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.
So in order to edit something:
- move with cursor key or press j,k,l,h instead to move to the place where you want to edit
- press i for insert and enter your text
- press ESC to go back to the initial mode.
- press :wq ENTER (which enters the commands write (save) and q (quit).
- in case you want to leave without saving: :q!
Here is a list of VI Cheat-Sheets:
- https://devhints.io/vim
- https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~15131/f17/topics/vim/vim-cheatsheet.pdf
- https://vimsheet.com/
- https://github.com/hackjutsu/vim-cheatsheet
A nice interactive online tutorial: https://www.openvim.com/
Exercises
- Try to make a simple edit using vi or vim.
- Pick an editor of choice and try to learn it so that you feel comfortable using it.
