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Show HN: Notational Velocity for Vim

171 points by yuppiemephisto 7y ago

jitl 7y ago
Amazing! This is the vim plugin I’ve always wanted to write. I used Notational Velocity briefly on Mac before I switched to Linux/Windows machines during university and kinda never picked it up again. At this point vim movement is too critical and I can’t use GUI solutions well... so I’m very excited to see a fusion of the two!
rambojazz 7y ago
Sorry what's the license of this?
- ealhad 7y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out, I created an issue.
drewm1980 7y ago
Isn't editing existing notes fundamental to notational velocity UX? I have also been missing NV since leaving Mac OS is 2012. Shame the whole NV codebase is tied to Apple only frameworks. Nothing important about NV is even Mac specific; it is just three textboxes with well thought out key bindings; it's not using a bunch of fancy GUI framework features.
- criddell 7y ago
  What OS are you using? If it's Windows, check out Resoph Notes. It's not open source but it is shareware and it's very good.
- pcardoso 7y ago
  I've been doing a web version of NV for quite some time. I have a prototype but no time to finish. Need to find some, NV is awesome.
- justusthane 7y ago
  I believe that pressing Enter on a result opens the selected file as a buffer for editing. I think they mean that the plugin itself won't modify existing files, not that you can't modify existing files.
tomcam 7y ago
I just use org mode.* * Not really. This looks excellent. I just wanted to get the org mode boast dispatched with as soon as possible.
- RaycatRakittra 7y ago
  Well, no. That's not what we'd say to use for this (although you could). [Deft](https://jblevins.org/projects/deft/ https://jblevins.org/projects/deft/) would be a better comparison/equivalent. Regarding OP, it looks very snappy! I like it. Looks like it leverages `fzf`. Can we swap it out for something else?
  - RBerenguel 7y ago
    Deft was (around 3 or 4 years) my weapon of choice as well when I was using nvAlt. So, it was nvAlt (for times when I was in a random place on my Mac), Deft (for searching or adding from within emacs and 1Writer [1] from iOS, all were fed from a Dropbox folder. Now (since January) though I have moved to use Bear [2] (non-free) on all my devices. Its use case is a bit different, but I like it better overall. Side question: what do you suggest as alternative to fzf? fzf is excellent (a post I wrote on our engineering blog about using it for custom completions in zsh [3]), but I’m always eager to see new tools I can use. [1] http://1writerapp.com/ http://1writerapp.com/ [2] https://bear.app/ https://bear.app/ [3] http://engineering.affectv.com/aws/devops/2018/08/15/fzf-autocompletions/ http://engineering.affectv.com/aws/devops/2018/08/15/fzf-aut...
    - bepvte 7y ago
      fzy percol peco are all excellent alternatives
      - RBerenguel 7y ago
        Thanks! - Percol (Python): https://github.com/mooz/percol https://github.com/mooz/percol - Peco (Go): https://github.com/peco/peco https://github.com/peco/peco - fzy (C): https://github.com/jhawthorn/fzy https://github.com/jhawthorn/fzy
tjoff 7y ago
The description isn't that obvious for people that don't know what notational velocity is or how it works.
- OJFord 7y ago
  But to be fair, the first thing the readme says is a paraphrasing of the blurb at, and a link to, the notational velocity homepage.
  - tjoff 7y ago
    Yes and I started reading that and went to nvAlt which was also mentioned. But it was frustrating to spend that much effort before even knowing what it was with some detail. And the gif, which I usually like, suffers the same problem. Hard to follow unless you already know what it is. In the end I decided it wasn't for me, tons of small files, each per note? Didn't seem that compelling to me, I think I would prefer one or a few larger files maybe something like vim-wiki. But because I couldn't quickly research it feel I might have misunderstood it.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - throwaway-hn123 7y ago
      Awww, all that effort. You poor thing, go and have a rest and build up your strength, darling.
- fourier_mode 7y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out. I thought it is just some name OP chose. It is just a note-taking app for Mac.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notational_Velocity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notational_Velocity)
  - ubermonkey 7y ago
    That buries the lede a little. NV has become popular because of its speed. Your notes are instantly searchable in the top bar of NV. You just type in what you're looking for, and the list of note files -- and they're all just text files -- limits itself to files that contain your search string, and it happens basically as fast as you can type. It's pretty great. I used it heavily until I started using OrgMode a couple years ago, but missed it enough that I sought out an emacs mode (Deft) that is a workalike.
O_H_E 7y ago
Meta: these angle brackets got interpreted into the link.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 7y ago
  Sorry; that's a bug and on our list to fix. I've edited the angle brackets out above. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20049765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20049765 and marked it off-topic.
jpwgarrison 7y ago
This looks cool, but I have been happy with https://github.com/vhp/terminal_velocity https://github.com/vhp/terminal_velocity - terminal based, I use it with vim but you can specify the editor.
ecocentrik 7y ago
fzf is such a great addition to the command-line
wincent 7y ago
I made a JS/Electron based clone of nvALT a while back. Easier to hack on than an Objective-C codebase: https://github.com/wincent/corpus https://github.com/wincent/corpus But the node ecosystem has its own problems. I like the idea of doing everything in Vim.
- petepete 7y ago
  If you're the wincent who made Command-T for Vim, thank you. I used it for years and years with great success.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
backpackway 7y ago
So nice my two favorite apps nvim and nvalt got merged. Anyone already tried it, how is it?
jmcphers 7y ago
I glued fzf and vimwiki together to do something very similar. If you have both of those tools installed, you can use a mapping like this: nmap <Leader>wp :Files ~/git/vimwiki/<CR> so that you're just a couple of keystrokes away from fuzzy finding any entry in your vimwiki.
msravi 7y ago
This is cool! It's generic enough that it works not only with nvalt on Mac, but also with Notable on Linux (https://github.com/notable/notable https://github.com/notable/notable) Notable also uses markdown files for storing notes, so I just had to point the plugin search path to notable's notes directory, and it worked like a charm! Please keep this usecase in mind when you make changes to your plugin going forward. Thank you!

