Consider open-sourcing the project

[onvlt]

I love the Caret editor -- it's very comfortable to use and as far as I know, there is no other markdown editor of such elegant design. However, I'm still missing lots of features that would make it even better.

I wonder if you open-sourced the project, many great developers could collaborate on making great markdown editor and the development process would speed up. Did you considered doing so? Anyways, if you have whatever good reason for not doing so, nevermind.

[borekb]

Caret is a commercial editor and it works well, IMO. The guys are iterating on it like crazy, delivering new useful features every couple of weeks which cannot be said about most of other Markdown editors.

To be honest, I don't think that making it open source would lead to a huge amounts of contributions: the editor is likely a pretty complex piece of software and the current model is IMO the right balance that keeps both users and the authors happy. Don't change what's not broken :)

[EnCey]

A plugin or extension system might be a middle ground. Authors can keep the editor itself closed source but people can still extend or customize it.

There are many features that will never be useful to everyone or a large enough group that it'd be worth it to ship it with the core editor. I'd for example love vi code bindings, as I use them in all my editors, but that's never something built into the editor, as the people that want it are only a small percentage of the user base.

[astoilkov]

Hi guys,

Regarding extensibility: We are sure we want to include extensibility support for Caret. This feature may come in the next few months. We want people to build great extensions and also allow companies/publishers to change/adopt the software for their needs.

Regarding open sourcing: We are still considering it. It's still hard for us to imagine how a paid product can be open sourced without worrying that people will hack it so they can get it for free. Do you know examples of paid software that is open source?

[borekb]

@astoilkov All commercial WordPress plugins work this way: they are GPL-licensed but you typically need to purchase "support and updates for 1 year" to use it.

I'm a much bigger fan of the SaaS model though. In your case, for example: offer the editor for free but offer some subscription-based functionality. For example, I'd love to use Caret to edit things on GitHub (issues, wiki, README.md etc.). Something like http://prose.io but done properly :) This is clearly a hosted service which means as long as I pay, I have access; when I stop, I lose access.

This model is what makes most OSS products truly successful.

[mherrmann]

Hi everyone,

sorry for chiming in, I'm not actually a Caret user. But I still think I have something to say on the subject of open sourcing an app. I'm developing a commercial app just like you guys. It's a file manager called fman.

I would advise against open sourcing Caret. I know of a commercial text editor (not allowed to say which one) which used to be hugely popular. The author then decided to open source it under a GPL license, but still asked people to pay. He told me that his revenue dropped 90% over night. When people see "open source", they think "free" (as in beer) and are no longer prepared to pay.

I wrote a blog post where I expand on business models I considered for my app. Maybe you'll find it interesting.

Best of luck with your app!

Best, Michael

[LasseJacobs]

If you are not prepared to go open-source which I completely understand considering that it is very probable it would lead to a loss of revenue. I would love to see something like an plugin or extension system.

Sometimes I need a feature that caret doesn't have, very often this is a feature I could easily implement myself. So a plugin system would solve this problem for me!

Anyway which ever road you guys to decide to take, I'll be happy. Love the app!

[mherrmann]

I have good experiences with this (my file manager has a plugin API).

[erusev]

@LasseJacobs We've been planning a plugin system for a while - can you give us one or more examples of plugins that you'd like to see / develop? Thanks

[LasseJacobs]

@erusev That's great to hear! As for the plugins mostly it is very simple stuff like a window displaying me all todo's in a document, I sometimes convert my markdown to different formats It would be cool if I could add those converters as plugins, or I just write in a different format than md (Latex for example). A indicator letting me know if it has found an image I specified or not.

Something like atom's 'linter-write-good' plugin would be cool to have in caret as well. There's a lot more really. I am mostly interested in things that can help me make better quality documents, and things that can speed up my development.

The thing I find beautiful about plugins is that you can tune the app to your needs and requirements. You don't have a ton of features you don't use, you only add what you need and use. This keeps the app clean in my opinion.

[pslobo]

While I am a fan of extensibility and plugins, I don't honestly feel that would be the best way for Caret to move forward. I'd rather see some automation API (javascript would make more sense) allowing users to automate some aspects of Caret without going full plugin model.

A few interesting examples I can think of that use this approach are TaskPaper and FoldingText. Each can be scripted with Javascript. Granted, you could say they're in essence plugins, but when I think of plugins, I think of things like Atom.io, Sublime etc. I think that if you need an editor that offers that type of functionality, then you already have Atom (although it's no Caret 😁).

As for Open-sourcing, I'm a strong advocate of open-source, but don't feel it would be beneficial for you. I'd keep Caret as a paid app. I also tendo to shy away from subscription services. Those quickly pile up and people are growing weary of that model I suspect.