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GNU Nano Gets New Stable Release

jones_supa writes: GNU Nano 2.4.0 has been released as the first stable update to this UNIX command line text editor in a number of years. The release codenamed "Lizf" brings a wide variety of changes: full undo system, Vim-compatible file locking, linter support, formatter support, flexible syntax highlighting, and random bugfixes.

31 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Random bugfixes, good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I always prefer random fixes instead of carefully planned specific fixes.

    1. Re:Random bugfixes, good by JackieBrown · · Score: 2

      Mine too. Very easy to use with almost all the commands you need printed on the bottom of the editor

  2. Nano is not a command line editor by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nano is a full screen text editor.
    Ed is a command line editor.
    Have Slashdot editors never used a teletype?

    1. Re:Nano is not a command line editor by smittyoneeach · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, it's an editor invoked at the command line in a terminal, i.e. not a graphical mode editor.

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    2. Re:Nano is not a command line editor by kindbud · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ed is a line editor.
      readline is a command line editor.

      --
      Edith Keeler Must Die
    3. Re:Nano is not a command line editor by Misagon · · Score: 2

      .. and I use to invoke nano in a terminal window by double-clicking an icon in the sidebar on my desktop.

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
  3. The Best Console Editor by kmarple1 · · Score: 2

    I'll always prefer pico/nano over vi and emacs.

    1. Re:The Best Console Editor by sunderland56 · · Score: 2

      You can be my wingman anytime. It just edits text! That's it! That's all I need!

      Among the new features of this alternative to Vim and Emacs is a fully-functionality undo system, Vim-compatible file locking, linter support, formatter support, flexible syntax highlighting, and many bug-fixes.

    2. Re:The Best Console Editor by iluvcapra · · Score: 2

      I bet you're .login just launches Midnight Commander too. Bah you people!

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    3. Re:The Best Console Editor by houstonbofh · · Score: 2

      I prefer Notepad++ over any of that garbage.

      But it's WINE dependency is a bitch...

  4. Re:This is a great excuse by ArchieBunker · · Score: 2

    Are you kidding? No self respecting neckbeard would be caught dead using Nano. It's too simple and straightforward for them. Their editor needs to have an interactive and non interactive mode and no use of the delete or backspace key. I mean keyboards have had that function for like a half century now...

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  5. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For me, nano fulfills a vital role:

    When some inexperienced Linux user has to edit some file in some form of Linux and there is no gui available, I point them to nano, because it behaves pretty closely to what they expect from a text editor (which tends to be something like notepad...sigh).

    The other, most common alternatives aren't nice for newcomers. vi comes preinstalled in most *nixes, but it is just alien to your average user, and emacs - though it behaves more like what users expect - always ends confusing them because of the key chords (and it doesn't come installed in most distros, if I am not mistaken).

    nano is simple enough and good enough to get the job done, and most Linuxes have it pre-installed.

    So, thank you nano developers. Keep up the good work!

    1. Re:Nice by hattig · · Score: 2

      And in addition has a clear help panel within the editor that helps you to learn the keyboard shortcuts as you use the tool.

      nano is great, and I've used it for many years, and before that as pico when it was part of pine (again, one of the better email clients).

    2. Re:Nice by jeffmeden · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's easy. You just use "vi [filename]" and then inside the file you hit lower case i to actually edit it and then escape to stop editing it and then ctrl to activate the command prompt inside vi and w to write it and exclamation mark because youre sure you want to save it and then q to quit.

      And after that I have configured resolv.conf and apt.sources to the point where I can just install nano and get back to work.

  6. Re:This is a great excuse by mcrbids · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm a *nix neckbeard, I respect my skills, and I use nano daily. It's a simple, fast, straightforward editor with controls similar to Word Star. Ctl-K to delete line, etc. As I've been busy building my neckbeard for 15 years or so now, and originally learned word processing with WordStar, it's a simple, natural fit.

    I code in NetBeans with an IDE but for sysadmin work on any of the 50 or so servers I admin? Nano + mercurial all the way.

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  7. I wonder when by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 5, Funny

    systemd will get an integrated text editor with emacs, vi and nano emulation modes...

  8. Real programmers by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does it have the butterfly macro for real programmers?

                https://xkcd.com/378/

  9. Re:Buggy Whip by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The tiny editors do have their uses. They tend _not_ to require dozens of unrelated and bulky graphical packages to support them, the failure of any of which can disable the graphical editor. And they work well over poor bandwidth connections to remote servers, and even work well on overburdened, very lightweight virtualization servers for software routers or proxies.

    So making them work really well can save work time and be very appreciated by people doing critical work with very real constraints.

  10. Re:Buggy Whip by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even modern, GUI based systems have tools that work outside the GUI, or in a text-mode terminal of some kind.

