People might joke about something like this, but there was literally a time when I was new to programming and the terminal that I used nano to edit *everything.* I've moved to both emacs and vim now (both serve different purposes for me) but the accessibility of Nano is somewhat responsible for getting me into programming and computing in general, with just enough configuration tweaks to make it suffice for quite a while (especially if you're so new to programming that you’ve never become accustomed to auto-complete, and command modes.
@Agnish Roy I use emacs but I still use nano for small editing tasks here and there. I don't want to start emacs if all I want to do is change font size from 12 to 14.
@Agnish Roy I don't find any terminal-based editor fit for bulk editing; vim/nano feels best suited for quick edits imo. For projects, I use Sublime Text. I'm unfamiliar with emacs. If it's shortcut-key driven, shouldn't it be lightweight and quick? If it feels overpowered for small edits, I don't see its advantage over a regular IDE.
@Agnish Roy people like to be "different" in my eyes nano is an improvement over vi ...and emacs is not a text editor its a fucking ide so i cant compare it to it... however, who needs an ide real coders use text editors because they dont code in java or complex languages that require an ide. the same hypocrites that bash on nano are the same hypocrites that brag with minimalism based distros like arch n break their whole system down because arch is for ppl with no lives and meant to break just by its rolling release design (so there goes simplicity) i stick to debian and nano. debian is simple enough but with the combination of support, stability and freedom.
@@JD-im4wu using both on different machines, you really are bashing arch to hard. Installing it is a bit troublesome at first but after that it never actually broke on me. very rarely something comes up that requires you to adjust something, but thats always mentioned, explained in detail and fast + easily done. i was super suprised how well it keeps working.
euh nope its useless i imediatly learned basic vim commands its not harder then the nano comands at all. evryone has youtube now so people dont get stuck on stuf like that unles they are bookneeding idiots.
People who hate on Nano haven’t taken the time to learn to use it correctly. Perhaps they should make it like Vim or Emacs where it’s not clear how to even get out of the editor unless you RTFM.
Nano may be plain but having used Linux (private user, not admin) for around 12 years and using command line extensively I have never felt a need for a more elaborate text editor.
For people used to GUI text editors, micro is (almost) perfect. I can use nano and vim, and I actually use it when I need it, BUT when I switch to a regular code editor I start pressing things like "ZQ" and "ctrl K". Muscular memory is sometimes annoying
biggest problem for me is i accedely type jjjjjjkkkkki in gui text editors... 😤 then diw to remove it then slowly move my hand to backspace... quite anoying
I am not "afraid". I just want to get into the file on the remote server, make my change, and get out. I don't need split screen or special colors. When I code on local, I have all that in my full-featured IDE. If I just need to look at a file, I use less. Only if I need to edit a huge file, I use vim after I googled a cheatsheet again. I've had plenty of contacts with Vim, even tried to learn it a few times, but I realized I'd rather fill my limited brain with other things.
WOW! Soooo happy to get introduced to this editor! I have been looking for an editor just like this for a long time and it just checks ALL boxes for me. I love this so much just on the first try I'm never gonna go back to nano!!!
Need to thank DistroTube ! Mirco is such beautiful text-editor and i don't need to learn any new keybindings because the most keybindings are default in daily use like CTRL+C and so on. Really best thanks!
Sorry - I like the syntax coloring I get in nano, as well as the reminders of common keybindings at the bottom of the screen. If I want to work with multiple files, I just open a new terminal window or tab. I don't *want* my text editor to look like vi/vim.
It's nice, but it lacks line numbers and colour highlighting. Also Nano's got somewhat unintuitive shortcuts. So if you don't need power use, but like those features, I'd go with Micro.
I've been using Micro for almost 6 months now and I love it. I really don't have the time to deep dive into learning vim or emacs so this is the perfect compromise. I have also found it to be surprisingly configurable for my needs.
I just tried micro and it's awesome! Yeah, same folks who deep dive into vim spend weeks configuring window managers. I get it. It's fun to tinker. But I've spent way to much time tinkering with dozens of OSes and shells to care anymore for things that don't appeal to me, like vim. I just don't grasp the logic of HJKL. Sure, they're next to each other and convenient, but why make side-by-side keys control up down movement? And why shifted one left of the right-hand home? It makes no sense. And some bindings are mnemonic while others are positional? what? I don't want a how-to guide, I want to know the science behind it before really committing to it. With so many terminal apps bound to vim bindings I want to learn.. but then I start and am like.. nope, this is stupid.
@@arkadianriverI am right with you on HJKL bindings. Anytime I can I reroute them to JIKL. Why have a finger do double duty? Any gamer has the pattern for WASD embedded in finger memory on the left hand. Why not match it for the right?
I've just started using micro... quick question. How do you open files with micro like you do with nano? For example when you type "nano file.txt" to open that file
Why learn how to stumble, when you can learn how to run instead. Stick with vim/emacs. Its worth every minute you spend learning it. Life is too short to spend it pressing useless buttons. (btw. I get the irony)
@@alphapenguin9748 not nessesary. Take the average Joe that uses a couple of simple servers. They may need to edit config files on a semi regular basis but don't need to do it quickly. The pay off from learning vim outways the time it takes to learn vim. If you edit files on a regular or even daily basis then vim makes much more sense
@@jeetadityachatterjee6995 true, I didn't think about that
4 года назад+7
The problem with Micro is that it's not readily available, so when you really need it, often you cannot install it. Nano is installed by default on most distros, and so is Vim. Personally, I like Kate, but I also know how to do basic stuff in Vim, just in case I am limited to TTY.
