Support Critic markup

[The_Econosophist]

Use case or problem

Since I use obsidian equally for making notes as well as reading them and intend to use mobile app just as a reading and learning tool, it would be great to have more options in including critic markup mode(apart from the highlight syntax)

Proposed solution

I use Ulysses to draft my essays to publish them on the blog and I really enjoy their version of markdown (markdownXL?) which have options such as

||delete|| ::highlight:: {Annotation} and ++comment++ and %% for comment block

Even the {{foobar}} syntax of roam blocks or iawriter TOC is unused right?

This small change will absolutely be immensely helpful!

[DEV_Scribbles]

%% can be used as comments in Obsidian as well

[Moonbase59]

Due to its flexibility, Obsidian already suffers from the fact that too many new “language elements” are introduced without thinking too much about the side effects. This makes it increasingly less compatible, and we start to build a locked-in platform—again.

I still think “critic markup” might find its use cases, but there is already a version out there, so why not adopt its syntax? And maybe make it a plugin (be it core or community), so users can make their own informed choice?

In short, Critic Markup uses this basic syntax:

• Addition {++ ++}
• Deletion {-- --}
• Substitution {~~ ~> ~~}
• Comment {>> <<}
• Highlight {== ==}{>> <<}

which should be enough to successfully copy edit text.

Links:

• CriticMarkup Homepage: http://criticmarkup.com/
• Spec: http://criticmarkup.com/spec.php
• Toolkit on GitHub: https://github.com/CriticMarkup/CriticMarkup-toolkit
• pancritic allows integration with Pandoc workflows
• For Mac users, it’s already integrated into MultiMarkdown Composer.

[msteffens]

This! I‘ve also argued for CriticMarkup here:

Feature Request: Comment Formatting

Instead of creating yet another custom syntax, I‘d suggest to support CriticMarkup. CriticMarkup is supported already by quite a few apps, and it‘s well designed & thought thru (so that it doesn‘t clash with any other syntax, yet is still easily recognizable). With CriticMarkup syntax, {==this would be highlighted text==} {>>this would be a comment which would be left out in preview<<} Here‘s a somewhat contrived example: [image]

[Moonbase59]

Yep, read that. Totally agree. Critic Markup support would be nice for us writers! (Maybe even with an “Accept/Reject” feature? From the toolkit they offer, it should be easily adaptable, I think …)

[gobbletown]

+1 bump-ski! Plez

Any updates?

[Synchronicity]

A strong upvote for adding Critic Markup support to Obsidian. Markdown won’t have a prayer of competing with .docx files in organizations, enterprises, and academia without this feature, and it would be equally useful for annotating one’s own notes and writing.

[zettelstraum]

Oh wow!
I am just beginning to have a look at critic markdown but am beginning to think this might be at least part of a potential solution to what I proposed here:
https://forum.obsidian.md/t/better-text-marking-functionality/45510/8

I even left out change tracking as I found the post would get too long but it is something I very much wish for.

Versioning can to some extent be done manually (I make copies of the evolving file adding 1.0, 1.1 etc. and continue to work on my main file. But this is not a replacement for anything that truly tracks the changes a text goes through over time.

Also, it would open doors towards collaboration, somerthing I also would like to see very much…

Thank you for pointing me in that direction. And:
+5 BUMP

EDIT:
I was just thinking along the lines of having the changes saved in a separate file so as to not clutter the text itself.
This file could be hidden in the file browser and its content only be displayed in the main file upon specific user request. Maybe a specially adapted form of transclusion would be something to consider.
But I am a total programming noob, so please forgive my stumbling when it comes to suggestions. They originate from a sole user perspective.

[Synchronicity]

I’m surprised that Obsidian still doesn’t support Critic Markup, either by default or plugin. It’s such a basic and important feature.

[vincer]

I second this- hopefully with interesting views for comments (like showing a counter on the gutter besides the main text, hovering on it showing the comment)

[gobbletown]

Is there still no usable and unobtrusive means of annotation, commenting, margin-notes, endnotes, GWERN-type markup, etc. to allow for a means of improving the intelligibility and provenance of a given block of text?!?

I mean currently, without a right-click’athon of doom ; a Franken-plugin ; a YAML’y, human-unfriendly ‘we know it ain’t markup’-language^TM ; or an unintuitive, multistep, process — each of which still yields only half-baked, partially-intelligible results, at best — is there truly no way of adding context or comment to content in Obsidian?

(Please don’t mention ‘call-outs’… They’re bloated, static, billboards ; not tools for knowledge work…)

Is Obsidian, THE (imho) Undisputed, Omniweight Champion of the PKM Wars of 2021, still without such an essential feature? A feature that has been present since even the oldest and worst-est of word processing software from the 70’s?

Is this such a niche feature, with so limited interest?

Or am I possibly too dense, so as to have totally overlooked the presence of this crucial capability during my latest RTFM-rounds of the Obsidian User’s Manual(s)?

---

Annotation:

noun

1. a note of explanation or comment added to a text or diagram.

[lpuerto]

I would love to see this come to obsidian… I just create the account in this forum and give support to the proposal.

[Fevol]

@The_Econosophist @DEV_Scribbles @Moonbase59 @msteffens @gobbletown @Synchronicity @zettelstraum @vincer @lpuerto
(I apologize for the notifications, I’m tagging you in case you are still interested in this)

I’ve been working on a plugin that implements a CriticMarkup renderer, suggestion mode and comments view within Obsidian.

I’ve released it for alpha testing today, if you’re interested in trying it out:

GitHub - Fevol/obsidian-criticmarkup: Obsidian plugin for annotating notes...

There is also a thread over in the Discord server for discussing the plugin, you can find a link to it in the #updates channel, or under #plugin-advanced > Commentator.

[WhiteNoise]

I suggest you open a thread in share and showcase and continue the conversation about your plugin there.

[Fevol]

Yep sorry, I’ve made a thread just now, but I could not edit my original post to link to it.

In any case, here is the link to the thread:

New Plugin: Commentator

Hello everyone! For the past few months, I’ve been working on a plugin called ‘Commentator’, which aims to recreate Word’s/Google Docs’ suggestion and comment modi within Obsidian, using the CriticMarkup syntax. This feature has been requested in below thread, and by several people in the Discord server: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/critic-markup/18485 Features Currently, the plugin supports the following features: A WYSIWYG suggestion mode that tracks text being added/deleted/replaced Prev…