jitl 7y ago

Amazing! This is the vim plugin I’ve always wanted to write. I used Notational Velocity briefly on Mac before I switched to Linux/Windows machines during university and kinda never picked it up again. At this point vim movement is too critical and I can’t use GUI solutions well... so I’m very excited to see a fusion of the two!

rambojazz 7y ago

Sorry what's the license of this?

ealhad 7y ago
Thanks for pointing that out, I created an issue.

drewm1980 7y ago

Isn't editing existing notes fundamental to notational velocity UX? I have also been missing NV since leaving Mac OS is 2012. Shame the whole NV codebase is tied to Apple only frameworks. Nothing important about NV is even Mac specific; it is just three textboxes with well thought out key bindings; it's not using a bunch of fancy GUI framework features.

criddell 7y ago
What OS are you using? If it's Windows, check out Resoph Notes. It's not open source but it is shareware and it's very good.
pcardoso 7y ago
I've been doing a web version of NV for quite some time. I have a prototype but no time to finish. Need to find some, NV is awesome.
justusthane 7y ago
I believe that pressing Enter on a result opens the selected file as a buffer for editing. I think they mean that the plugin itself won't modify existing files, not that you can't modify existing files.

tomcam 7y ago

I just use org mode.* * Not really. This looks excellent. I just wanted to get the org mode boast dispatched with as soon as possible.

