Read and write offline

[cben]

• [ ] A way to even open cached mathdown when you're offline. Look into app manifest / chrome extension / firefox OS app?
• [ ] Cache last seen content of every document in localStorage. Bonus if having any mathdown open does background updating on all known docs.
• [ ] Be able to edit offline and sync on reconnect.
• [ ] index.html?doc=... prevents caching of index.html for new documents. history.pushState() might help, assuming you have one tab open.

[victorel-petrovich]

That would be great! How about an offline-capable chrome app or extension that would be able work directly with local ("harddisk") files? Or at least be able to open and save as such

[cben]

Yay, somebody actually uses mathdown! :-) [BTW, I'd love any and all feedback]

I must admit this is not high on my radar, especially not working with local files. You can always copy/paste to/from a local file but that's awkward and doesn't play nice with online changes by others. Right now you're better off with:

• Stackedit.io is probably best in-browser markdown editor with multiple storage options. There is offline chrome app. Supports $inline$ and $$display$$ math syntax.
• Overleaf.com (former WriteLaTeX) has in-place math rendering like I do (but theirs is less buggy ;-)) in "Rich Text" mode. It's full latex rather than markdown, but the Rich Text mode makes it feel half-way to a lightweight format. While the site doesn't work offline, you can git clone a project and work locally in your latex editor of choice...

[victorel-petrovich]

Thanks for your detailed answer.
For now, I am interested in just a local, offline chrome app. I am trying stackedit at present (the git clone a project you recommend is, well, a bit advanced stuff for me..)

Compared to stackedit, I like better your stronger emphasis on WYSIWYM inside the editor (i.e,, as per initial Markdown philosophy, it should be as readable as the output). Plus, who knows if and when stackedit will implement such in-place math rendering.

By the way, the best math/document editor I ever used is LYX. Maybe you can draw some inspiration from there :). (Unfortunately, it's not available for CromeOS, like on my chromebook)

Good luck!

[cben]

I've now read http://alistapart.com/article/application-cache-is-a-douchebag, and must re-read it carefully if I get around to adding an app cache manifest. [Also, should ask for advice in Firebase/pad group!] My current (incomplete) understanding is:

• I'll need app cache manifest for loading mathdown.net at all when offline.
• By default manifest-cached pages won't be able to access Firebase — even when online! — but it's fixable.
• Anyway can't cache firebase data via manifest, so also need local storage for firepad content.
  • There is a chance that given #7, I can take the text served as part of the page (which is manifest-cached) as the fallback content, and not need local storage. But I'd rather trust local storage than app cache semantics...
• The manifest can be configured to supply even ?doc=previouslyUnseen (via fallback mechanism). Nice.
• I'll want to switch to versioned URLs for all static content (see discussion on #74).
• There be dragons...

[cben]

Given very limited time for mathdown (#172), I'm very unlikely to work on this.