New app, Bike

Posted by Jesse Grosjean
May 19, 2022 at 06:12 PM

>And just for a laugh, I opened the markdown version of the file (1.2 MB
>in size) in various markdown apps. Here’s how they all did:
> > ...
> >Now granted I’m running these apps on a new MacBook Pro 14

This is interesting, but not my experience at all.

I’m on a 2015 iMac 27, maybe that’s making a big difference, but generally it still feels very fast.

I think you may not be doing the full set of tests…

Scrolling top to bottom, yes most apps can handle that OK. This is because it gives the text system time pre-render and pre-layout. Same thing if you resize the window or edit at the start of the document.

The problem, in my experience, comes when you scroll down into the middle of the document and try things. I’ve just retested (macOS 12.3.1) and I still see major problems:

1. Bear (good) – Best that I tested. I think they might also be using a custom built text view. Maybe it doesn’t matter for your use-case, but I can’t figure out how to really resize the window text dynamically. Line width is fixed. Yes you can change global preference, but that’s not really what I mean when I say resize window. Also if you do change that global preference while viewing test file you’ll find it very slow to update. Anyway I would say Bear passes test well, but its text presentation is less flexible them I would like for a text editor.

2. ia Writer. I scroll half way down… I resize the window: It’s very rough, screen only updates maybe once a second. I type: There’s a noticeable delay. I type and there’s a noticeable delay. I don’t think it passes, but it’s better the next apps (for this particular test)

3. Nota. I start wonder if we are doing the same tests. Forget window resize (which is the hard thing) if I type in the middle of a nota Moby Dick document it takes multiple seconds before any text shows up.

4. Taio. Same story as nota. Typing is pretty much impossible in the middle of the document.

I encourage a couple of other people to try these tests. Maybe my computer really is just to slow, but I know when I do these things in Bike on my computer things are instant.

Generally I use TextEdit to compare Bike against the default text system. It performs better than the listed apps that I’ve tried (except for Bear), but still has major problems. For example scroll to middle of test document and resize window. For me that often loses my place. The window resize also effects scroll position and I’m lost. Or other times it saves my place, until the first time I click anyway to place my cursor, then it scrolls off into nowhere land.

> You don’t have to slim own your app to the
> point of having no real features at all to benefit
> from fast loading and scrolling (and editing, for that matter).

Bikes editor speed is independent from feature design choices.

> So what’s his point? In short, what’s the point of Bike (I’ve got some very
>large outlines in Dynalist, and they don’t slow down noticeably in any
>of the apps – even though they’re markdown-compatible)?

My point is that I think outliners and text editors can be better than they are. So I try to imagine it and then I try to build it.