Hide markdown syntax as cursor leaves the position?

[erikvlm]

Is it possible to have the markdown syntax hide as the cursor leaves the text? Sort of like Obsidian does in their live preview mode?

Eg writing **bold** to only show bold? (Notice that the asterisks have been "hidden")

[DivineDominion]

It's technically possible by using NSGlyphGenerator to replace the glyphs for * with none (e.g. unless selected)

The more convenient way to change the behavior is to use a delegate instead of overriding the glyph generator (which doesn't even work on iOS): NSLayoutManagerDelegate.layoutManager(_:shouldGenerateGlyphs:properties:characterIndexes:font:forGlyphRange:)

Example https://stackoverflow.com/a/57697139/1460929

[erikmalmberg]

I tried following that stackoverflow post but couldn't get it to work - can you show a crude example of how you would?

[DivineDominion]

Sorry, no, just notes.

There's a WWDC session: Dan Schimpf and Aki Inoue (2010): Advanced Cocoa Text Tips and Tricks.

PDF version e.g. available here:
https://docs.huihoo.com/apple/wwdc/2010/session_114__advanced_cocoa_text_tips__tricks.pdf

I'd suggest trying that on macOS, first, because iOS didn't have the API back then. NSLayoutManagerDelegate then will be the way forward IIRC.

[ruddfawcett]

This would be great functionality. Unfortunately it is something that I am unable to get to: @DivineDominion's suggestions are good ones.