Thanks. Digging it. But you never said why you shouldn't use nano. I was thinking there was some dev drama with it or something the way you said several times "don't use nano"
I think a real reason to learn vim(or nano) is its wide availability on almost all popular Linux distributions. If you are handicapped by the unavailability of a certain software, it's going to be a problem(you don't have permission to install or production is down a.k.a. shit's on fire) If you want to use a different editor locally micro seems pretty nice. But again, if you are willing to let go of all the help GUI editors provide, why not use vim/nano, that way you get the same productivity while working on a remote machine too! To me, that feels like a lazier option.
I tested Micro today and it's quite annoying that it uses keyboard shortcuts from Nano but then implements them halfway. To give an example here would be CTRL+K and CTRL+U to cut and paste a line in nano. Micro only implements the first combination and has reserved the second for something else. This ruins the whole workflow. Either you implement these two completely or you leave them out completely. But not half measures like that. Yes, you can change all the keybindings, but that's extra work and who knows if the help will adapt to that?
Thanks man! this really is much better than nano. I guess I'll eventually learn vim, but for my current needs this is more than enough, very intuitive given my previous text editor expiriences.
Awesome! I'm sold! I rarely if ever need a terminal text editor since I use Sublime, but the colour highlighting in Micro are nice, and when I do need to do the odd editing, it's easy and intuitive. Thank you!
Nano also has syntax highlighting, it's just seems to not be set up by default on most distros though. If you are used to coding on old mainframes limited to screen editing, there's nothing particularly limiting to nano.
My nano config looks like this: set autoindent set guidestripe 80 set stripecolor normal,lightblack set linenumbers set numbercolor yellow,black set brackets ""')>]}" set matchbrackets "(]}" # set tabstospaces set trimblanks
@@gogogogogogogogogogog9 I don't know. Nano commands are so counterintuitive, that I was never happy with them. Vim is much more logical just because of mnemonic.
Nano is easy to learn, easy to master. Vim is easy to learn, hard to master. There isn't much to nano than what you see on the bottom, so you can't really do much with it (just enough). Vim has just enough, and then some advanced editing capabilities that make you think, "Cool, but why?"
@@cuttlefishn.w.2705 I think you are glossing over the things vim can and nano can't do. Mastering notepad(on windows) is easy, but it's too simple to help me be more productive.
@@red-o7 Replace the "it's too simple" with a "I can do this faster in another editor" and we have the same argument. Vim is great for quick & simple edits, but intricate edits is better left to a conventional IDE. What comes to mind is if you'll be copying and pasting a lot. Sure I can y & p all over the place, but I might just be too accustomed to ctrl+c & ctrl+p that it's faster.
yes and they are relatively self explainatory too and there actually isnt that many modes as that this would be a serious throwback. i use vim now for maybe one or one and a half months and already dont want to stop it. code completion is only one of the few things i really have to get working in vim to be happy with it. also there is no real point for using different ides for different purposes and or languages. they are all juat glorified text editors with a few convient buttons. i use some ides myself because they have abilities for debugging microcontrollers builtin (with graphic representation of the registers which is utterly helpful and something vim will propably never have) but really the built in editor sucks so i use the ide for just that unique feature and vim for the acual heavy lifting (writing code that is)
Nano is not powerful and some times is downright annoying but is dead simple and everyone want's something thats simple and less demanding from the user. I can't remember every shortcut for every program i use, heck some times i don't remember names of people i know for 4 years how vim thought that including 70 shortcuts and different mods will make people use it ?
Exactly. Once you've set things up to your liking, nano is surprisingly useful. I was going to post just this. For me, the nano devs take great care to design a simple but refreshingly sane editor :)
@@urugulu1656 Nano has some config options you can set in an rc file. (See man nano and man nanorc). Also, somebody's put up a Github repo with a lot of syntax-highlighting definitions. Heck, in tweaking those, you can level up a bit on regex skills!
Yes, I've found micro couple months ago, but how? Power of habits was so huge, that moving to terminal I really can't do any edit. With nano I had to regard all my impulses especially those keystrokes that are the same but triggers different actions than GUI editors. Before finding micro also almost every time I was installing an MC filemanager (which has editor built in).
The programmers for unix based terminal tools have a sense of humour. I remember back in the early 90's on the unix mainframe we had, at university 'less' was the improved 'more' command and we used to alias less to be more. LOL. We had vi and emacs. No such thing as vim at that point.
The "HJKL" stuff is still the thing I have the hardest time with. I don't type with my hands on the home row, and I use the arrow keys a lot, so it is so hard to do it right in vim. Mostly I still just end up using the arrow keys like a neanderthal.
This might sound crazy if you haven't used vim for a very long, but you don't actually need to use hjkl all that much. There are more efficient movements like w, e, b, etc. that you'll probably want to use instead (you can also use t to jump to the next occurrence of something, { and } for paragraph jumps, / to search for more specific stuff...), and then you might use hjkl a bit for something like going to the middle of a word you just jumped to in order to fix a typo. I switched to the Dvorak layout a while ago and I still use vim with the default binds. hjkl keys are not in the same spot, and it frankly doesn't matter at all.
it takes literally a few minutes to learn basic vim commands and takes a few hours to get used to them. just do that instead. mastering vim shouldn't be the goal for any beginner. just getting stuff done should be.
One question: Why even? Why edit stuff in terminal, use key bindings and all, when I can just use FeatherPad or a similar editor? And when I, for whatever reason, need to edit a file in terminal, nano is perfectly fine.
It depends, I use NeoVim as my editor because of its speed, extensability and the fact I can edit as fast as I can think. I use NeoVim in a true color terminal and one-dark color scheme so it looks as sexy as Atom (damn its color scheme is good). It's ok to use nano for small edits but nano is not all that featured like other editors, which makes it not the best option *compared to other editors* .
