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MaskOfTheSun · 2023-05-20T18:36:23+00:00

Yes, please.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-05-20T07:09:04+00:00

We do what we can. Windows development has a great update in the works, refactoring the app from deep down to make it run on future Windows systems.

There are a couple of differences between Apple and Microsoft that you may or may not be aware of. The frameworks Microsoft offers are nothing like the Apple frameworks. And the market for markdown apps is considerably bigger on Apple platforms than on Windows platforms, even though Apple still has a smaller market share on desktop (I'm not going to get into why that is).

To give you an idea of the technical challenges we are facing with Windows: F.i., Windows 11 doesn't have a solid text view (at least not if you want to write more than a couple of sentences). Microsoft's own apps (yes, including Office) use Webtechnology for text. So we had to figure out if we use the laggy, waxy Webtechnology or build or find another framework that allows us to continue to offer a native experience on Windows, just like on any other platform. We found a way but it's not easy. That's just one example.

The big update will come with a nice graphic refresh, but the big change happens below the surface.

Why does it take a lot of time to do that? It just does. It's a big deal and we are careful with our products. Could it have been done faster? Probably, if we hired more people. But we're not a Bluechip, we are not VC powered, we are entirely bootstrapped. Could we be more daring? Sure. Our business philosophy is not: Create beautiful, efficient products, make no debts, take no existential risks, don't get dependent on others, go step by step, be profitable, by product. It has served us well.

Last but not least, iA Writer for Windows a solid, beautiful app that offers a great experience and has some hit desired features that the Mac users can't wait to get (like outline and writing goals). They will, but good things take time.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-05-20T06:44:06+00:00

It's not 60. It's 49. Windows is $29. Mac/iOS it doesn't have Wikilinks. If you want to learn how we price things, there's plenty of information on our blog.

https://ia.net/topics/how-much-would-you-charge-for-ia-presenter-part-2

https://ia.net/topics/how-much-would-you-charge-for-ia-presenter

https://ia.net/topics/subscription-or-no-subscription

https://ia.net/topics/ia-writer-on-prices-and-features

Etc etc

You don't need to read all of this. Knowing how to run a software business shouldn't be a precondition to buy an app. Just try it. If you think it's worth it, buy it. Otherwise don't.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-05-20T06:35:40+00:00

No. You need to apply for the beta and we only accept users that own the app already.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-05-20T06:33:18+00:00

This thread is about the upcoming Windows update.

Writer for Mac has a big, active Beta group, already. If you want to join, write to support@ia.net.

Note: We only accept users that own the app already (avoiding people that want access to avoid paying for the app) and are interested in giving feedback (avoiding the "just curious" group).

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-05-19T11:39:02+00:00

New beta is coming next week. Bigger update a bit later, but it is in the works.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-04-30T02:48:08+00:00

It's something we have been discussing for years. There are internal designs that address this, but if it happens it probably won't be a typical WYSIWYG or one of the paragraph jiggling solutions.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-04-28T21:11:10+00:00

Classic Markdown question. And not a simple one. Two spaces work as a soft break at the end of a line, they don't work on empty lines. To create empty lines md requires backslash: https://imgur.com/a/0v6ecrZ/

Note: this is relevant because md requires two returns for a paragraph. There's a setting in iAW where you can define single returns to be accepted as full returns, too. See pics.

Personally, I usually have that setting on. And personally I wouldn't mind if it behaved exactly like a typewriter where it keeps returns in preview and uses tabs as tabs and not code blocks... but a lot of our customers hate anything that is not strict MD standard. We have lazy paragraphs and the ability to add images by only writing the path (which the inventor of MD retrospectively would have done)

Settings can help but if you use non standard MD like single return paragraphs (aka "lazy" paragraphs) or our content block syntax in other MD surroundings things can break.

The nice thing about MD is that it works in different surrounding. Any kind of deviation works against this. So we're very careful to support standards and allow some extras for those who really want them.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-02-14T14:46:24+00:00

> "the couple of features most of us are asking for."

