Top all-time · #394
Brett Terpstra
Personal blog · brettterpstra.comprogrammingproductivity
Brett Terpstra writes BrettTerpstra.com, a personal blog at brettterpstra.com about programming and productivity. Since 2010, 138 different Hacker News readers have linked it 210 times, most often “nvAlt: fork of Notational Velocity with MutliMarkdown”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-31, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 2 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Brett Terpstra's blog mostly for its notes-app and macOS tooling posts, especially the nvALT and hyper-key guides, which are cited as tips and workflow references.
- Recommended for · 2 comments
- One commenter calls the iOS text editors post amazing; another says to check out the Caps Lock remapping guide.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Welcome to The Lab. site.announcement.text
Most-linked posts?
- nvAlt: fork of Notational Velocity with MutliMarkdown37 people · 40 mentions · first linked 2013-06-15
- /projects/nvalt/19 people · 21 mentions · first linked 2019-04-02
- IOS Text Editor Roundup4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2012-04-02
- Doing: command line tool for keeping track of what you’re doing and have done3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-03-16
- A plea to nvALT users – BrettTerpstra.com3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-04-22
- An nvALT (and more) status report3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-09-14
- A useful Caps Lock key3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-12-27
- /2017/06/15/a-hyper-key-with-karabiner-elements-full-instructions/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-11-14
- Marker: Web selections to Markdown2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-12-26
- /projects/nvalt2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-06-02
What Hacker News says?
Ya, i've used this: https://brettterpstra.com/2017/06/15/a-hyper-key-with-karabi... to do that. And having the hyper key is awesome (command+control+option+shift). Makes it super handy for shortcuts to open commonly used program shortcuts like calendar etc
Comment linking /2017/06/15/a-hyper-key-with-karabiner-elements-full-instructions/
on “16-inch MacBook Pro”Submitted Doing: command line tool for keeping track of what you’re doing and have done as a story · 141 points
HN discussionFYI: the nvAlt developer is working on a new version: https://brettterpstra.com/2019/04/10/codename-nvultra/
Comment linking /2019/04/10/codename-nvultra/
on “Ask HN: What startup/technology is on your 'to watch' list?”Submitted A useful Caps Lock key as a story · 103 points
HN discussionI use this and it works for me http://brettterpstra.com/2011/03/07/watch-for-file-changes-a...
Comment linking /2011/03/07/watch-for-file-changes-and-refresh-your-browser-automatically/
on “Myself – v1.0.3”Submitted Tips for Screencasting as a story · 81 points
HN discussionUp until macOS 10.12, it was difficult to remap the ESC to CAP LOCK. Now it is an option in the keyboard settings. My biggest complaint is since macOS Sierra, it is now so hard to create a Hyper-key. http://brettterpstra.com/2016/09/29/a-better-hyper-key-hack-...
Comment linking /2016/09/29/a-better-hyper-key-hack-for-sierra/
on “MacBook Pro”Submitted A multi-purpose EDITOR variable as a story · 69 points
HN discussionOr nvAlt ( http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ ). Everything is plaintext and support Markdown.