I love using micro for go development. There was a PR that improved the syntax highlighting but unfortunately the author didn't believe that it should be merged.
The main reason I've learned anything about vim is because it is pretty much guaranteed to be there on any system, even a minimal one. I usually have used nano, but I'm definitely switching to micro now. It's so much better. It's not that vim is scary, it's just foreign to me, even after many years of using Linux.
I made a configuration file that makes the key bindings of vim intuitive, and it totally worked, but then why use vim lol. The whole point is exactly that I got to be familiar with any vim that comes down my path.
Interesting, will definitely give this a shot on my personal systems. Unfortunately, my school's servers likely don't have micro, and so I'll likely stick with nano for just viewing files.
@@tobberh If I really wanted to I might be able to, but considering I use it only for very basic edits, it wouldn't really be a needed upgrade. Plus, there are more important things they should tend to, for example I think they haven't updated gcc in years.
Nano can be good if you configure it a little. It can have line numbers, syntax highlighting & a whole bunch of other stuff. Don't hate me, but I actually like nano almost as much as I like emacs....
The capital letters don't mean that you have to press Shift also. Ctrl+g, Ctrl+e etc. work. It's just a style thing. In Nano, all the shortcuts display capital letters but you don't have to use Shift.
Well, I have had a change of heart. The custom key bindings I had set for Nano in nanorc no longer were properly working, and some other issues with nano popped up. I have changed over to micro and removed nano from my systems. I have Vim installed and I have gone through some tutorials. Vim is powerful, but Micro is sufficient for the editing that I do, and Micro is much more intuitive to me.
Pretty sure the capital letters aren't required for the keybindings. control-g works the same as control-G for me. I also think you missed some of the killer features, like multiple cursors, etc. This *could* be used seriously. I found this a few weeks ago, played with it and enjoyed it. I was impressed, but I went back to vim (because I never seriously considered anything else).
I don't think anyone is 'afraid' of using Vim, shit takes too much time to setup, personally for me those NeoVim forks is still bloated with features I don't want.
I don't see a point in changing text editors when I don't even need cli text editors that often. I'll change from nano to vim or something in the unlikely event I suddenly need more power to edit more text. Otherwise nano does everything I need it to. Which is very little.
I've learned how to use Emacs and I'm pretty productive with it duo to Org mode, but I loved Micro at the first sight duo to the default standardized keybindings. Damn the default keybindings of Emacs and Vim feels AWFUL! Ps: Yeah, I know you can change Emacs configurations.
what is the point of this video apart from showing of yet another text editor? if all you have to do to a file is nano (get it?) changes nano is perfectly suited for the job. when do you use a terminal based text editor anyway assuming your a normie? its gonna be on ssh sessions and/or minimal systems that maybe dont even have a graphical front end. often enough you dont even have the choice what to use (say on a nas running an os without even a package manager) without going compile from source. matter of fact my synology nas does not even ship vim it comes with plain vi... nano i guess is optionally downloadable on some community site... i have no experience with emacs but there is no need to use vim the vim way. want to make some changes to your file? press i once and forget about it use the arrow buttons to navigate and backspace and delete to delete type what ever to insert (your in insert mode after all...) the only thing to know is :wqa in the end to close vim and save changes does this really justify another editor for in betweeners? especially since copy paste is possible by marking with the mouse and pressing the middle mouse button in insert mode as with most linux oses (on the desktop at least) on the terminal/ssh well yes then you have to do it the vim way. or just download the file to your local host and edit it what ever way prevered and ftp it back...
One more comment, as there is one issue I cannot figure out, and it seems to me that there has to be a way. If not, Micro is not for me, though it may seem insignificant. say I have a standard terminal window og 80 by 30, or any other size for that matter. I have disabled the status bar, and frankly tried everything I can think of, and yet, I still only have 29 out 30 usable lines. The cursor will show up on the last line, and presumably, you can write on it. However, no text will show up nor will line numbering work. Ideally the statusbar would not be disable, but be available only when needed, but the most important part, is to have full use of the screen, as there is really no reason not to. I do like Micro, so I really hope someone has a solution.* Thanks.
What's the point of that bs title and elitism? "Using nano because Vim/Emacs is scary"? Don't you think maybe people use nano because they rarely use commandline text editors, or because they want something that's installed on nearly every system when they ssh into a different box?
Man thanks, I aways hated nano, but 2 times i installed Vim and can't understand how to use it properly, micro it's much more easy and intuitive, thanks
I don't use nano because vim is scary. I use nano because it's installed on a system instead of vim. The truth of it is I HATE terminal text editors. You're in a GUI. use a damn real text editor.
Was looking if it was easy to install on my Linux Mint 19.3 system, but it looks like the only option is to build from source, if I manage to find the Go system that it need to do the build... So I think I will read up on Vim and see if I can learn that instead 🤔
Now my default config editor now. I'm not scared of Vim, well NVim. Mine is fully pimped out and I know how to use it. Just think micro seems pretty cool.
I think the biggest advantage of micro is that it uses the shortcuts most people (?) should be familiar with - Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Q, Ctrl-X/C/V, select with Shift-, etc., whereas nano (simple or not) is one of those idiosyncratic *nix applications.
No, I don’t think I will. I know ViM (and I have Vis) but with no plugins. Nano is the easiest for very quick edits which are most of what I do. No need to bother with modes and all the bloat. Once I ditch GNU I’ll probably use Vis exclusively.
See now Micro I can get behind. Its not that Im scared of Vim or Emacs, but that if I am making changes to a file through a terminal its generally less than 20 characters. If I want more robust features while editing text files I use a GUI applications that is better suited for it. Just a personal preference, but Vim/Emacs just seems like overkill for how I do text editing in the terminal.