RaycatRakittra 7y ago
Well, no. That's not what we'd say to use for this (although you could). [Deft](https://jblevins.org/projects/deft/ https://jblevins.org/projects/deft/) would be a better comparison/equivalent. Regarding OP, it looks very snappy! I like it. Looks like it leverages `fzf`. Can we swap it out for something else?
- RBerenguel 7y ago
  Deft was (around 3 or 4 years) my weapon of choice as well when I was using nvAlt. So, it was nvAlt (for times when I was in a random place on my Mac), Deft (for searching or adding from within emacs and 1Writer [1] from iOS, all were fed from a Dropbox folder. Now (since January) though I have moved to use Bear [2] (non-free) on all my devices. Its use case is a bit different, but I like it better overall. Side question: what do you suggest as alternative to fzf? fzf is excellent (a post I wrote on our engineering blog about using it for custom completions in zsh [3]), but I’m always eager to see new tools I can use. [1] http://1writerapp.com/ http://1writerapp.com/ [2] https://bear.app/ https://bear.app/ [3] http://engineering.affectv.com/aws/devops/2018/08/15/fzf-autocompletions/ http://engineering.affectv.com/aws/devops/2018/08/15/fzf-aut...
  - bepvte 7y ago
    fzy percol peco are all excellent alternatives
    - RBerenguel 7y ago
      Thanks! - Percol (Python): https://github.com/mooz/percol https://github.com/mooz/percol - Peco (Go): https://github.com/peco/peco https://github.com/peco/peco - fzy (C): https://github.com/jhawthorn/fzy https://github.com/jhawthorn/fzy

tjoff 7y ago

The description isn't that obvious for people that don't know what notational velocity is or how it works.

OJFord 7y ago
But to be fair, the first thing the readme says is a paraphrasing of the blurb at, and a link to, the notational velocity homepage.
- tjoff 7y ago
  Yes and I started reading that and went to nvAlt which was also mentioned. But it was frustrating to spend that much effort before even knowing what it was with some detail. And the gif, which I usually like, suffers the same problem. Hard to follow unless you already know what it is. In the end I decided it wasn't for me, tons of small files, each per note? Didn't seem that compelling to me, I think I would prefer one or a few larger files maybe something like vim-wiki. But because I couldn't quickly research it feel I might have misunderstood it.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - throwaway-hn123 7y ago
    Awww, all that effort. You poor thing, go and have a rest and build up your strength, darling.
fourier_mode 7y ago
Thanks for pointing that out. I thought it is just some name OP chose. It is just a note-taking app for Mac.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notational_Velocity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notational_Velocity)
- ubermonkey 7y ago
  That buries the lede a little. NV has become popular because of its speed. Your notes are instantly searchable in the top bar of NV. You just type in what you're looking for, and the list of note files -- and they're all just text files -- limits itself to files that contain your search string, and it happens basically as fast as you can type. It's pretty great. I used it heavily until I started using OrgMode a couple years ago, but missed it enough that I sought out an emacs mode (Deft) that is a workalike.

O_H_E 7y ago

Meta: these angle brackets got interpreted into the link.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dang 7y ago
Sorry; that's a bug and on our list to fix. I've edited the angle brackets out above. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20049765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20049765 and marked it off-topic.

jpwgarrison 7y ago

This looks cool, but I have been happy with https://github.com/vhp/terminal_velocity https://github.com/vhp/terminal_velocity - terminal based, I use it with vim but you can specify the editor.

ecocentrik 7y ago

fzf is such a great addition to the command-line

wincent 7y ago

I made a JS/Electron based clone of nvALT a while back. Easier to hack on than an Objective-C codebase: https://github.com/wincent/corpus https://github.com/wincent/corpus But the node ecosystem has its own problems. I like the idea of doing everything in Vim.

petepete 7y ago
If you're the wincent who made Command-T for Vim, thank you. I used it for years and years with great success.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

backpackway 7y ago

So nice my two favorite apps nvim and nvalt got merged. Anyone already tried it, how is it?

jmcphers 7y ago

I glued fzf and vimwiki together to do something very similar. If you have both of those tools installed, you can use a mapping like this: nmap <Leader>wp :Files ~/git/vimwiki/<CR> so that you're just a couple of keystrokes away from fuzzy finding any entry in your vimwiki.

msravi 7y ago

This is cool! It's generic enough that it works not only with nvalt on Mac, but also with Notable on Linux (https://github.com/notable/notable https://github.com/notable/notable) Notable also uses markdown files for storing notes, so I just had to point the plugin search path to notable's notes directory, and it worked like a charm! Please keep this usecase in mind when you make changes to your plugin going forward. Thank you!