Comment linking /projects/nvalt/
on “Show HN: I've been writing daily TILs for a year”Submitted The intriguing legal ramifications of Pokémon Go as a story · 52 points
HN discussionCreativity is just connecting things together. Consider paper and pencil or ink when away from a computer. Consider the simplest notes application that supports a wiki linking system when on a computer. For the latter I like [nvAlt][n] which lets you write [[this]] to create a link to and a note titled ‘this’, and I hope Simplenote [implements wikilinks functionality][s] at some point. [n]: https://brettterpstra.com…
Comment linking /projects/nvalt/
on “Stop Taking Regular Notes; Use a Zettelkasten Instead”Submitted Apex: Universal Markdown Processor as a story · 29 points
HN discussion>reduces the lookup times from O(all of the internet) to O(just my notes). This ^^ I use a combo of Pinboard [1] to save URLs I think I'll want to refer to in future, plus NValt [2] stored on my Jottacloud [3] for recording snppets of info and more free-form notes and for making that info available from any of my devices. Nine times out of ten [if not 99 out of 100] however, I'll just StartPage or DDG whatever info…
Comment linking /projects/nvalt
on “Stop Taking Regular Notes; Use a Zettelkasten Instead”Submitted IOS Text Editor Roundup as a story · 19 points
HN discussionEven better, hyper key: https://brettterpstra.com/2017/06/15/a-hyper-key-with-karabi... (Functions as ESC if pressed alone, otherwise acts as hyper key which is great to use for keyboard shortcuts)
Comment linking /2017/06/15/a-hyper-key-with-karabiner-elements-full-instructions/
on “New 13-inch MacBook Pro”Submitted NvALT Back from the Dead as a story · 9 points
HN discussionFor anyone that hates resizing windows in general on a mac, I've found the combination of using a Hyper Key[1] + Moom[2] to be amazingly ergonomic. Here's a quick demo[3] of what this looks like on my machine. [1] https://brettterpstra.com/2017/06/15/a-hyper-key-with-karabi... [2] https://manytricks.com/moom/ [3] https://my.supernotes.app/share/wire+unaware+noble+meadow
Comment linking /2017/06/15/a-hyper-key-with-karabiner-elements-full-instructions/
on “Show HN: A portfolio website simulating macOS's GUI using React”Submitted Stripping Emoji from a String as a story · 8 points
HN discussionnvALT is open-source! It's a fork of Notational Velocity, on the developer's GitHub: https://github.com/ttscoff/nv That being said, I don't think it's updated too regularly. Brett is working on a complete rewrite of the app (which will be a paid version): http://brettterpstra.com/2015/09/14/an-nvalt-and-more-status...
Comment linking /2015/09/14/an-nvalt-and-more-status-report/
on “Standard Notes – A notes app with a focus on longevity, portability, and privacy”Submitted TextDown: Markdown editor for Chrome as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThis is the one that I use > doing is a basic CLI for adding and listing “what was I doing” reminders in a TaskPaper-formatted text file. It allows for multiple sections/categories and flexible output formatting. http://brettterpstra.com/projects/doing/
Comment linking /projects/doing/
on “Keeping a plaintext “did” file”Submitted Marked Share – Markdown Publishing as a story · 5 points
HN discussionFor those expecting something more along the lines of a `git log` sort of thing, like a command line tool, there's `doing`. https://brettterpstra.com/projects/doing/
Comment linking /projects/doing/
on “Show HN: Dayflow – A git log for your day”Submitted Great Apps for Mac 2012 (Part I) as a story · 5 points
HN discussionNothing has been as frictionless as nvALT[1]. Plain text, full text search, and point it at iCloud/Dropbox/Drive and now you have your notes fully synced. I’ve spent far more time than I care to admit trying out new note applications... [1]: https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/
Comment linking /projects/nvalt/
on “Tired of note-taking apps”Submitted How to summon a nerd as a story · 5 points
HN discussionFor note taking I use the open sourced Notational Velocity [1] (actually I use nvAlt [2] which is a fork that has some extra features like Markdown support). My two favorite features are that it can store your notes as plain text files in a folder of your choice, plus there's syncing through Dropbox or Simplenote. Notational Velocity is a Mac app, but with Simplenote you get x-platform support. [1] http://notational…
Comment linking /projects/nvalt/
on “Paperwork: An open source Evernote alternative”Submitted My "remote" web development setup as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI use nvALT ( http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ ). It's a Notational Velocity fork that syncs with SimpleNote. Since it saves the notes in text files, I have put them in a Dropbox folder. The notes directory is itself a git repo which is committed every hour with a cron job on my laptop. It's actually working out pretty well. I have double backup (Dropbox and Simplenote) with infinite versions through Git. If…
Comment linking /projects/nvalt/
on “Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant”Submitted Doing 2.0 as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