Same here. If I'm just making a quick change in something I usually just use nano because it's quick and easy. If I'm writing a bash script or doing some other coding I use Atom because it suits me and It has some nice plugins that I can use.
@@RickWeberEcon Except that it's not liberating at all. I can do everything I need/want to without it in my life, and vim wouldn't give me anything extra that I could need or want... except making me look like some 1337 haxx0r, but I really don't want that.
It's so weird how common this argument is. vim is more comfortable and fast. I open it for small edits, I open it for big edits. The binds are nice and it keeps things consistent. Switching between nano and some graphical editor that probably has different key binds seems very strange.
@@SoundToxin No, Vim is way to complex and clunky to be practical in my opinion. You don't need all those keybindings just to write code and edit configs.
nowadays, nano is usually preinstalled, like vi. Only reason I use either is when I ssh into a server where I or the user I'm supporting cant install anything. And I dont have time in a support call to teach vi. If I'm gonna install anything with a display it'll be my bloated IDE, because.. things. But yeah, thanks for this awareness, if I can install but dont have a desktop environment, I might give this a shot! Yeah, vi keybindings are as appealing to me as the color of the vim logo. And I've left emacs behind along with full use of my left pinky. ;)
No way! Micro is a single 13 MB go-created binary that can be installed right in your local directory if you want. No docs needed: Ctrl-C and V copy paste, PgUp/Dwn, _and_ you can even use the mouse. The mouse! Seriously, thanks again for this. I just remoted to a server, installed it in 3 seconds with the bash script into ~/.local/bin, and voila.. I'm using a mouse in a terminal editor remotely.. no plugins, nothin'.
Okay DT, point well taken hahahaha. scary Vim.. My text-editing needs are pretty simple so I'll probably get rid of Geany and Nano; installing Micro as we speak. Thnks for pointing me to another useful tool.
People might joke about something like this, but there was literally a time when I was new to programming and the terminal that I used nano to edit *everything.* I've moved to both emacs and vim now (both serve different purposes for me) but the accessibility of Nano is somewhat responsible for getting me into programming and computing in general, with just enough configuration tweaks to make it suffice for quite a while (especially if you're so new to programming that you’ve never become accustomed to auto-complete, and command modes.
@Agnish Roy I use emacs but I still use nano for small editing tasks here and there. I don't want to start emacs if all I want to do is change font size from 12 to 14.
@Agnish Roy I don't find any terminal-based editor fit for bulk editing; vim/nano feels best suited for quick edits imo. For projects, I use Sublime Text.
I'm unfamiliar with emacs. If it's shortcut-key driven, shouldn't it be lightweight and quick? If it feels overpowered for small edits, I don't see its advantage over a regular IDE.
Nano was to complicated for me so I never used it.
@Agnish Roy people like to be "different" in my eyes nano is an improvement over vi ...and emacs is not a text editor its a fucking ide so i cant compare it to it... however, who needs an ide real coders use text editors because they dont code in java or complex languages that require an ide. the same hypocrites that bash on nano are the same hypocrites that brag with minimalism based distros like arch n break their whole system down because arch is for ppl with no lives and meant to break just by its rolling release design (so there goes simplicity) i stick to debian and nano. debian is simple enough but with the combination of support, stability and freedom.
@@JD-im4wu using both on different machines, you really are bashing arch to hard. Installing it is a bit troublesome at first but after that it never actually broke on me.
very rarely something comes up that requires you to adjust something, but thats always mentioned, explained in detail and fast + easily done.
i was super suprised how well it keeps working.
Nano text editor is definitely the most underrated free software ever
True. Nano gave new users some enjoyable time
i switched from vim to nano because I realized that vim was a trap! nano is a great text editor ftw!
Don't you have your own editor?
euh nope its useless i imediatly learned basic vim commands its not harder then the nano comands at all.
evryone has youtube now so people dont get stuck on stuf like that unles they are bookneeding idiots.
@@nictanghe98 like: there's no delete word backwards, but there is delete word forward (in front of cursor). What???
DT: You don’t have to settle on nano
Me: Pico it is then
And the Pilot file manager to go with it.
I actually misremembered this video and accidentally installed pico instead (came back here to check with the actual name was) :-)
@@kdemetter oh lololol. mind remembers what was intended to be forgotten
Finally, I use micro since months and I find it perfect for my needs.
how to "save as" instead of just saving to the open file?
People who hate on Nano haven’t taken the time to learn to use it correctly. Perhaps they should make it like Vim or Emacs where it’s not clear how to even get out of the editor unless you RTFM.
people always say it is too simple/basic but they never say which feature(s) it is missing that (say) micro or vim or emacs has
Nano may be plain but having used Linux (private user, not admin) for around 12 years and using command line extensively I have never felt a need for a more elaborate text editor.
For people used to GUI text editors, micro is (almost) perfect.
I can use nano and vim, and I actually use it when I need it, BUT when I switch to a regular code editor I start pressing things like "ZQ" and "ctrl K".
Muscular memory is sometimes annoying
biggest problem for me is
i accedely type jjjjjjkkkkki in gui text editors... 😤 then diw to remove it
then slowly move my hand to backspace... quite anoying
I am not "afraid". I just want to get into the file on the remote server, make my change, and get out. I don't need split screen or special colors. When I code on local, I have all that in my full-featured IDE.
If I just need to look at a file, I use less. Only if I need to edit a huge file, I use vim after I googled a cheatsheet again.
I've had plenty of contacts with Vim, even tried to learn it a few times, but I realized I'd rather fill my limited brain with other things.
