MacDown

MacDown is an open source Markdown editor for macOS, released under the MIT License. The author stole the idea from Chen Luo’s Mou so that people can make crappy clones.

This fork keeps the original MacDown app identity while modernizing the source for universal macOS 11+ builds on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. The original project is MacDownApp/macdown. This modernization fork was prepared by Xhulio L..

Visit the historical project site for original MacDown information.

What Changed in This Fork

This fork modernizes MacDown so it can be built and used on current macOS systems while preserving the original app identity.

Key changes:

• Universal macOS 11+ project settings for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
• Updated Xcode build configuration for modern macOS SDKs.
• Sparkle 2 integration through Swift Package Manager.
• Restored Check for Updates... flow, disabled until a real appcast URL and public key are configured.
• Developer ID-ready Release settings with hardened runtime guidance.
• Removed legacy architecture/deployment settings such as old Intel-only assumptions.
• Added script/build_and_run.sh for local build, launch, verification, and logs.
• Updated documentation for source-first distribution instead of unsupported old binaries.
• Added Albanian (sq) localization.
• Added modernization credits for Xhulio L.

This is a source modernization fork. It does not currently ship signed/notarized binaries, a public Sparkle appcast, or an active support channel.

Install

This fork currently publishes source changes, not fork-owned notarized binary releases. To try the Apple Silicon/macOS modernization, build the app locally from MacDown.xcworkspace or use the helper script in the Build and Run section.

Historical upstream binaries and the Homebrew Cask may still be available from the original project, but they are not produced by this fork and may not include the Apple Silicon/macOS 11+ modernization. For reference, the historical cask command is:

brew install --cask macdown

Screenshot

License

MacDown is released under the terms of MIT License. You may find the content of the license here, or inside the LICENSE directory.

You may find full text of licenses about third-party components in the LICENSE directory, or the About MacDown panel in the application.

The following editor themes and CSS files are extracted from Mou, courtesy of Chen Luo:

• Mou Fresh Air
• Mou Fresh Air+
• Mou Night
• Mou Night+
• Mou Paper
• Mou Paper+
• Tomorrow
• Tomorrow Blue
• Tomorrow+
• Writer
• Writer+
• Clearness
• Clearness Dark
• GitHub
• GitHub2

Development

Requirements

If you wish to build MacDown yourself, you will need the following components/tools:

• Full Xcode with the macOS 11.0 SDK or later
• Git
• Bundler

Note: Old versions of CocoaPods are not supported. Please use Bundler to execute CocoaPods, or make sure your CocoaPods is later than shown in Gemfile.lock.

An appropriate SDK is bundled with recent versions of Xcode. Command Line Tools alone are not enough to build the Xcode workspace.

The project deployment target is macOS 11.0. Release builds are intended to be universal Apple Silicon and Intel builds when ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH=NO is used.

Environment Setup

After cloning the repository, run the following commands inside the repository root (directory containing this README.md file):

git submodule update --init
bundle install
bundle exec pod install
make -C Dependency/peg-markdown-highlight

and open MacDown.xcworkspace in Xcode. The first command initialises the dependency submodule(s) used in MacDown; Bundler and CocoaPods install the Ruby and Cocoa dependencies.

Sparkle 2 is resolved by Xcode through Swift Package Manager from https://github.com/sparkle-project/Sparkle. CocoaPods continues to manage the Objective-C dependencies already used by MacDown.

For release-quality builds, install the optional Node dependencies used by the GitHub stylesheet generator:

(cd Tools/GitHub-style-generator && npm install)

The Xcode Transpile Styles phase uses that generator. If these Node dependencies are missing, Xcode may print a node-sass warning and leave the generated GitHub-2020.css stylesheet empty while the app build continues.

If Apple's system Ruby fails to start CocoaPods with an ActiveSupport Logger error, run the CocoaPods step with:

bundle exec ruby -e 'require "logger"; load Gem.bin_path("cocoapods", "pod")' install

Refer to the official guides of Git and CocoaPods if you need more instructions. If you run into build issues later on, try running the following commands to update dependencies:

git submodule update
bundle exec pod install

Build and Run

Use the project-local runner for the normal edit/build/run loop:

./script/build_and_run.sh

It builds MacDown.xcworkspace with the MacDown scheme, quits any running MacDown instance, and launches the freshly built app. Additional modes:

./script/build_and_run.sh --verify
./script/build_and_run.sh --logs

The script requires full Xcode, not only Command Line Tools, and prints the CocoaPods install command if the Pods directory is missing.

Updates and Signing

MacDown uses Sparkle 2's SPUStandardUpdaterController. Check for Updates... is present in the app menu, but Sparkle is not started and the menu item remains disabled unless both a feed URL and EdDSA public key are supplied.

This fork does not ship a public appcast URL or Sparkle key by default.

Set these build settings in an .xcconfig, in Xcode, or on the xcodebuild command line for release builds:

MACDOWN_SPARKLE_FEED_URL=https://example.com/appcast.xml
MACDOWN_SPARKLE_BETA_FEED_URL=https://example.com/beta-appcast.xml
MACDOWN_SPARKLE_PUBLIC_ED_KEY=<sparkle-ed25519-public-key>

The beta feed is optional and is used only when the existing prerelease update preference is enabled.

Release builds enable the hardened runtime for Developer ID distribution. The project does not hard-code signing credentials or sandbox entitlements. Provide distribution signing values from your local environment or CI:

DEVELOPMENT_TEAM=<team-id>
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY="Developer ID Application"

After a signed archive is exported, validate the result with:

codesign -dvvv --entitlements :- MacDown.app
lipo -archs MacDown.app/Contents/MacOS/MacDown
spctl -a -vv MacDown.app

Translation

Existing translations are retained from the original MacDown project. This fork also adds Albanian (sq). It does not currently manage a separate translation workflow or progress badge.

Discussion

This repository is a source modernization fork, not an active support channel. Bug reports and pull requests may be reviewed on a best-effort basis, but there is no guarantee of ongoing maintenance or user support.

For original upstream history and older project discussion, see MacDownApp/macdown.

MacDown does not update on your computer immediately when changes are made, so something you experienced might be known, or even fixed in the development version.

MacDown depends a lot on other open source projects, such as Hoedown for Markdown-to-HTML rendering, Prism for syntax highlighting in code blocks, and PEG Markdown Highlight for editor highlighting. If you find problems when using those particular features, you can also consider reporting them directly to upstream projects as well as checking whether the original MacDown project already documented the behavior.

Tipping

This note is retained from the original upstream project for the original author.

If you find MacDown suitable for your needs, please consider giving me a tip through PayPal. Or, if you prefer to buy me a drink personally instead, just send me a tweet when you visit Taipei, Taiwan, where I live. I look forward to meeting you!