You’re all flogging a dead horse, as in dead until such time as something or other has been released. Good luck with your wait, but I suggest giving it up until 2028.
Actually I’m giving up entirely now. Lets face it if they aren’t bothering to release until they get a windows app done, then by the time that occurs the mac version will be old and dated and need a serious update.
I only asked about it since I’m about to jump into a new series and once I start in a writing program, I’d rather stick in it until the project is completed. I want to give one of the new writing software programs a spin. I’d hoped it would be the new L&L app but since its not being released at all, I’ll try one of the others.
I will probably hate it and have to transfer everything back to my old scrivener program when the first draft is done, but I do like to try the other writing software options anyhow. Just to keep tabs on what’s out there. After all, how do I know that Scrivener is the best program that suits my writing if I don’t know what the others are like. lol
Where has there been any suggestion L&L “aren’t bothering to release”? They have said they wish to address both platforms at the same time.
As for “the new L&L app but since it’s not being released at all”. I have no clue where that came from, but Keith’s public blog post makes it clear it will be released, just not to your preferred timetable, apparently. Sometimes the world doesn’t stop at our demand.
Anyhoo, until there is a public statement from L&L, we’re all just guessing when there will be a release.
Meanwhile, the best writing app beyond question is already available - Scrivener.
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The same way one knows that the person they marry is the best out there?
Did you know that wolves, gibbons and California mice all choose a writing program for life?
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See, now I’m confused. Didn’t you imply that just a couple of posts up, and then say that you were quoting staff? I haven’t been able to find the quote you refer to, though. Could you link to it, please? I’d like to see the official position.
There’s a difference between choosing when and how to release and “aren’t bothering to release”.
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The official position of Literature & Latte is that we don’t announce release dates in advance.
Regarding the new application specifically, our intent is to release across all three platforms simultaneously, which of course requires that all three versions be ready for release.
Development is ongoing. Any suggestion that the application has been dropped entirely is categorically false.
Participants in the beta program are reminded that they agreed to confidentiality as a condition of acceptance into the program.
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Appoligies I meant ‘won’t be released at all this year’. At least that is my guess based on known timelines from bread crumbs dropped every now and then.
- Beta testers were called for back in October 2023.
- The Mac version is good to go (it seems again just from bits and pieces mentioned by people - even back in late 2024 hinting that it was good and going well)
- the new info (to me) that you won’t release until the app is ready in multiple formats
- Added to that the info that the windows version isn’t even in beta testing yet
To my mind most likely puts us into 2026 at the earliest. Of course I’ll be overjoyed if L&L actually pull it off this year. I will absilutely run off, buy the new offering and most likely leave the new writing app I’m about to test next month languishing like a jilted lover.
I know, I know. You don’t have to say it. ‘L&L don’t announce release dates in advance’.
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Greetings to the developers and everyone else.
I respect the fact that L&L want to release ONE app that works on all target platforms. This seems wise.
My two half dollars (cuz inflation): If this app is meant in part to compete with Ulysses, the near term is a good time to release it. That’s because Ulysses, in my experience, has become shambolic. I use Ulysses because of Markdown, and because of all the things that it gets right. But it’s begun losing work, which to all writers is an instant trust-destroyer. My preference will always be to use a L&L app that gets syncing right, but I’ve grown so accustomed to Markdown that I have not until now been able to pull myself away.
But now here I am, hat in hand, just a boy, standing in front of a developer, asking her or him to love him (or, err, at least release something does Markdown and syncing really well).
If you are looking for Markdown, look elsewhere! From the original announcement:
Cake Text?
Is there a way of having our cake and eating it? A text system that incorporates the advantages of both approaches? Rich text that still looks beautiful while writing, but without the necessity of so many buttons, with content mostly divorced from appearance, making it simple to switch between different sets of formatting?
When it comes to reading, this isn’t uncommon: many e-readers, for example, are “rich text” in appearance (featuring bold text, indented quotes and so on) but let the user switch between various font and line spacing options that alter the presentation of the entire book on the fly.
This works because the text itself only knows that this paragraph is a title, those paragraphs are a quote, and these words are bold—it doesn’t know the formatting specifics. Those specifics are applied using a “style sheet”, which tells the text to, say, use a 12pt Sabon font with 1.2 line spacing, make titles bigger, and indent quotes. Switch to a different style sheet and the whole book looks different.
We think that with some tweaking, a similar approach could work beautifully for prose writing too, allowing for versatile formatting with fewer distractions. Which is why I set about coding a new text system[1] based on these ideas. This was the starting point for our new app, which has been in the works now for nearly three years.
Not Markdown!
[1] My emphasis!
Mark
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Thanks. I suppose, according to my own usage, I mean something like this “cake” system. It sounds very good to me, and will probably work similarly to how I write on Ulysses. Looking forward to taking many bites.
You can write in Markdown in Scrivener, just FYI. Basic use of Markdown as primary writing format in Scrivener - #5 by AmberV
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Amber, thank you for writing that and thanks to Jen for supplying that information. I suppose when I say “Markdown,” that’s shorthand for the whole approach to Markdown, which (you know) is to simply start writing, which Ulysses (and Drafts) excels at. I am very grateful for Scrivener, but I am sitting down and typing, organizing into a library and exporting faster - more frictionlessly - with Ulysses. I suspect that smoothing these frictions is one purpose of the new app. As I said above, I would prefer to use an app designed by L&L, given how solid Scrivener is.