MarkFlow: The Chronicles of Building an IntelliJ WYSIWYG Markdown Editor Out of Frustration

1. The Root of the Problem: "I'm sick of the split-screen Markdown view"

TL;DR
Target: IntelliJ users who despise the split-screen view when writing READMEs.
Feature: A true WYSIWYG Markdown editor that renders as you type, just like Notion or Typora (Supports Mermaid & KaTeX).
Result: As expected, a measly download count. I guess everyone else is perfectly happy with the default split screen...
Future Plans: Code refactoring...?

The default IDE Markdown plugin always forces you to split the screen in half.

Markdown code on the left, preview on the right.

One way or another, it's uncomfortable. It's annoying. It pisses me off.

2. Wait, this doesn't exist?...

I looked around and (thought) there were absolutely no WYSIWYG editor plugins in the IntelliJ ecosystem.

Turns out there was one later. A plugin based on vditor.

Not that it makes a huge difference, but mine is based on milkdown (editor).

3. Let's Craft It Myself! (feat. AI Assistant)

Just like with zMyBatis, I ruthlessly whipped the AI Assistant again.

The AI kept spouting nonsense, so without fail, I threw a bunch of swear words at it again.

This time, I didn't even bother debugging. It was literally just me saying, "Do it for me."

4. Give Me Back My Quota...

The initial core features were knocked out quickly; I barely used any of my AI quota.

However, to save resources, I introduced a Shared JCEF Browser Instance approach. I think that's when my quota just melted away.

I also burned through a lot of it dealing with a rendering issue where only parts of the screen loaded instead of the whole thing.

Since all I did was say "Fix it for me," I honestly don't remember much.

5. Polishing the Product

I brainstormed various options that would be nice to have,

and made sure the features were implemented along with those options. By the AI Assistant, of course.

6. What Even Is Marketing?

Because of my painful memories from the zMyBatis days—getting zero comments everywhere and getting banned on Reddit...

This time, I just quietly uploaded it to the Marketplace.

7. Wrapping Up

It feels like this plugin will also end up being a tool used by nobody but me.

Still, I hope it becomes a ray of light for someone out there who is exhausted by the split-screen Markdown view.