"Inferior terminal base nano"
Me - *cries*
WOW! Soooo happy to get introduced to this editor! I have been looking for an editor just like this for a long time and it just checks ALL boxes for me. I love this so much just on the first try I'm never gonna go back to nano!!!
Need to thank DistroTube ! Mirco is such beautiful text-editor and i don't need to learn any new keybindings because the most keybindings are default in daily use like CTRL+C and so on. Really best thanks!
Sorry - I like the syntax coloring I get in nano, as well as the reminders of common keybindings at the bottom of the screen. If I want to work with multiple files, I just open a new terminal window or tab.
I don't *want* my text editor to look like vi/vim.
You hear that clacking of the mechanical keyboard in vim? That's the sound of inevitability.
Nothing is wrong with nano if that's what you want to use.
i dont see anything wrong with nano...
It’s just this dudes ego. “You’re not a real Linux pro if you use nano”. It’s not valid. If you like nano use nano.
Same! Nanochads rise up!
It's nice, but it lacks line numbers and colour highlighting. Also Nano's got somewhat unintuitive shortcuts. So if you don't need power use, but like those features, I'd go with Micro.
@@kebman DT has a video about adding syntax highlighting and line numbers to Nano.
@@Kodeb8 It's wonky. Don't use it. I did it once, and my cholesterol levels just rose so high, that lard came out of my eyes.
nano comes alot of features including syntax highlighting, package maintainers just default them too off
I've been using Micro for almost 6 months now and I love it. I really don't have the time to deep dive into learning vim or emacs so this is the perfect compromise. I have also found it to be surprisingly configurable for my needs.
I just tried micro and it's awesome! Yeah, same folks who deep dive into vim spend weeks configuring window managers. I get it. It's fun to tinker. But I've spent way to much time tinkering with dozens of OSes and shells to care anymore for things that don't appeal to me, like vim. I just don't grasp the logic of HJKL. Sure, they're next to each other and convenient, but why make side-by-side keys control up down movement? And why shifted one left of the right-hand home? It makes no sense. And some bindings are mnemonic while others are positional? what? I don't want a how-to guide, I want to know the science behind it before really committing to it. With so many terminal apps bound to vim bindings I want to learn.. but then I start and am like.. nope, this is stupid.
@@arkadianriverI am right with you on HJKL bindings. Anytime I can I reroute them to JIKL. Why have a finger do double duty? Any gamer has the pattern for WASD embedded in finger memory on the left hand. Why not match it for the right?
I've just started using micro... quick question. How do you open files with micro like you do with nano? For example when you type "nano file.txt" to open that file
@@mihai9857 you must be trying to use it from a Windows command prompt? I found that on Win, I have to run it from powershell to pass it a filename
@@mihai9857 The Same way. Micro if in the same directory. MIcro if not.
I have never done anything, where nano didn't do the job perfectly.
It has everything i need. :)
I'm scared :S Let me touch your head, please. It comforts me.
Why learn how to stumble, when you can learn how to run instead. Stick with vim/emacs. Its worth every minute you spend learning it. Life is too short to spend it pressing useless buttons. (btw. I get the irony)
What if you don't need to run?
@@MrBearyMcBearface then your standards are low
@@alphapenguin9748 not nessesary. Take the average Joe that uses a couple of simple servers. They may need to edit config files on a semi regular basis but don't need to do it quickly. The pay off from learning vim outways the time it takes to learn vim. If you edit files on a regular or even daily basis then vim makes much more sense
Once you use vim, you just can't quit it. LoL
@@jeetadityachatterjee6995 true, I didn't think about that
The problem with Micro is that it's not readily available, so when you really need it, often you cannot install it. Nano is installed by default on most distros, and so is Vim.
Personally, I like Kate, but I also know how to do basic stuff in Vim, just in case I am limited to TTY.
Just download a static binary and run it from your home directory. Heck, carry it around with you on your toolkit usb drive.
Does KDE have two text editors? Because on my system it's called KWrite.
@@Hro18059 Yes it does. KWrite is the simpler one with much less features. It's a little like if you compare
notepad (kwrite) with notepad++ (kate).
Thanks. Digging it. But you never said why you shouldn't use nano. I was thinking there was some dev drama with it or something the way you said several times "don't use nano"
Im not afraid.... is that nano is more simple, and the idea is to have a system as simple as possible.
I've been using nano to write my html for so long.
Unironic use of the word leet gets me excited every time.
I think a real reason to learn vim(or nano) is its wide availability on almost all popular Linux distributions. If you are handicapped by the unavailability of a certain software, it's going to be a problem(you don't have permission to install or production is down a.k.a. shit's on fire)
If you want to use a different editor locally micro seems pretty nice. But again, if you are willing to let go of all the help GUI editors provide, why not use vim/nano, that way you get the same productivity while working on a remote machine too! To me, that feels like a lazier option.
I tested Micro today and it's quite annoying that it uses keyboard shortcuts from Nano but then implements them halfway.
To give an example here would be CTRL+K and CTRL+U to cut and paste a line in nano. Micro only implements the first combination and has reserved the second for something else. This ruins the whole workflow. Either you implement these two completely or you leave them out completely. But not half measures like that.
Yes, you can change all the keybindings, but that's extra work and who knows if the help will adapt to that?
Thanks man! this really is much better than nano. I guess I'll eventually learn vim, but for my current needs this is more than enough, very intuitive given my previous text editor expiriences.
Awesome! I'm sold! I rarely if ever need a terminal text editor since I use Sublime, but the colour highlighting in Micro are nice, and when I do need to do the odd editing, it's easy and intuitive. Thank you!
micro is like nano except u gotta learn all the key bindings all over again... f that. nano is good enough! nuff said!
