Craig Mod on the speed of nvALT

Craig Mod, in an essay that has been linked by just about every blog I’m subscribed to:

One of my most used, most speedy pieces of software is nvALT.¹ It’s an oddly named, very bland application. Just a database of plain text files with a plain text editor bolted on. But it’s fast. The fastest piece of text cataloging software I’ve used. It opens instantly and produces results instantly. My nvALT database is full of ten years of notes. Open it and your cursor is already in the search field.

I used nvALT for a long time. I do miss its speed. Currently I keep loose notes in Simplenote. On Windows 10 it opens slower than any other app on my computer. I’ve sent the Simplenote team a few notes via Twitter but the Simplenote app is seldom updated so I don’t have any expectation of this ever getting better.

Does anyone know a super fast note taking software on Windows 10 and Android?

The rest of Mod’s essay is worth a read if you haven’t read it.

July 30, 2019

Martin McCallion on Text Editors

Martin McCallion:

If you work with plain text, as I prefer to, then you probably try out different text editors from time to time (or, you know, constantly).

For a long time I used plain text files via nvAlt (as McCallion does). I miss plain text files. Then I moved to Simplenote. Then for a short time to Evernote. Then back to Simplenote. And now I’m just using Apple’s Notes.

In between all of those I’ve tried dozens of text editors.

Notes is incredibly useful and while it doesn’t support plain text files it is perfect for nearly every thing I do. For now.

August 22, 2017