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