What text editors do you prefer?

[CrazedNerd]

for me text editors are text editors. Some like emacs are multifunctional and have email and browser also built into it and all sorts of bells and whistles but i think the best text editor for a person is the one they can get on with and use easily. Im not much of a programmer so i can get by on nano or leafpad or vim just to edit the occasionial config file here and there.
For me the major differences are the different key bindings the text editors use and even they can be customized.
When i was trying to learn some python i was using sublime and atom text editor which i really liked. I was follwoing Zed A shaws book "learn python 3 the hard way" and in that book they suggested atom or sublime so i just used that and found it really easy to get on with with line numbering and the colors for the code you write.

for the most part nano has never let me down lol

i looked into leafpad, is it just that you like the way it looks? Seems not to be any different than gedit, which has never given me any problems with extensive usage.

 

[smooth_buddha]

i looked into leafpad, is it just that you like the way it looks? Seems not to be any different than gedit, which has never given me any problems with extensive usage.

my father who also uses linux told me about it , he said he mostly uses leafpad so i tried it out one day. its a basic text editor , easy to use

 

[KGIII]

Leafpad is constantly open here. I like that it opens with the files it had when it was closed. I have 20+ text files constantly open in Leafpad while it uses a trivial amount of RAM. I also don't have to install plugins to get a ton of features.

 

[CrazedNerd]

i've been working with vim over the past couple of days, however the whole "efficiency" thing doesn't even really make any sense to me. Yes, Vim has powerful commands, especially useful for looking through already gigantic text files, yet in normal mode you can't even go outside of the end of the line or the end of the file without going into insert mode, then i need to go back to using the arrow keys, home, and end anyways because you can't hit enter and start a new line in normal mode. I've been using those keys for years and it helps with things so much whether i'm in the terminal or not, so yeah the GUI text editors now adays are just fine they have mostly the same capabilities as Vim does. It's better to just use the best of whatever you have rather than getting locked into one thing.

Leafpad is constantly open here. I like that it opens with the files it had when it was closed. I have 20+ text files constantly open in Leafpad while it uses a trivial amount of RAM. I also don't have to install plugins to get a ton of features.

that is actually a great time saving feature and i'll have to check it out.

 

[smooth_buddha]

i've been working with vim over the past couple of days, however the whole "efficiency" thing doesn't even really make any sense to me. Yes, Vim has powerful commands, especially useful for looking through already gigantic text files, yet in normal mode you can't even go outside of the end of the line or the end of the file without going into insert mode, then i need to go back to using the arrow keys, home, and end anyways because you can't hit enter and start a new line in normal mode. I've been using those keys for years and it helps with things so much whether i'm in the terminal or not, so yeah the GUI text editors now adays are just fine they have mostly the same capabilities as Vim does. It's better to just use the best of whatever you have rather than getting locked into one thing.



that is actually a great time saving feature and i'll have to check it out.

I think standard text editors are fine. I think i lot of hardcore linux users get into key bindings. You can make your own key binding for everything. You can make a key binding to start up your browser wihthout having to click on it you can just hold down the keys that you have set for it. I dont tend to use key bindings that often or even alias commands in the shell because i have hopped around different lilnux distros alias cmmands and key bindings will alter or dont exist.

I have heard people talking about repetitive strain injury due to certain bindings in emacs.
I think the time saved is only miliseconds but i suppose some will argue it adds up over the long term but in not using the key bindings your fingers and wrists take less wear and tear so i suppose its individual. The most efficicent way is the way your most comfortable with.

I personally think there are enough commands and things to learn in linux as there is, i dont feel like complicating it even more with having to memorize lots of bindings for different programs. But that's just my take i'm sure there are some who find key bindings very useful and quicker.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Leafpad is constantly open here.

I sometimes use a graphical text-editor and when I do it is that one because it's simple and light compared to most other graphical text-editors.

 

[KGIII]

it's simple and light compared to most other graphical text-editors.

Yup. In my case, I have a bunch of text files open constantly. So, doing them all in terminal tabs or the likes just isn't realistic.

 

[CrazedNerd]

I think standard text editors are fine. I think i lot of hardcore linux users get into key bindings. You can make your own key binding for everything. You can make a key binding to start up your browser wihthout having to click on it you can just hold down the keys that you have set for it. I dont tend to use key bindings that often or even alias commands in the shell because i have hopped around different lilnux distros alias cmmands and key bindings will alter or dont exist.

