[jitl]

I work at Notion and recently rebuilt much of the editor core, and I don’t think Slate is a good choice because it considers nice, simple code more important than CJK or Android support. Notion doesn’t use Slate or any other editor framework. I just study a lot of editor core code.

[nicce]

I don’t understand the Android argument - these are mainly meant for browsers right?

[jitl]

1. Android also has a browser. It is an important platform with many users.

2. Building an editor is so complicated that most organizations want to do it only once. They build a web editor, and wrap it in a native app. The shell like file browser, sharing screens, etc are “native” but the editor surface is a webview. This is how Quip, Dropbox Paper, Google Docs, Notion, etc work. Even iOS worked this way initially for all editable styled text (per https://twitter.com/kocienda/status/1400484473540513792?s=21...)

3. If you are going to bet the core competency of your business on a framework, it’s important to understand the motivations and limitations of said framework.

[jamesfisher]

Thanks, I see. I'm using Slate for TigYog.app, and fairly happy with it, but neither CJK nor Android are important there.

Btw I'd love to see any public posts about the architecture of the Notion editor!

[jitl]

Slate has a nice, approachable API from a React perspective. I think depending on your project it could be an okay trade off.

I co-wrote a post about our editor internals after finishing up the recent re-work but we decided not to publish it to conserve our Competitive Advantage.

[ketzo]

Dang. Makes sense, since it's such a defining characteristic. But dang, I would love to read that :D

Guess I'll just have to get a job at Notion some day and dig it up...

[dbbk]

What are your thoughts on TipTap?

[jitl]

Since it doesn’t implement editing itself I haven’t studied its source. Under the hood it’s ProseMirror so it should be okay, although I’d be uneasy about stacking abstractions too high: Your code —> TipTap React —> TipTap Extension —> ProseMirror Plugin —> ProseMirror Core —> DOM feels like there’s a lot of incidental complexity to learn all of the APIs across these layers. Right now the docs site is returning HTTP 502 to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.