Rendering pane flashing

[dpmccabe]

Upgraded to 0.7.2 today and the rendering pane is flashing on almost every keypress:
https://i.imgur.com/F7OTGhH.mp4

It seems to happen with every combination of themes and syntax highlighting I've tried.

[MiroFurtado]

I have this same issue, somewhat renders the app unusable.

[akauppi]

Me too. macOS 10.15.1 on Mac Mini 2018. The precise build is 1008.

Happens regardless of macOS dark/light mode, or MacDown themes.

[machale]

When I tried 0.7.2 on macOS 10.14.6 I saw the same flashing, so I don't think this is Catalina-specific.

[homer0]

This is not Catalina specific; I haven't installed yet and I see the same blinking. I re-installed the previous version for now.

[jenstroeger]

Yes, same flickering issue with MacDown 0.7.2 on MacOS 10.14.6. I’m rolling back to the previous version 0.7.1 too.

@FranklinYu, any guesstimate as when this will be fixed?

[FranklinYu]

@jenstroeger I haven't found the cause so I cannot provide any estimate. Sorry.

[homer0]

@FranklinYu no problem; the app is great as it is :D; I think there's no problem waiting a little bit more for all the new features.

[titanix]

Same here. The software became totally unusable. I updated from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2 and I'm really surprised and disappointed by all the UI changes and instability that came in a 0.0.X version.

[FranklinYu]

@titanix PR welcome 😄

[MiroFurtado]

Same here. The software became totally unusable. I updated from 0.7.1 to 0.7.2 and I'm really surprised and disappointed by all the UI changes and instability that came in a 0.0.X version.

Not hard to just use the older binary. I'm sure that the developer who donates his time to make this app has more than enough stuff to deal with.

[techdad]

Also have the same, MacDown 0.7.2 (1008) on macOS Mojave 10.14.6, with OS in dark mode. Also just rolling back the latest update for now, but plus one that it happens for me.

[FranklinYu]

This can easily be reproduced, but I’m still unable to find the cause of this issue. Will invest more time in it, but for the time being I plan to release a new version in stable channel addressing #1103. I guess it’s not bad to at least fix one issue.

[anatmela]

Updated from 0.7.1 to 0.7.3 (using Mojave 10.14.2), issue still exists (as predicted above). As a temporary measure, setting Update preview automatically as you type to off avoids the flicker.

[iJaack]

I'm trying to understand what is the cause that affects this. Any of you have Retina displays? which resolution? Just trying to understand a pattern :)
I have a MacBook Pro 2019 and I have this problem every now and then, but not for every character that I type.

[jenstroeger]

Any of you have Retina displays? which resolution?

Yes: 15.4-inch (2880 x 1800), Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB graphics. That’s a 2015 MacBook Pro, and it flickers consistently with every keypress.

[SSteve]

Any of you have Retina displays? which resolution?

I have a 27" late-2015 iMac with a retina screen and see the flickering. I also have a non-retina monitor attached and the flickering happens there, too.

[FranklinYu]

I can also reproduce it on Retina iMac 2019 version. The flickering doesn’t happen every time, but only when I type fast. I suspect that when I type slowly the CPU processes it so fast that I didn’t notice it, which means that when we have a fix we need to test it on old hardware. I also have a Mac mini 2014 for this purpose.

I recommend everyone to use @anatmela’s workaround until we fix this bug.

[AHBruns]

Having this problem on as well. Using the work around for the time being. Just wanted to add my laptop's specs to help with finding a pattern for debugging:

[AHBruns]

I can give more if needed.

[jpweg1993]

Having the same issue on Mojave (10.14.6). Specs are below:

Thanks @anatmela, that workaround works great!

[craigrouse]

Same issue, 2019 MBP 32GB Ram, 8-core i9 2.4GHz, AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB graphics card. Catalina 10.15.2

[jimmygle]

Having this issue and it's making the app unusable. I tried switching themes around, but it seems unrelated. I'm using version 0.7.2 on MacOS 11.3.1.

[ngocjr7]

It happens even with v0.7.1 in macOS 11.5 :(

[djstevenson]

This issue hasa made the current release of the app literally unusable.

I run 0.7.3 on Big Sur (Intel Mac, currently running macOS 11.5.2). I use dark mode.

I tried 0.7.1 which seemed initially promising, but it got flickery as soon as the MD document became non-trivial.

[dljessup]

I came across this issue because my work MacBook (MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)) was just upgraded from High Sierra to Catalina today and the flashing problem is bugging the living foo out of me. As it happens, I also have a personal MacBook (MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)) that has been macOS Catalina for a little over a year, and I didn't recall seeing this problem there even tho' I use MacDown on a daily basis. Both Macbooks have MacDown version 0.7.3.

After examining the behavior of MacDown on my personal MacBook more carefully, it appears that the rerender-and-scroll is happening there, too, but that it happens so quickly that it's a non-annoying flicker, whereas it is slower and much more intrusive on my work MacBook. Here are the details for my personal MacBook:

Here are the details for my work MacBook:

Looking at them, the difference is almost certainly the NVIDIA GeForce GT on my personal Macbook; my work Macbook is the same or marginally better on the other details.

