And Obsidian! Best of them all.

Hahaha, I know, right? Someone might seriously float this argument.

Gee, here's a Markdown file on my computer that I'd like to read (formatted as intended). Since I don't have a lightweight reader for Markdown, let me just...

1. Open it up in a text editor

2. Launch a browser

3. Navigate to some page that allows Markdown comments.

4. Log in to comment.

5. Find something to comment on.

6. Create and paste into a comment.

7. Post the comment.

8. Read.

SO EASY!

Seems like a lot of steps when you could just double click the file.

If you're on Windows it'll open in notepad.exe which is a markdown viewer.

On most flavors of Linux it'll open in a markdown viewer.

That leaves Apple and Android which I don't think have built in markdown viewers. But you can just install an app.

Matrix, Discourse. I wish that Signal supported it though.

I love Signal, but this is one thing I wish it did better. It's much easier to write Markdown than long-press and format.

Most repo browser UIs, and apps like VSCode, too.

Again, the point is not to launch an EDITOR and then open up a "preview." The point is to double-click and start reading the document as formatted. You know... like we can do with even the maligned PDF.

Think about the word "preview." If you're "previewing" the Markdown file, what are you previewing its appearance in?

And BBEdit

Still an editor, not a reader. The point is not to have to launch an editor and then "preview" a file you're just trying to read.

Most MD readers I’ve seen show an editor and preview side by side.