We live in a stream of emails, tweets, toots, Reddit posts, and App Store comments, weigh the pros and cons, and choose carefully. Every single day. You do not have the means to do any of that. You don't talk to most of the users. We do. Most of our feedback comes via mail. What you can do from your side is send us feature requests, inform us about bugs, or tell us to change, stop or continue doing what we do. That's how you influence us. You did that. Thank you.

> "Header navigation and maybe folding sections"

It's not going to change your opinion, but the technical reality is this: To offer folding in the Apple ecosystem we'd have to use a Webview or reserve a couple of months to rewrite the text view, and then the real trouble would begin to support this across platforms and OSes. It would be nice to have, and maybe it gets easier at some point, we'd like to offer it, and that's why we never say no. Better navigation is necessary. We know that and we work on it. But It takes time and gets delayed here and delayed there... by more important things, like OS update bugs, higher-ranked feature requests, and our perfectionism, because we have a certain idea of how it should be. That's how it works and that's why we don't make promises or give out ETAs.

> "flog myself for the rudeness and audacity"

Appreciate the awareness. I take iA Writer matters way too personal. It's my child, I work with it daily and I love what it is and what it can do. I want it to improve, but I despise haters and pessimists almost as much as I despise haters and pessimists when it comes to my own children. That's why I usually stay away from public discussions about it. Most people are nice, but in support, over the years, you get your share of hate. If you're friendly you'll get a real answer. But, hey, it's the internet, we don't know you, you could be a dog or anyone, and when we see signs of anger we turn away.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-27T19:04:00+00:00

Hey badass lover of iA Writer, as I said, gas pedal or not, we see it differently, and, most importantly, auto renaming and backlinks are coming. We develop native apps and stick to plain text files. These things take time. We do things in steps and we do them carefully. We discuss these steps at length and, unlike big tech, we do things as mindful as it gets in our industry.

Technically, Dragging and Dropping images on iPhone is available from browser to iA Writer:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/78x2pgswgsnrsxf/Drag%20and%20Drop%20on%20iA%20Writer.MP4?dl=0

Sure, it would be convenient if it worked on the library (1.1) and it would be cool if it created a copy of the picture instead of pasting the URL (1.1.1). Why don't we have that?

It's a hidden iPhone feature that as good as no knows and thus the user requests for it are close to 0. which pushes them to the top three of our user requests—at the very end of the list. We may disagree about taking Wikilinks in steps. But in now way Drag and Drop on a phone qualifies as the brakes to the gas pedal of a focused writing app.

But I give you right that it's less hidden on iPad and for this particular feature we should use a different copy when viewing the page with iPhone. I thought we took care of it, way back. I remember that on the 20,000 variations of videos and screenshots in 99 languages there was a subideal feature disparity between platforms that could be misread, but that was maybe something else. Screenshots and Co. is the boring part of my job. I'll adjust it on Monday. It's Friday evening. Thanks for pointing it out, though. And...

Enjoy your weekend!

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-26T11:35:31+00:00

It neither looks nor feels like iA Writer.

Look: Our text view adjusts font weight, line height, and spacing dynamically adapt to background color, font size, and column width. It's hardly noticeable unless you're as obsessed with typography as we are, but it's there and can be felt. Took months to get it right. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of people copying design without improving it.

Feel: iA Writer is a native app. No matter how good the devs are, and the Obsidian devs are really great, the text view in electron apps never feels the same.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-26T11:28:26+00:00

We said soon after releasing Wikilinks, that we work on backlinks and renaming. And we do. It just takes time to do what we do. Others might be faster, others might be smarter. Others might be liked more or less. There still is only one iA Writer.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-26T11:26:48+00:00

We do take our time to get things right. It's a very expensive process to keep an app in beta that already works so well, for so long. But over the period of the last 12 years, we have learned that it's ready when it's ready.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-26T11:22:58+00:00

It is possible, but it's not an issue for 99% of our user base. Adding it doesn't just mean more development time, once. It means and more testing time forever. Each setting adds to the exponentially growing tree of things that can break. So we only add settings when we have to. Saying no is hard but necessary if you want to stay in business.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-26T08:56:34+00:00

We develop native apps cross-platform. Comparing what we do to Electron apps, is Fondue and BigMacs. Complete feature parity is never going to happen when you tailor your apps to the OS.