DT, this is perfect! Thank you.
Edit: I took you up on the vimtutor challenge. THANK YOU!!
Nano also has syntax highlighting, it's just seems to not be set up by default on most distros though.
If you are used to coding on old mainframes limited to screen editing, there's nothing particularly limiting to nano.
Absolutely! Nano is way more customizable than the Vim/Emacs “elite” give it credit for.
My nano config looks like this:
set autoindent
set guidestripe 80
set stripecolor normal,lightblack
set linenumbers
set numbercolor yellow,black
set brackets ""')>]}"
set matchbrackets "(]}"
# set tabstospaces
set trimblanks
The config can be found in ~/config/nano/nanorc
@@OpenGL4ever don't forget the dot ~/.config/nano/nanorc
thanks for the config
I am afraid, afraid to learn nano. I find it so aweful, that it was easier to learn VIM, than to learn nano. :)
nano is simpler than vim
@@gogogogogogogogogogog9 I don't know. Nano commands are so counterintuitive, that I was never happy with them. Vim is much more logical just because of mnemonic.
Nano is easy to learn, easy to master. Vim is easy to learn, hard to master.
There isn't much to nano than what you see on the bottom, so you can't really do much with it (just enough). Vim has just enough, and then some advanced editing capabilities that make you think, "Cool, but why?"
@@cuttlefishn.w.2705 I think you are glossing over the things vim can and nano can't do. Mastering notepad(on windows) is easy, but it's too simple to help me be more productive.
@@red-o7 Replace the "it's too simple" with a "I can do this faster in another editor" and we have the same argument. Vim is great for quick & simple edits, but intricate edits is better left to a conventional IDE. What comes to mind is if you'll be copying and pasting a lot. Sure I can y & p all over the place, but I might just be too accustomed to ctrl+c & ctrl+p that it's faster.
i used to be afraid of vim but actually its easy ones you learn the basic key combinations which are rather few.
yes and they are relatively self explainatory too and there actually isnt that many modes as that this would be a serious throwback. i use vim now for maybe one or one and a half months and already dont want to stop it.
code completion is only one of the few things i really have to get working in vim to be happy with it.
also there is no real point for using different ides for different purposes and or languages. they are all juat glorified text editors with a few convient buttons. i use some ides myself because they have abilities for debugging microcontrollers builtin (with graphic representation of the registers which is utterly helpful and something vim will propably never have) but really the built in editor sucks so i use the ide for just that unique feature and vim for the acual heavy lifting (writing code that is)
I honestly prefer nano over emacs, vim, and micro. It's simple and it works. If I need a more powerful text editor I use a word processor or an IDE.
just give vim a chance..
i was a complete hater of vim until i started using it, now i never wanted to go back to any other ide...
Nano is not powerful and some times is downright annoying but is dead simple and everyone want's something thats simple and less demanding from the user. I can't remember every shortcut for every program i use, heck some times i don't remember names of people i know for 4 years how vim thought that including 70 shortcuts and different mods will make people use it ?
I've customized Nano to fit my needs. It's easy and simple.
NANO RULES!
how? ricing the source?
Exactly. Once you've set things up to your liking, nano is surprisingly useful. I was going to post just this. For me, the nano devs take great care to design a simple but refreshingly sane editor :)
@@urugulu1656 Nano has some config options you can set in an rc file. (See man nano and man nanorc). Also, somebody's put up a Github repo with a lot of syntax-highlighting definitions. Heck, in tweaking those, you can level up a bit on regex skills!
Yes, I've found micro couple months ago, but how? Power of habits was so huge, that moving to terminal I really can't do any edit. With nano I had to regard all my impulses especially those keystrokes that are the same but triggers different actions than GUI editors.
Before finding micro also almost every time I was installing an MC filemanager (which has editor built in).
Micro for termux?
I am using Debian testing branch and the syntax highlighting is not working. 😢
Why everyone is so religious? Why I should stop using particular editor and start use other editor if I get things done?
Use the right tool for the job. Nano for quickly editing a conf. GUI editor for programming. Butterflies for interfacing with the Matrix.
The programmers for unix based terminal tools have a sense of humour. I remember back in the early 90's on the unix mainframe we had, at university 'less' was the improved 'more' command and we used to alias less to be more. LOL. We had vi and emacs. No such thing as vim at that point.
But there was pico, if it was installed.
nano is a re-implementation of pico.
@@OpenGL4ever pico + PINE = simple UNIX happiness.
The "HJKL" stuff is still the thing I have the hardest time with. I don't type with my hands on the home row, and I use the arrow keys a lot, so it is so hard to do it right in vim. Mostly I still just end up using the arrow keys like a neanderthal.
As a gamer I'm accustomed to duel wielding keyboard and mouse
wasd + mouse is where my hands rest by default.
This might sound crazy if you haven't used vim for a very long, but you don't actually need to use hjkl all that much. There are more efficient movements like w, e, b, etc. that you'll probably want to use instead (you can also use t to jump to the next occurrence of something, { and } for paragraph jumps, / to search for more specific stuff...), and then you might use hjkl a bit for something like going to the middle of a word you just jumped to in order to fix a typo. I switched to the Dvorak layout a while ago and I still use vim with the default binds. hjkl keys are not in the same spot, and it frankly doesn't matter at all.
Arrow Keys: So easy, even a cave man can use them!
Nano works perfectly fine for my main purpose of editing config files. I have to use ide's for everything else.
it takes literally a few minutes to learn basic vim commands and takes a few hours to get used to them. just do that instead. mastering vim shouldn't be the goal for any beginner. just getting stuff done should be.
