a short todo list. And I use TextEdit on my Mac, but I'd prefer a browser tab so this is wonderful.

Four requests, from most to least important:

1) Let me choose the font and font size? For code snippets, I really want monospace. And make sure the preference persists

2) Keep current contents in local storage, so it survives a browser restart? (Or maybe you do already?)

3) Having tabs feels redundant with my browser tabs -- I'd rather get rid of the extra bar at the top and just have a 100% clean typing space, with just the (wonderfully unobtrusive) menu bar. (I understand their utility in a PWA though, maybe a menu option to toggle the tab bar? Also full screen mode to hide the menu bar for a pure editing experience?)

4) Get a proper domain name. :) So I can start typing "note" in my address bar and it will autocomplete. Surely "notepadjs" is available for some TLD? Or "notepadx" (for cross-platform) or "notepage" (for webpage) or similar?

But this is a great idea. I'm surprised I've never come across something like it before, it seems so obvious in hindsight. I love it.

replies(4): >>42792546 #>>42793025 #>>42795567 #>>42795990 #
2. petemir ◴[22 Jan 25 13:25 UTC] No.42792546[source]▶
hm, perhaps you like edna?

https://edna.arslexis.io/

https://edna.arslexis.io/help

https://github.com/kjk/edna

3. vallode ◴[22 Jan 25 14:11 UTC] No.42793025[source]▶
For what it's worth, I have a bookmarklet with these contents:

  data:text/html,<body contenteditable style="line-height:1.5;font-size:22px;max-width:75ch">type here...
I use this _all_ the time for very quick note taking and writing that will later be copied elsewhere, think one to three sentences and then offload.
replies(3): >>42793402 #>>42793499 #>>42793824 #
4. crazygringo ◴[22 Jan 25 14:50 UTC] No.42793402[source]▶
Oh thanks, that's genius! I just modified it to be monospace and I can guarantee you it'll be my new favorite bookmark.

Too bad its contents won't persist across a restart or accidental close tab, but as a scratch pad it's fantastic.

5. pferde ◴[22 Jan 25 14:58 UTC] No.42793499[source]▶
I just hit Win+K, and my OS runs a simple text editor of my choice for me.

Maybe I'm getting old, but using a browser for something you have available natively seems like an antipattern to me.

replies(1): >>42795613 #
6. dspillett ◴[22 Jan 25 15:29 UTC] No.42793824[source]▶
Nice. I'll have to look into how localStorage works in such contexts, and if that is not badly maybe knock together a bookmarklet that does that but keeps text in case I accidentally close the window before I should (or Windows, when I'm using that, decides to reboot, as it is wont to do).
7. poisonborz ◴[22 Jan 25 17:55 UTC] No.42795567[source]▶
What I learned: do not use ephemeral tools like this as scratchpad. You never know when you will need this data and as soon as you start saving these snippets it becomes tedious. Also unsaved tabs block software updates etc. Use something like Obsidian or default Notes on macos.
8. stronglikedan ◴[22 Jan 25 17:58 UTC] No.42795613{3}[source]▶
Those type of people live and work in the browser. Everything's a PWA. Little to no native app use. Like to manage apps (windows) by browser tab management instead of OS management. At least it's consistent across devices!
replies(1): >>42796794 #
9. 1f60c ◴[22 Jan 25 18:31 UTC] No.42795990[source]▶
I like Sindre Sorhus' Scratchpad (syncs across Mac, iPad and iPhone using iCloud).
10. TeMPOraL ◴[22 Jan 25 19:52 UTC] No.42796794{4}[source]▶
I'd consider doing that if I could rely on the browser not losing state after OS restart, browser restart, unexpected forced browser restart because of some autoupdate bullshit, accidental refresh, automatic unloading of tabs, badly thought-out shortcut for closing the browser window, unexpected update of the web page/PWA into which I typed something, accidental cookie wipe, certificate expiry, lack of reliable form of local storage[0], and a bunch of other things that make me consider everything in the browser ephemeral unless stored on a server.

(I'm not a browser fan, but even in my weaker moments, this one thing is what stops me from fully embracing living in browser.)

--

[0] - AFAIK there's still nothing in the browser one could reliably use to get the equivalent of persisting data to a hard drive. There's like 5 different mechanisms that could allow it, if you could rely on any of them, and of course none of them are user-inspectable except through dev tools.

replies(1): >>42798958 #
11. crazygringo ◴[23 Jan 25 00:06 UTC] No.42798958{5}[source]▶
But literally everything you describe is worse outside of the browser.

My browser does a better job of retaining state than most of my apps. My desktop apps have clunkier auto-update than my browser. My browser apps auto-save to the cloud, my desktop ones often don't auto-save at all.

replies(1): >>42799602 #
12. TeMPOraL ◴[23 Jan 25 01:30 UTC] No.42799602{6}[source]▶
I'm talking strictly client side. I literally said "unless stored on a server", and let me remind everyone that "cloud" just means other people's computers.

(Also that "serverless" really means "there actually is a server, but you don't get to manage it".)

Desktop apps can save files and read files. That alone puts them miles ahead of any purely client-side app. As for convenience, most apps today auto-save stuff when you're not looking, but lack of that feature isn't a big deal for me - I started using computers some 25 years ago, so I habitually press "CTRL+S" every couple seconds without even realizing it.