Nano has already supplanted the great EMacs and Vim as the most popular text editor of all linux distros, for though it has many omissions in functionality it scores over the older, more complete programs in two important respects. First, it is slightly simpler; and secondly it has the text “^ Exit” inscribed in highlighted text on its footer

EDIT : This sees to be going over some people’s heads. It’s a hitchiker’s guide to the galaxy reference.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions . . . it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    55·
    23 days ago

    Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in making text editors in the first place. And some said that even making operating systems had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have built computers at all.

    • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
      23·
      22 days ago

      In the beginning, boolean algebra was invented.

      This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldOP
      7·
      23 days ago

      If ind it quite funny that the majority of the posts are about the text editor and not about the blatant hitchhiker’s guide reference to the point where I had to specify it in the OP and then the thread exploded after that point.

  • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
    15·
    23 days ago

    Nano is to EMacs/Vim as Notepad is to Notepad++ or VSCode (Nano has features Notepad doesn’t, but you get the point).

    I don’t do a ton of code editing directly on the CLI. I do things like change parameters in config files or open a file to read it quickly. If I’m doing more heavy editing, I’ll use a GUI editor (with an SFTP extension if I’m working on a headless server). So programs like Vim and EMacs have never been useful for me.

    To each their own (and I have all the respect for anyone who knows how to exit Vim without looking it up) but I’m guessing the majority of people have a similar experience.

    • BassTurd@lemmy.world
      5·
      23 days ago

      I spent enough time learning vim that I can do basic navigation and text editing. I’d like to be able to navigate efficiently like some of the savants out there, but the effort to get to that point is more than I’m willing to put into in.

  • Scoopta@programming.dev
    11·
    23 days ago

    I’ve wanted to move elsewhere for a long time, thing is I don’t use nano for programming, I use it for config files. For programming I use an IDE, and every time I’ve tried leaving my IDE for emacs with a language server I find I just can’t be bothered to set it up and learn it and make the move. Maybe because while I have some gripes with my current setup…they’re very minor

    • UnfortunateShort@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      22 days ago

      It is insane how far using the same shortcuts literally everything else can get you in the world of terminal text editors and yet here we are

  • JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de
    5·
    23 days ago

    I think Vim is great if you use it everyday and know it inside out. For those of us who don’t, Nano is just easier, not least because it tells you in the UI how to exit it xD

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
    5·
    23 days ago

    I have been around since production servers were predominantly HP-UX, Solaris, and AIX. I settled on Vi because it was the one common editor that was preinstalled on every *NIX OS, including Linux and you could jump right into edit mode while reading a file without having to exit the preview first.

    Nano is fine, but one you’ve gone through the pain of committing Vi to muscle memory, there’s no point to switch.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      23 days ago

      yep. One of the reasons I stick to debian based (vanilla Deb) is so that any dumbass tutorial works for me, because I am not smart.

  • ArsonButCute@programming.dev
    3·
    23 days ago

    I’m a vim stan. I love my vim. I still end up installing nano on all my machines. It’s honestly not even for me anymore, it’s for anyone else who happens to use it. Vim is great but it’s got a learning curve.

    Often times I’ll just use vi, since it’s always there.

  • Solemarc@lemmy.world
    3·
    22 days ago

    I use helix for all my developer work and nano for “I need to edit this config file buried somewhere in /usr/…”. I never remember to do Sudo -E

  • FerrisEuler@programming.dev
    2·
    22 days ago

    Nano’s used because it’s easier to use, which means the user interface is more intuitive than the others who insist you hit a key before making an edit.