I'll give it a try. Still; Nothing wrong with editing some small config file with nano.
One question: Why even? Why edit stuff in terminal, use key bindings and all, when I can just use FeatherPad or a similar editor? And when I, for whatever reason, need to edit a file in terminal, nano is perfectly fine.
It depends, I use NeoVim as my editor because of its speed, extensability and the fact I can edit as fast as I can think. I use NeoVim in a true color terminal and one-dark color scheme so it looks as sexy as Atom (damn its color scheme is good). It's ok to use nano for small edits but nano is not all that featured like other editors, which makes it not the best option *compared to other editors* .
The default settings are so nice that I don't need to mess around sharing settings between a user and root and just run "sudo micro".
Vimtutor finally the help I needed in VIM. Thanks!
can u help me on file manager with in micro; I tried to set the color code some how unable to do it..
I love using micro for go development. There was a PR that improved the syntax highlighting but unfortunately the author didn't believe that it should be merged.
Does anybody know how to open files with micro like you do with nano? For example when you type "nano file.txt" to automatically open that file
how do you paste from clipboard ?? ctrl + v do nothing
how to "save as" instead of just saving to the open file?
Theres nothing better than emacs gui.
I see the title has changed. It is better and more temperate that way.
The main reason I've learned anything about vim is because it is pretty much guaranteed to be there on any system, even a minimal one. I usually have used nano, but I'm definitely switching to micro now. It's so much better.
It's not that vim is scary, it's just foreign to me, even after many years of using Linux.
I made a configuration file that makes the key bindings of vim intuitive, and it totally worked, but then why use vim lol. The whole point is exactly that I got to be familiar with any vim that comes down my path.
Nice for my termux things
Interesting, will definitely give this a shot on my personal systems. Unfortunately, my school's servers likely don't have micro, and so I'll likely stick with nano for just viewing files.
Pretty sure you could get the admin to install it on the servers if you just ask politely?
@@tobberh If I really wanted to I might be able to, but considering I use it only for very basic edits, it wouldn't really be a needed upgrade. Plus, there are more important things they should tend to, for example I think they haven't updated gcc in years.
@@alextrotta796 Don't they use a distribution? Installing other software should be easy with them.
Nano can be good if you configure it a little. It can have line numbers, syntax highlighting & a whole bunch of other stuff. Don't hate me, but I actually like nano almost as much as I like emacs....
The capital letters don't mean that you have to press Shift also. Ctrl+g, Ctrl+e etc. work. It's just a style thing. In Nano, all the shortcuts display capital letters but you don't have to use Shift.
Well, I use mainly JOE (jstar), but unfortunately it's not feature complete: window-splitting is still buggy and unfinished.
Tmux is love, Tmux is life, and also... IS THAT A JOJO REFERENCE???
TOP SECRET: Nano support macro (GNU Nano 2.9 has the ability to record and replay keystrokes within the text editor)
Can you turn off the line numbers?
Just your daily reminder that I use Arch....BTW.
I use micro to write my Python and Golang programs, the syntax highlighting is awesome!
Nano is simple and efficient to use, and is configurable. I don’t understand the hate. Micro is good too.
Well, I have had a change of heart. The custom key bindings I had set for Nano in nanorc no longer were properly working, and some other issues with nano popped up. I have changed over to micro and removed nano from my systems.
I have Vim installed and I have gone through some tutorials. Vim is powerful, but Micro is sufficient for the editing that I do, and Micro is much more intuitive to me.
Pretty sure the capital letters aren't required for the keybindings. control-g works the same as control-G for me.
I also think you missed some of the killer features, like multiple cursors, etc. This *could* be used seriously. I found this a few weeks ago, played with it and enjoyed it. I was impressed, but I went back to vim (because I never seriously considered anything else).
I don't think anyone is 'afraid' of using Vim, shit takes too much time to setup, personally for me those NeoVim forks is still bloated with features I don't want.
I don't see a point in changing text editors when I don't even need cli text editors that often. I'll change from nano to vim or something in the unlikely event I suddenly need more power to edit more text. Otherwise nano does everything I need it to. Which is very little.
how do I scroll using the mouse??? Somebody help me!!! Please...
How can I stop micro from creating log.txt files?
I've learned how to use Emacs and I'm pretty productive with it duo to Org mode, but I loved Micro at the first sight duo to the default standardized keybindings. Damn the default keybindings of Emacs and Vim feels AWFUL!
Ps: Yeah, I know you can change Emacs configurations.
what is the point of this video apart from showing of yet another text editor? if all you have to do to a file is nano (get it?) changes nano is perfectly suited for the job. when do you use a terminal based text editor anyway assuming your a normie? its gonna be on ssh sessions and/or minimal systems that maybe dont even have a graphical front end. often enough you dont even have the choice what to use (say on a nas running an os without even a package manager) without going compile from source. matter of fact my synology nas does not even ship vim it comes with plain vi... nano i guess is optionally downloadable on some community site...
i have no experience with emacs but there is no need to use vim the vim way. want to make some changes to your file? press i once and forget about it use the arrow buttons to navigate and backspace and delete to delete type what ever to insert (your in insert mode after all...) the only thing to know is :wqa in the end to close vim and save changes does this really justify another editor for in betweeners? especially since copy paste is possible by marking with the mouse and pressing the middle mouse button in insert mode as with most linux oses (on the desktop at least) on the terminal/ssh well yes then you have to do it the vim way. or just download the file to your local host and edit it what ever way prevered and ftp it back...
vim really just takes about 2 days to get going. and its so much content on vim out there
@X GNU Bio vimtutor
Nano is certainly not inferior and it's a good choice if someone wants to do things fast.