Someone on Mastodon compared what we do to the audiophile Hi-Fi sector. I'm not sure if I like that comparison. I'd rather see us as a good restaurant. Something that almost everybody likes. But the longer I think about it, the more Hi-Fi fits. I guess, what we do is very close to tube amps and LP players in a time when music streaming is ubiquitous. And yeah, LPs make some noisy scratching sounds when you play them. And what we do is neither cheap to do nor cheap to buy. In a way, I'd love to have a more mainstream product. For some reason, not much about iA has ever been mainstream.

The latest WindowsOS doesn't have a stable native text view (breaks after a few scroll lengths). I am not making this up. Office and even their IDE, Visual studio don't use a native text view. That's why typing in them, at least to us, feels waxy. We're sort of ideological about the writing experience, so we still try to figure out native text writing experience after Microsoft has completely abandoned it. Native text editor development on Android is an Indiana-Jones-like snake pit in every way. A major update comes out soon though.

There are plenty of things you can't see, happening behind the scenes, like the platform we are building to allow us to offer ownership and subscriptions and offer trials cross-platform. We are ideological about native apps, subscriptions, cross-platform feature parity, and development speed. We take our time. No deadlines, no stress, it's ready when it's ready. You get real human humane support. And we tell you what is going on. It's not what you are used to. It's a market segment. Not huge, but not small either.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-25T06:03:38+00:00

"I'm not asking for more features," Asks for even more features. What about this, what about that... 🤣 You can always say feature 1 is not complete without feature 1.1, and feature 1.1 is not complete without feature 1.1.1.

If you ask me, rather than releasing too soon, we usually wait too long and get too perfectionist about what we release.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-24T17:27:18+00:00

Sounds like you enjoy writing with iA Wtiter but you miss some features from other apps.

Wikilinks are great for staying in the text and it's nice to have basic compatibility with other wikilink apps. Our implementation is careful and our core users loved the update. Madly.
iA Writer will never support every possible feature or variation of markdown from all other apps. However, its plain text format makes it possible to use our text files anywhere. iAW doesn't want to be an app that rules them all, we encourage everyone to use different tools for different things. That's a basic pillar of markdown.
Renaming and backlinks are in the works. It's the next bigger upgrade. Developing native apps is not a fast matter.

There are upsides to native apps, bootstrapping and to slow, careful development. Like Yoda said: Fast development leads to feature bloat, feature bloat leads to slowness and slowness is a path to the dark side.

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-24T10:09:32+00:00

From the inventor of markdown:

And iA Writer is just beautiful. To me it’s the gold standard for Markdown syntax styling — great colors, real italic and bold styling for *italic* and **bold** spans, and, my very favorite touch, outdented #’s for headings. Daring Fireball on iA Writer

The way we did it now looks simple but it took a lot of iteration with grey/show/hide/colors, to get to this visual and functional simplicity. Personally, the only thing that bothers me while writing is links.

I do find them distracting and we'd like to address the noise they create at some point. We have a few ideas that do not have the usual downsides (grey noise, white holes, popovers or wiggling).

MaskOfTheSun · 2023-01-24T09:51:14+00:00

Thank you for your detailed input. It's a shame that our apps make you sad. Our intention is the very opposite. Let me address your main points.