The only lesson I can see from this is that more powerful graphics hardware may ameliorate this issue.

I hope that somebody finds value in these observations.

[akauppi]

@dljessup Thanks for the analysis. There used to be a way to switch off the dedicated GPU on Macbooks. Is there still - what is the behaviour on that machine if you make sure it’s using Intel Iris Pro, as well?

[throker]

A simple solution/workaround would be to add a delay to updating the live preview x number of seconds after the last input.
It would be nice if this was an on/off option with a configurable number of seconds/milliseconds.

My temporary fix:
I made a Rendering style that helps reduce the flashing effect of flickering, you can grab it Gist here:

• 🔗 https://gist.github.com/throker/c136d8ea29d976bd9dd6f90a50b524de

Gist

This is a MacDown rendering style to reduce the precived effect of flickering when the preview pane updates if you are using DarkMode on your Mac.

This is a MacDown rendering style to reduce the precived effect of flickering when the preview pane updates if you are using DarkMode on your Mac. - GitHub2 Darkified.css

[roycetech]

I'm a new user of this app and I was so happy when I learned that it supports AppleScript. I think @throker 's proposed solution/workaround to have a set delay after the last user input would help mitigate if not solve the problem entirely. I'm on Big Sur and currently it is ridiculous that it flashes for every key I type. Switching to light mode didn't help me either. Another workaround I could think of is to turn off auto refresh and send a periodic refresh to the app when focused.

[buzzert]

It appears that this was caused by the changes for #747. By effectively reverting that change, I no longer see the flickering issue.

diff --git i/MacDown/Code/Application/MPMainController.m w/MacDown/Code/Application/MPMainController.m
index 5a46edc..4b53fb0 100644
--- i/MacDown/Code/Application/MPMainController.m
+++ w/MacDown/Code/Application/MPMainController.m
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ @implementation MPMainController
 
 - (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)notification
 {
+#if 0
     // Using private API [WebCache setDisabled:YES] to disable WebView's cache
     id webCacheClass = (id)NSClassFromString(@"WebCache");
     if (webCacheClass) {
@@ -117,6 +118,8 @@ - (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)notification
         [invocation invoke];
 #pragma clang diagnostic pop
     }
+#endif
+    
     [[NSAppleEventManager sharedAppleEventManager]
         setEventHandler:self
             andSelector:@selector(openUrlSchemeAppleEvent:withReplyEvent:)

[manngo]

It appears that this was caused by the changes for #747. By effectively reverting that change, I no longer see the flickering issue.

OK, so:

• where can we try this?
• if this works, are you in a position to update this?
• is anybody maintaining this any more?

MacDown is still the best MarkDown editor, so it would be good to see it working.

[buzzert]

It appears that this was caused by the changes for #747. By effectively reverting that change, I no longer see the flickering issue.

OK, so:

• where can we try this?
• if this works, are you in a position to update this?
• is anybody maintaining this any more?

MacDown is still the best MarkDown editor, so it would be good to see it working.

I just posted a pull request: #1288

A maintainer will need to make the judgement about whether or not temporarily regressing the image issue to resolve this is a worthwhile tradeoff (I'm sure everyone in this thread would agree, though).

[chrischma]

Having the same flashing problem here on Monetery 12.2.1...

[roycetech]

I moved on to a paid app Marked, which is available on Setapp.

[zoltanmaric]

@yuriymacdev I did plan to move to WKWebView (see #1181), but I’m still working on that. Would appreciate a PR whether it fixes this issue or not.

Hi @FranklinYu, @buzzert submitted PR #1288 in January. Would you have some time to review it so it can be merged or fixed? 🙏

[TikoyX]

Really hopes this issue is going somewhere!

[p-i-c-o]

Any Updates?

[TikoyX]

Any Updates?

since it has been there for so many years with no updates i think this app might soon be declared dead (no more updates coming)

[yuletide]

This is super annoying and makes the app not usable sadly :(

[ghost]

Can replicate with newest build (from website)...

macOS 12.6.6

[robValtech]

I'm here to say how much ❤️ MacDown! Unfortunately I am still having this issue - I just downloaded the latest version (0.7.3 (1008.4)) for macOS 13.5 (M1) and the preview is still flashing when I type.

[xiaohuzhang19]

I switched to Typora, but when I updated the MacDown, the same issue was still with both the M1 and Intel MacBook Pro...

[ghost]

I switched to Typora, but when I updated the MacDown, the same issue was still with both the M1 and Intel MacBook Pro...

@xiaohuzhang19 - Does Typora work well/properly?

[xiaohuzhang19]

I switched to Typora, but when I updated the MacDown, the same issue was still with both the M1 and Intel MacBook Pro...

@xiaohuzhang19 - Does Typora work well/properly?

@dishb It depends on the purpose.. I mainly use markdown to take notes from those math classes. Typora did an excellent job on that. I like MacDown as the syntax view on the side is better.

[undavide]

Although I've appreciated the app (kudos to the developer), I've switched to Obsidian, which I love. Just in case anyone wants to know about an MD alternative.