    Maintaining such tools is just as needed as maintaining other parts of a system. Or creating new bits, for that matter. If not done, it would only be a matter of time before you'd have (badly) broken bits of software all over the place. To the point where a system becomes unusable to do real work. Text mode editors are just one of many components of modern systems (and imho, not in the "buggy whip" department anyway).

    Besides: many people use it. Among other reasons, probably because it saves them time, or does some jobs better than other editors. As long as there are enough users, that alone makes developer's time well spent.

  11. Re:Buggy Whip by sunderland56 · · Score: 2

    The tiny editors do have their uses. They tend _not_ to require dozens of unrelated and bulky graphical packages to support them, the failure of any of which can disable the graphical editor. And they work well over poor bandwidth connections to remote servers, and even work well on overburdened, very lightweight virtualization servers for software routers or proxies.

    So making them work really well can save work time and be very appreciated by people doing critical work with very real constraints.

    Oh, absolutely. That's why vi is so useful.

  12. More help needed by Blaskowicz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I would simply like if it explained how to cut and paste multiple lines of text at the same time. For that task I have to reach for the mouse (the block of text needs to fit on the screen) or use a graphical editor - that'd be pluma or leafpad, to be free of bullshit.

    That was still easier in MS-DOS EDIT.
    By the way : (shit, I put it in a pastebin because of the slashdot filter)

    http://dpaste.com/3210G6K

    It has qwerty-isms. That's perhaps one of my bigger peeves with Free software. The video games in linux are worst, they're likely to be playable with a qwerty keymap only. DOS/Windows games of the 90s at least just read the raw scan codes so the keyboard acted as if it was qwerty.

    1. Re:More help needed by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Informative

      I would simply like if it explained how to cut and paste multiple lines of text at the same time.

      Use Alt+a to set a mark for the start of highlighting, then move your cursor to the desired end of the highlighted region. Now if you copy or cut, it'll operate on the highlighted region.

    2. Re:More help needed by dargaud · · Score: 3, Informative

      Go on the first line, press Ctrl-K (yes the line disappears because it's actually a cut), press Ctrl-K again on all the next lines you want to copy. When done press Ctrl-U to paste back your text. Move to when you want to paste, press Ctrl-U again. Done.

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
    3. Re:More help needed by hattig · · Score: 2

      I don't understand how anything is easier that hitting ctrl-k for as many lines as you want to cut, and then ctrl-u to paste them all back where you want them.

  13. Re: This is a great excuse by EmeraldBot · · Score: 2

    vi a link to vim ? I haven't used plain old vi in a long time.

    The operating system I use actually does ship with an implementation of a very old version of vi. I don't use it (I use vim), but I do know for a fact that it supports the backspace key, along with a bunch of stuff nano doesn't.

    Clarification: I don't have a problem at all with nano, but I do with people who say it's stupid that I want more from a text editor than search-and-replace. Also, binding all those shortcuts to the control key has got to wear on your pinky after a while...

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  14. Re:This is a great excuse by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

    I'm a *nix neckbeard...

    Well, I'm not a true neckbeard, but merely a unix beard. But I question anyone's commitment to the Unix way if they are not using Traditional Vi. But I'm rather torn on the issue of facial hair and operating systems because a man I deeply respect has no beard at all!

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  15. oh no! by bensch128 · · Score: 2

    They'll have to call it Micro now!

  16. Re:This is a great excuse by righteousness · · Score: 3

    I use nano because for me it is the best text-mode "text editor". I use it to "edit text". Not for coding, which I guess is what you're talking about. For just "editing text", nano is the most user-friendly. There's no need for all those advanced features you mention when all I want to do is "edit text files". I'm talking about plain "text files", the kind that just have words and punctuation and none of the code tags or whatever that needs to be syntax highlighted. Just normal words in English or other language and none of the programming words that need to be auto-completed. You know what I mean?

    --
    Don't fornicate. Seriously, just don't do it.
  17. Re:mcedit by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    It appears crazy at first. But it was actually designed rather well as to not have your hand move from the core of the keyboard.
    As well vi was one of the first full screen editors. So a lot of terminals had inconsistent keys on the keyboard, you could only really trust the core set. The fact it was using the esc key was pushing it.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  18. Re:Buggy Whip by Sique · · Score: 2
    When your GUI doesn't come up correctly, what do you do? In Windows, it's reinstalling the whole OS, taking about one workday until most of the important patches are also installed, not withstanding reinstalling a lot of software. In UNIX, it's a few minutes of editing the config files, and then restarting the GUI. But how do you edit the config files? Be glad someone made a buggy whip!

    I know the buggy whip maker is some nice metaphor, but some people don't think it through.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  19. Re:This is a great excuse by fisted · · Score: 2

    I suppose that's why you only manage 50-or-so servers