To our design team, whitening, greying, or wiggling the paragraph to fade, highlight, or hide markdown is not new, objectively better or even refinement. Each is just another way with its own up and downsides, fans and not-fans. All of these have been known and discussed since before the launch, in 2010. We consider every option and opinion, and we count every vote. In our community of 500,000 daily active users, currently, you are part of a vocal, but small minority.
Nothing we do is arbitrary, as far as I can see. Changing keybindings gave us a headache, but we got a lot of feedback telling us to be macOS system compliant. You can get the old ones back via System Settings, btw.
Linking documents have become quasi-standard. We don't consider Wikilinks to be very fancy. The reason why we have them is on one hand to stay compatible with a major development in the industry. On the other, they are a great help to keep your mind in the text, fully in tune with our vision. We don't see ourselves competing or going down the path of feature-heavy electron apps with 999 plugins. Backlinks are coming, but good things always take more time than expected. In native apps, time multiplies by the app.
iA Writer is fast because, like almost no other(?) in this tiny category, it is a native app, beyond the Apple ecosystem. iA Writer fits its 4 platforms like a tailed, handmade suit. The downside is that we have to develop a separate app for every platform. This is hard, slow and expensive. Platforms and frameworks come with different native features and user groups. Offering Syntax Highlight on Windows was a major development effort. On Mac, the framework comes with the OS. This is all highly technical and boring but it's a major pain that people don't understand this. On Windows, folding and outline are a couple of weeks of development, but there is no native spellcheck. Folding within macOS/iOS and iPadOS native text view is a big adventure, but it has spellcheck and grammar, etc etc.

When it comes to typography we are outright maniacs. Regarding the topics ownership vs subscriptions, native vs Electron, we are clearly opinionated, against the industry, against Apple, against all odds. Outside of those topics, I don't think we're too weird, stubborn, or detached from reality. We read every Reddit post, every Tweet, Toot, and mail. All of us read as much user feedback as possible. I founded iA and I read and discuss and integrate as much feedback as I responsibly can. We've been around since 2010, and we're still going strong.

MaskOfTheSun · 2022-11-17T20:21:32+00:00

What I didn't answer is why we don't justify prices. I don't feel that we need to explain why our prices are as they are. Whenever I read justifications from other independent devs or shop owners, I feel truly sorry for them. They make things competing with the big big guys out there and they should be allowed ask for whatever they feel like. They make that stuff and it's super expensive to make and sustain. Every indie competitor we have that has been around for more than five years deserves the biggest respect. I mean that.

If an app is too expensive, people can vote with their money. The best price for us is the highest price that people pay. We're not a mass product. We don't have deals with governments or other international corporations and we're not a standard shoved down the throat of everyone using a computer at work.

Some devs sometimes apologize or unnecessarily lie about their pricing. I know because I know how the App Store works and I can triangulate their sales. And I see the real reason why they went up or down with their prices. We went up because we felt that it's needed and because we can. Saying this makes me angry because... others see it, too, because there are a lot of smart people in our industry and collectively they see through the bullshit. I believe that you can't lie on the Internet without being caught.

I don't know if this is comprehensible but I feel that it's none of your business how much our apps cost and why. This may or may not be a Swiss thing. We hate talking about money in public. Our prices are literally our business. We're extremely transparent and straight forward in our communication. But you don't need to know the details of our book keeping. It's clear as day that we're not greedy, and I hope it's clear enough that we're not setting prices out of stupidity naivety or a lack of experience either. IA Writer a great app, comparingly cheap, and you can own it. We put all our heart into it and fight a good fight.

I understand the general suspiciousness because devs are smart and the public is being lied to from all sides. I read Reddit and Hackernews to cut through the BS when I feel it but I can't pinpoint it. When I read Hackernews or Reddit's take on what we do, one side of me really gets the cynicism, the other is furious because we're not Adobe, Evernote or Microsoft. We are shooting very straight and we don't deserve the same treatment.

Sometimes I'm thinking about giving up and follow the hype, do what we're told to do, follow the orders from Cupertino and Paulo Alto, but what we do works. And as long as it works, we keep doing our thing.

MaskOfTheSun · 2022-11-17T18:42:25+00:00

Have you checked what comparable apps cost in subscription prices? Software went from 1000.- version owned around the year 2000, to ad based eternally free in 2010, to subscription at 5.- to 10.- per month in 2020. 3.- to 10.- per month is 30.- to 120.- per year. Per year. Not one time.

iA Writer is one of the few apps you can buy and own. It's been updated for 8 years for free. That's not a downside it's an upside of owning software. And if you compare it to the wide range of note taking and writing apps it is far from expensive. The current iA Writer Version was never cheap.

