alt Hacker NewsShow HN: Ephe – A minimalist open-source Markdown paper for today
Hi HN,
I built Ephe, open-source markdown paper for daily todos and thoughts.
No sign-up, no ads, no subscriptions, no AI.
## Why I made this
We have plenty of Markdown editors. And too many overwhelming to-do apps. But few tools combine both in a way that’s lightweight and focused. I thought that all I need is a single page to organize today. So I built Ephe.
It uses CodeMirror v6, React(v19, React Compiler) and Vite with rolldown.
## What makes it different
“Ephe” comes from ephemeral. The main goal is to organize what you need to do today. It isn’t for teams. It’s a quiet space for your own priorities.
Give it a spin if that sounds useful to you.
Comments
Pretty cool! I made something similar for myself. My primary motivation back then was to make a tomboy-like system to link the individual todo lists together. I use #hashtags to group “zettel” and individual zettel also know other zettel that refer to them. What I also find very useful are [ ] and [x] which I use as lists to check off (seems you do that allready).
Screenshot (it is not publicly available): https://i.imgur.com/js9S4wa.png
But the source is: https://github.com/entropie/ha2itat/tree/main/plugins/zettel
Ill dig a bit in your source.
I'm excited to give this a try, as I think I'm the target audience. I tried using Helix[0] (my editor of choice) with mpls[1], but it didn't quite scratch the itch. These days, I use a sturdy notebook and cheap (but awesome!) fountain pen, because I just need something simple. No bells. No whistles. This seems ideal!
[0]https://helix-editor.com/ [1]https://github.com/mhersson/mpls
It looks nice and I like the general idea, but what's the difference between this and a todos folder in joplin or any existing notes app? That's what I use personally and at work I do the same thing with onenote (because of mega enterprise install restrictiveness) and a new note page every day seems to do essentially what this app offers.
Annoying feature bitch 'n' beg:
"Frictionless" text hoisting (incl. hoist-to-view document window capability) à la Symantec's GrandView (DOS) [1] is a must for me in a modern tool of this type. Table manipulation à la org-mode would be nice to have, text template import and export (e. g. screenwriting formats) a bonus. But lean and mean general-purpose text editors focusing on non-coding creators are just not a thing anymore.
Anyway, congratulations and good luck!
1. [https://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/grandview...]
Like that you're using CodeMirror! With CodeMirror you can very easily add VIm-support as well [0], which many might enjoy.
Looks neat and simple! Gonna try it for few days atleast, thanks.
That looks very neat.I was searching for a local notepad, went to length of installing a extension.
But this. Just wow. Thank you.
Nice product. Just one minor issue. The font looks ugly on Windows.
Can someone recommend something like this, but where my notes are published online (on my domain)?
Reminds me of TaskPaper. But markdown is ubiquitously available. So yeah, makes sense.
Sorry, TL;DR What does this bring more than organizing own thoughts and tasks in a Obsidian md note?
Day of silly submissions. First byte wordle. Now this.
Here's a dead simple note "app" - it's a single html file using CSS and JavaScript, a whopping 62 lines. Uses content editable and localStorage.
Demo: https://mkaz.github.io/browser-pad/
Source: https://github.com/mkaz/browser-pad/ - though I suppose you can just view source on demo too
I have been using Logseq [1] for this. It displays all days in a list view that you can scroll down, which I prefer.
[1]: https://logseq.com/
I'll kindly remind people that actual [physical] paper does, in fact, still exist. You may have various feelings about how sustainable and eco friendly it is - sure, but for simple daily notes it is a good alternative, in my opinion.
For more enjoyment, you may even want to invest in a good fountain pen or two, and some fun inks to write with.
In my humble and subjective opinion, it is more tactile, enjoyable, better in terms of focus and forces you to write less / summarise, as my handwriting speed is like 1/10 of my typing speed.
My personal favourite pairing is Pilot Capless + Sailor Jentle Epinard + Clairefontaine Pupitre.
Your experience may vary.
It looks really nice! (tested on Safari/Mac).
Have you considered adding a small popup encouraging people to set it as their home page? I use Ensō (https://enso.sonnet.io) in that manner occasionally.
Also, the "system" button disappears during writing (good), but it's hard to get it back unless I click outside of the editor. In Ensō, I re-enable it on any pointer move - I would suggesting doing something similar.
PS I work on somewhat similar tools (like the one mentioned above), esp. for loose, stream-of-consciousness style of writing https://untested.sonnet.io/notes/stream-of-consciousness-mor... then copy paste the text into obsidian.
If you ever fancy chatting about privacy-friendly, idiosyncratic/home-cooked software hit me up on sonnet.io/posts/hi !