One more comment, as there is one issue I cannot figure out, and it seems to me that there has to be a way. If not, Micro is not for me, though it may seem insignificant.
say I have a standard terminal window og 80 by 30, or any other size for that matter. I have disabled the status bar, and frankly tried everything I can think of, and yet, I still only have 29 out 30 usable lines. The cursor will show up on the last line, and presumably, you can write on it. However, no text will show up nor will line numbering work.
Ideally the statusbar would not be disable, but be available only when needed, but the most important part, is to have full use of the screen, as there is really no reason not to.
I do like Micro, so I really hope someone has a solution.*
Thanks.
Mirco is really good the only issue I have it is doesn't do highligting for some config files.
What's the point of that bs title and elitism? "Using nano because Vim/Emacs is scary"? Don't you think maybe people use nano because they rarely use commandline text editors, or because they want something that's installed on nearly every system when they ssh into a different box?
@@jacksmith5045 everything is full of elitism.
yes, this is what I wanted. Thanks DT!
Man thanks, I aways hated nano, but 2 times i installed Vim and can't understand how to use it properly, micro it's much more easy and intuitive, thanks
I don't use nano because vim is scary. I use nano because it's installed on a system instead of vim. The truth of it is I HATE terminal text editors. You're in a GUI. use a damn real text editor.
I use NeoVim as my IDE. A full-featured, fast IDE.
What window manager are you using now?
I recorded this video in Xmonad.
@@DistroTube I recently switched from KDE to i3 and ngl it was mostly because of watching videos on your channel about tiling wms.
Was looking if it was easy to install on my Linux Mint 19.3 system, but it looks like the only option is to build from source, if I manage to find the Go system that it need to do the build... So I think I will read up on Vim and see if I can learn that instead 🤔
Now my default config editor now. I'm not scared of Vim, well NVim. Mine is fully pimped out and I know how to use it. Just think micro seems pretty cool.
I think the biggest advantage of micro is that it uses the shortcuts most people (?) should be familiar with - Ctrl-S, Ctrl-Q, Ctrl-X/C/V, select with Shift-, etc., whereas nano (simple or not) is one of those idiosyncratic *nix applications.
I don't need any whizbangs to edit an .init file
No, I don’t think I will. I know ViM (and I have Vis) but with no plugins. Nano is the easiest for very quick edits which are most of what I do. No need to bother with modes and all the bloat. Once I ditch GNU I’ll probably use Vis exclusively.
What's wrong with nano!?
Its pointless
Nothing. Nano is a great editor for small editing tasks. And if you want go coding, you use a full IDE anyway.
See now Micro I can get behind. Its not that Im scared of Vim or Emacs, but that if I am making changes to a file through a terminal its generally less than 20 characters. If I want more robust features while editing text files I use a GUI applications that is better suited for it.
Just a personal preference, but Vim/Emacs just seems like overkill for how I do text editing in the terminal.
Learning vim is like learning to ride a bike. It's overkill if you walk everywhere, but it's liberating as you gain competence.
Same here. If I'm just making a quick change in something I usually just use nano because it's quick and easy. If I'm writing a bash script or doing some other coding I use Atom because it suits me and It has some nice plugins that I can use.
@@RickWeberEcon Except that it's not liberating at all. I can do everything I need/want to without it in my life, and vim wouldn't give me anything extra that I could need or want... except making me look like some 1337 haxx0r, but I really don't want that.
It's so weird how common this argument is. vim is more comfortable and fast. I open it for small edits, I open it for big edits. The binds are nice and it keeps things consistent. Switching between nano and some graphical editor that probably has different key binds seems very strange.
@@SoundToxin No, Vim is way to complex and clunky to be practical in my opinion. You don't need all those keybindings just to write code and edit configs.
nowadays, nano is usually preinstalled, like vi. Only reason I use either is when I ssh into a server where I or the user I'm supporting cant install anything. And I dont have time in a support call to teach vi. If I'm gonna install anything with a display it'll be my bloated IDE, because.. things. But yeah, thanks for this awareness, if I can install but dont have a desktop environment, I might give this a shot! Yeah, vi keybindings are as appealing to me as the color of the vim logo. And I've left emacs behind along with full use of my left pinky. ;)
No way! Micro is a single 13 MB go-created binary that can be installed right in your local directory if you want. No docs needed: Ctrl-C and V copy paste, PgUp/Dwn, _and_ you can even use the mouse. The mouse! Seriously, thanks again for this. I just remoted to a server, installed it in 3 seconds with the bash script into ~/.local/bin, and voila.. I'm using a mouse in a terminal editor remotely.. no plugins, nothin'.
My mom: I don't want to see you with that Nano, you hear me?
Me: but, mom...
I will still use nano to edit basic files and conf files. When I am scripting then may use micro or emacs doom
What is that distro?
Vim is great. I'm glad I learned vimkeys, but ultimately I've found Micro to be a happy medium between all my needs.
Does it hurt you if i use nano? Why nano is so bad among linux experts? Can someone explain?
I’m not afraid of anything. Nano is just better than vim. I’m more likely to use xed than switch to rubbish like vim or this micro.
does it really matter what text editor you use? for all I really care you can code in Microsoft Word
I played with micro and it was nice. Definitely something I will recommend. It's actually funny that I could not figure out how to exit it!
Lol, exits vim fine, but micro is just to easy for Linux users ;)
The best non-modal terminal based text editor is joe (which stands for Joe's own editor)
Okay DT, point well taken hahahaha. scary Vim.. My text-editing needs are pretty simple so I'll probably get rid of Geany and Nano; installing Micro as we speak. Thnks for pointing me to another useful tool.
I would not call it fear... ok fear I'm going to throw my computer. more of contempt.