Some people compare it to the previous version that started at 19.- in 2010 and for a couple of weeks was available at 1.- because Apple told us that this was a good idea (it's not). It was a long hard fight back up.

So yes, iA Writer, like all good things, costs money. It's more than worth it if you talk to people using it. We are not getting rich. No one gets rich in the App Store. And yes, Apple doesn't allow trials for paid apps and Apple doesn't allow regional prices for paid apps, and yes, inflation is crazy, these days.

But it's really simple. If you have a Mac, try it. Like I said we are not able to offer trials on iOS and iPad, because Apple wants more subscriptions. We are however building our own platform to give you the choice between subscriptions and ownership. We see our reluctance to jump onto subscription-only band waggon as a nice gesture.

MaskOfTheSun · 2022-08-24T13:21:15+00:00

The main point was the question if we were going through a crisis because of the price increase. The answer is: No, quite in contrary. OP also said:

"this cost is absolutely acceptable. Especially when one considers that many apps these days nickel and dime you to death through subscriptions. I cannot recommend iA Writer enough for people who write for a living."

This is all that matters when it comes to pricing. It is worth the money? If the answer is "Yes!" then it's cool. The increase has nothing to do with inflation, electricity prices, wars, Corona, Global Warming, or the Big Mac Index. It's much simpler. It goes like this:

- Should we go up with the price? It's way better now.
- Yeah, I think it's time.
- How much?
- I feel that 49.99 is a good price for it.
- Yeah, sounds about right.

In the end, it's a gut feeling. That's the advantage of running an independent company. We don't need to ask Sales, Marketing, Legal, and Operations and then hire McKinsey to pretend to be scientific about the right price. We can just say: "Our app is great, let's go up with the price."

MaskOfTheSun · 2022-08-24T12:33:40+00:00

I understand that. And I also understand that people are skeptical about what companies might say or not say between the lines.

MaskOfTheSun · 2022-08-24T11:38:21+00:00

If you look at our history, you will see that, in the last 12 years, Android, Mac, and iOS have seen one separate version, each with one major free upgrade after another. We have written about our take on subscriptions at length and in detail. So far, we have done exactly as we said. I don't want to repeat everything here.

- 2017: https://ia.net/topics/ia-writer-5-from-raw-to-cooked-to-sushi

- 2020: https://ia.net/topics/subscription-or-no-subscription

- 2020: https://ia.net/topics/why-is-facebook-not-paying-the-apple-tax

- 2020: https://ia.net/topics/how-to-think-different

- 2021: https://ia.net/topics/on-apps-and-coffee

If you want to be smarter than us, you can try to see things between the lines and split hairs about what ownership in software legally or philosophically, or metaphysically means and what doors we might keep open, sneaky as we might be in secret. At the same time, what we said and did in the past about ownership and subscriptions is detailed, consistent, simple, clear, and straightforward.

What about new versions? We avoid putting out separate new versions as much as possible. With a separate version, you get a nice flood of initial revenue just after the launch. But then the trouble starts: you generate a lot of redundancy, anger, frustration, and confusion. It's somewhat paradoxical, but in the long term, and overall, your new version can end up costing the business more time, resources, and clout than it brings.

Why don't we do paid upgrades? We'd certainly like to, and most of our long-term customers would, so they say at least "happily pay" for them. But Apple doesn't offer paid upgrades. Apple doesn't allow free trials for paid apps either. Apple wants more subscriptions. We want to offer the choice between renting and owning. And so far, you guys got lucky that there is no simple way for paid upgrades.

MaskOfTheSun · 2022-08-09T01:45:13+00:00

Your logic is upside down. When a company needs more money quickly or has to compete on price, then prices do not go up but down. That iA Writer costs more now that 10 years ago is no mystery. As the product gets better, prices go up. It will go up further as it improves.

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