I have heard people talking about repetitive strain injury due to certain bindings in emacs.
I think the time saved is only miliseconds but i suppose some will argue it adds up over the long term but in not using the key bindings your fingers and wrists take less wear and tear so i suppose its individual. The most efficicent way is the way your most comfortable with.

I personally think there are enough commands and things to learn in linux as there is, i dont feel like complicating it even more with having to memorize lots of bindings for different programs. But that's just my take i'm sure there are some who find key bindings very useful and quicker.

keeping your hands in the same place is over-rated, some folks haven't figured out how to span their hands across the keyboard. That would make sense with emacs since every command requires using ctrl or the alt button. The home and end keys are great and i even use them just for stuff like this. I should probably also learn to use the Insert, yet page up/down is redundant since i have the scroll wheel on my mouse.

Shortcuts in general are great, i have programmed Ctrl + 4 to open gedit. Interestingly enough, on install fedora this time around Ctrl +Alt + t did not pull up the terminal automatically, like it did the last time i installed it.

 

[captain-sensible]

I wrote the python for an AUR Arch submission using geany ; its my first to goto for any coding

 

[CrazedNerd]

I wrote the python for an AUR Arch submission using geany ; its my first to goto for any coding

did you install that by fallowing the steps in the read me or the source code?

 

[Deleted member 128018]

The one that comes with the Linux distro I'm installing and gonna use is fine with me as they all appear to be the same imo.

 

[smooth_buddha]

The one that comes with the Linux distro I'm installing and gonna use is fine with me as they all appear to be the same imo.

yep nano will do the job just fine

 

[smooth_buddha]

im curious does any of the older linux users ever use pico which i hear was the one before nano?????

 

[KGIII]

Back in my Unix days, I'm pretty sure pico was what we used on SunOS (later Solaris).

As memory serves, pico doesn't have very good terms in its license - so redistribution rights aren't clear. The folks at GNU did a clean-room rewrite to clone it and called it nano. It has since gained some features.

(Don't trust my memory.)

 

[captain-sensible]

did you install that by fallowing the steps in the read me or the source code?

Not sure of your question but on Arch geany is in the community repo of arch , so to install its just sudo pacman -S geany


basically, the python is the upsteam code; in fact the relevant part is an elf file , which has stuff embedded so it can do all its required to do without deps. That was arrived at with some thinking , testing etc


That is here : https://notabug.org/captainsensible/fetchMirrorsGui so thats the source code for the AUR. Then for the other part a makepkg has to be created which makes use of the source code. For that part I followed ARCh protocols . That part id here : https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fetchmirrorsgui i did some posts on this site while i was playing with makepkg

 

[captain-sensible]

Back in my Unix days, I'm pretty sure pico was what we used on SunOS (later Solaris).

As memory serves, pico doesn't have very good terms in its license - so redistribution rights aren't clear. The folks at GNU did a clean-room rewrite to clone it and called it nano. It has since gained some features.

(Don't trust my memory.)

i've previously used pico , can't remember on which Linux OS. Basically like leafpad from memory; but your right pico morphed into nano

 

[CrazedNerd]

Not sure of your question but on Arch geany is in the community repo of arch , so to install its just sudo pacman -S geany


basically, the python is the upsteam code; in fact the relevant part is an elf file , which has stuff embedded so it can do all its required to do without deps. That was arrived at with some thinking , testing etc


That is here : https://notabug.org/captainsensible/fetchMirrorsGui so thats the source code for the AUR. Then for the other part a makepkg has to be created which makes use of the source code. For that part I followed ARCh protocols . That part id here : https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fetchmirrorsgui i did some posts on this site while i was playing with makepkg

Thanks, very useful information, i intend to try out debian and arch through virtual machines in the not too distant future.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Not sure of your question but on Arch geany is in the community repo of arch , so to install its just sudo pacman -S geany

I just tried Geany, I find it is more than just a basic text editor compared to Leafpad.

 

[captain-sensible]

yeah you can "run" code on it edit .md markup and even get a preview with plugin

 

[KGIII]

Geany is closer to GEdit than it is to nano.

Also, I double-checked and my memory appears to be working. Huh... That's unusual!

Pico (text editor) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It was a redistribution thing.