I don’t like Markdown. So why am I building a Markdown notes app?

8 October 2026 · Rob Schmitt

I don’t particularly like writing Markdown. This is a slightly awkward admission from someone building a Markdown notes app.

Look, I’m an old programmer. I’ve looked at quite enough syntax. When I’m writing a note, I want to think about what I’m trying to say. Having to think about notation pulls a little of my attention towards the mechanics of writing.

I also care about how my notes look. The typography, the spacing, how everything sits on the page. I want them to be beautiful, even if I’m only writing a shopping list.

So why am I building Soot, my notes app, around Markdown?

Because I like what Markdown gives me as a file format. Plain text files, in ordinary folders. I can back them up however I like, search them with other tools, or move the whole lot somewhere else. On my computer, the notes live in a folder I choose, and other apps can open it too. There’s nothing to export.

Markdown adds enough structure to plain text for the things I need in notes: headings, emphasis, lists, links. And the file still makes sense if I open it in a basic text editor. My AI agents can work with the same files too, which has become rather useful.

That’s a lot to like about a file format. It doesn’t necessarily make it how I want to write.

Back in 2021, John Gruber said, “If you want Markdown, show the Markdown.” He couldn’t see why editors would hide it: the punctuation was designed to be visible.

I’ve been reading Daring Fireball for at least fifteen years and tend to agree with John about most things. Not everything, obviously.

In that post he writes, “Maybe I don’t know much about Markdown.”

Maybe he doesn’t.

I suspect he does, though. He did invent the thing.

And he’s right that it reads well as plain text. That’s what makes it a good file format.

I just don’t want to see it while I’m writing. So in Soot, the note looks formatted while you’re editing it. The Markdown symbols stay out of sight, including on the line you’re typing (though you can show them if you prefer). Underneath, it’s still an ordinary Markdown file.

Maybe I don’t know much about Markdown either.

But I know how I want my notes to look when I’m writing them.