VI(M)-EMACS-Nano-Xed and others which one?

[Portreve]

So, according to the Nano text editor home page, it would seem 5.8 is the latest version.

It sure would be nice if we got our stuff updated to something a bit more recent than the present 4.8 version.

[JoeFootball]

It sure would be nice if we got our stuff updated to something a bit more recent than the present 4.8 version.

I suppose that's the trade-off with an LTS codebase, unless you want to go with third-party packaging, or compile from source.

[MurphCID]

So, according to the Nano text editor home page, it would seem 5.8 is the latest version.

It sure would be nice if we got our stuff updated to something a bit more recent than the present 4.8 version.

How do we get 5.8 in Mint? I like Nano, it reminds me of Wordstar.

[AndyMH]

it reminds me of Wordstar.

Showing your ^Bage^B.

[MurphCID]

it reminds me of Wordstar.

Showing your ^Bage^B.

No kidding, I learned on Wordstar and it still has a place in my heart. I actually got pretty good at the key combinations. I wish Wordstar would be reincarnated in Linux, I would use it in a heartbeat.

[AndyMH]

I can still remember most of the control codes. Started using it running under CP/M.

[JoeFootball]

How do we get 5.8 in Mint?

As nano for Mint is maintained by Ubuntu, I wouldn't expect to see it for the current LTS codebase. If you must have it, I'd suggest investigating a third-party package or compiling it from source.

[ivar]

I like Nano, it reminds me of Wordstar.

in computer class back in the days, when Wordperfect 5.1 for dos was the rage, my teacher said:
"WP is for office maids. You're nerds - and gonna learn Wordstar!"
The logic was that so many editors used those same keyboard commands, like e.g turbo pascal

[MurphCID]

Ok, bringing this one back from the dead since I do not see a reason to start a NEW thread when this one is still extant and has valuable information. I just watched an older Distro Tube video and he flops from EMACS to VIM to EMACS to VIM back to EMACS, but now he is using something called Doom EMACS in Evil mode, which apparently turns EMACS into VIM? Why not just use VIM? He made a comment that the key combinations in EMACS will cause physical damage to people which I find odd, but I have never really USED EMACS for anything other than playing around. I dislike VIM since you have to remember if you are in (I call it) read mode or type mode. Nano works for me for the little things I need to do with a text editor.

So why use EMACS if it can cause physical injury? But also just for ease of use, and not having to remember if you are in type mode or read mode, just not use Nano which is so much like Wordstar?

[legacypowers]

I have noticed that there are a lot of text editors out there. Nano seems to come with most flavors of Ubuntu/Mint maybe Debian. I like it since it reminds me of Wordstar. However Xed is pretty nice as well and is graphical to boot. Emacs is just too odd for me, I know it is ultra powerful, but at what though? VI(m) is one of those programs that you wonder what they were thinking, in that you have to change modes. So if you are going to code or even just text edit stuff which one do you use?

I find myself using either XED or Nano for minor text editing issues, nothing more powerful. So what is the board's consensus on Text editors?

Daily Visual Studio Code(to code) and Xed(quick text manipulation), vim i mostly use when im sshing into a server or having to do some vim magic.
btw, you can set-up vim to be opened in insert mode, so you can quit the insert mode whenever you need to do any command(like wq! to write changes and quit without asking me anything).

[MurphCID]

I have noticed that there are a lot of text editors out there. Nano seems to come with most flavors of Ubuntu/Mint maybe Debian. I like it since it reminds me of Wordstar. However Xed is pretty nice as well and is graphical to boot. Emacs is just too odd for me, I know it is ultra powerful, but at what though? VI(m) is one of those programs that you wonder what they were thinking, in that you have to change modes. So if you are going to code or even just text edit stuff which one do you use?

I find myself using either XED or Nano for minor text editing issues, nothing more powerful. So what is the board's consensus on Text editors?

Daily Visual Studio Code(to code) and Xed(quick text manipulation), vim i mostly use when im sshing into a server or having to do some vim magic.
btw, you can set-up vim to be opened in insert mode, so you can quit the insert mode whenever you need to do any command(like wq! to write changes and quit without asking me anything).

I might do some Youtube surfing, mostly VIM seems to be a PITA with the whole mode thing compared to Nano.

[Aztaroth]

in computer class back in the days, when Wordperfect 5.1 for dos was the rage, my teacher said:
"WP is for office maids. You're nerds - and gonna learn Wordstar!"
The logic was that so many editors used those same keyboard commands, like e.g turbo pascal

Also began with Turbo Pascal and TASM (Turbo Assembler). Nice to remember those times where some ROR (rotate right) or ROL (left) on bytes could help a slug to gain some decency.
Now, using Xed for the same reason I use LM. Started with it, never failed and used to now.

[legacypowers]

I have noticed that there are a lot of text editors out there. Nano seems to come with most flavors of Ubuntu/Mint maybe Debian. I like it since it reminds me of Wordstar. However Xed is pretty nice as well and is graphical to boot. Emacs is just too odd for me, I know it is ultra powerful, but at what though? VI(m) is one of those programs that you wonder what they were thinking, in that you have to change modes. So if you are going to code or even just text edit stuff which one do you use?

