Using a Text Editor

Motivation

In order to be able to do everything on the command line you also need to learn a text editor. Most programs have their configuration in text files and you need to learn to use a text editor. If you have not done so you should learn vi. vi (or the improved version: vim) is a good text editor that is installed per default on all unix systems. It is a bit more complicated then other editors because it has 3 modes of input.

Here is a list of text editors and their relative advantages and disadvantages

editor	advantages/disadvantages
vi or vim	available on every system, powerful but harder to learn
emacs	powerful but also complicated, same keyboard shortcuts as bash
joe	joes own edito - simple, syntax coloring, wordstar like keyboard shortcuts
pico, nano, jpico	extremely simple editors for casual editing
gedit	gnome text editor - disadvantage: only works in GUI

Quick intro to vim

When you start vim

$ vim testfile.txt

you can edit the testfile.txt vi has 3 modes:

1. moving cursor around. Type e.g. i for insert to go to editing mode. or type : to go to mode 3
2. editing. Type your text. Leave with ESC. This puts you back into mode 1.
3. entering commands. Type your commands and then press enter to go back to mode 1.