Mon, 10 Oct 2011
nano the all-powerful
I admit it, I use nano for text editing from time to time. Like right now, with this post.
nano is a simple text editor widely derided as being simple. It also has most of the features I want:
- Regular expression find/replace
- Fast loading
- Automatic word wrap when you want it, and easily-disabled word wrap when you don't
- No insane modal-ness like vi
- Ability to easily insert the results of shell commands into files
- Really easy to use with context help all the time
- Real ultimate freedom
- Syntax highlighting
Syntax highlighting?
Yeah. Some Gentoo dudes pointed out it had it in 2003. The nano changelog indicates (from a quick skimming) that version nano-1.1.4 - 12/11/2001 was the first with "Preliminary syntax highlighting support".
Also:
<helix> I think it got syntax highlighting around the same time the hurd managed to be able to use shared memory
Also also (from Freshmeat:
This looks just like Pico. Truly this is a good editor. I'm impressed. Toga! Toga! Toga!