I find myself using either XED or Nano for minor text editing issues, nothing more powerful. So what is the board's consensus on Text editors?

Daily Visual Studio Code(to code) and Xed(quick text manipulation), vim i mostly use when im sshing into a server or having to do some vim magic.
btw, you can set-up vim to be opened in insert mode, so you can quit the insert mode whenever you need to do any command(like wq! to write changes and quit without asking me anything).

I might do some Youtube surfing, mostly VIM seems to be a PITA with the whole mode thing compared to Nano.

well as everything that it is different from what you are used to, for example, gnome is a PITA for me, but back to vim; once you put the "automatic insert mode" on your .vimrc you will open like vim test.csv it will be on insert mode so you can do basic editing pretty much in the same way as you would with nano, just in the end you press <esc> on your keyboard, : and then wq!(write, quit, don't ask me if i really want !) , the basics of vim are pretty easy to get, and if that is not enough vim has an option to be run on "easy mode", but for me it doesn't make much sense.
If you are bored on a weekend, fire up vim tutor and make learning how to vim a weekend project.

[MurphCID]

Daily Visual Studio Code(to code) and Xed(quick text manipulation), vim i mostly use when im sshing into a server or having to do some vim magic.
btw, you can set-up vim to be opened in insert mode, so you can quit the insert mode whenever you need to do any command(like wq! to write changes and quit without asking me anything).

I might do some Youtube surfing, mostly VIM seems to be a PITA with the whole mode thing compared to Nano.

well as everything that it is different from what you are used to, for example, gnome is a PITA for me, but back to vim; once you put the "automatic insert mode" on your .vimrc you will open like vim test.csv it will be on insert mode so you can do basic editing pretty much in the same way as you would with nano, just in the end you press <esc> on your keyboard, : and then wq!(write, quit, don't ask me if i really want !) , the basics of vim are pretty easy to get, and if that is not enough vim has an option to be run on "easy mode", but for me it doesn't make much sense.
If you are bored on a weekend, fire up vim tutor and make learning how to vim a weekend project.

I might give that a shot when I am on vacation after Christmas.

[legacypowers]

I might do some Youtube surfing, mostly VIM seems to be a PITA with the whole mode thing compared to Nano.

well as everything that it is different from what you are used to, for example, gnome is a PITA for me, but back to vim; once you put the "automatic insert mode" on your .vimrc you will open like vim test.csv it will be on insert mode so you can do basic editing pretty much in the same way as you would with nano, just in the end you press <esc> on your keyboard, : and then wq!(write, quit, don't ask me if i really want !) , the basics of vim are pretty easy to get, and if that is not enough vim has an option to be run on "easy mode", but for me it doesn't make much sense.
If you are bored on a weekend, fire up vim tutor and make learning how to vim a weekend project.

I might give that a shot when I am on vacation after Christmas.

btw, if you want to do the automatic insert mode you add autocmd BufNewFile * startinsert to your ~/.vimrc(if the file don't exist you can create it).

[rene]

... and for $DEITY sake use ZZ to save and exit rather than :wq!

[MurphCID]

... and for $DEITY sake use ZZ to save and exit rather than :wq!

Ok, now I am somewhat confused. ZZ as a code vs :wq? Not sure what those do, or why I should use them.

[rene]

No, :wq!, not :wq?

All just methods of save/close in (neo)vi(m). ZZ is available directly from command mode (the mode you're in when not in insert mode, i.e., at startup and/or after hitting Esc) and would probably count as most common. It's the same as :x, which is in turn quite like :wq (but former writes out only when changes have in fact been made) to which then :wq! adds ! as a "nofail" flag, i.e., has it not complain when the file is read-only or when there's more files open.

All's available from vi's own built-in help; :help ZZ, :help :x, :help :wq, ...

[MurphCID]

No, :wq!, not :wq?

All just methods of save/close in (neo)vi(m). ZZ is available directly from command mode (the mode you're in when not in insert mode, i.e., at startup and/or after hitting Esc) and would probably count as most common. It's the same as :x, which is in turn quite like :wq (but former writes out only when changes have in fact been made) to which then :wq! adds ! as a "nofail" flag, i.e., has it not complain when the file is read-only or when there's more files open.

All's available from vi's own built-in help; :help ZZ, :help :x, :help :wq, ...

LOL. Seems like a lot of work to me with weird key combos. But I said I would try it over the break, and I will. I probably will need to print out a cheat sheet for the commands.

[rene]

You only start to understand the point of vi after you e.g. type %!sort in a text-data context to pipe your buffer through the external sort utility, or use some involved regex in a :%s/src/dst/ replacement in that or a programming context, or....

I.e., if you seriously use a text editor (and/or then are in other contexts due to those former ones simply used to it) but would not feel it likely that in these days of GUI editors a new user who doesn't do much specifics with text files would feel it to make a lot of sense.