7 ms·

FYI the package 'ne' on Ubuntu does exist. The question is: why didn't it replace the goddamn Nano as a default editor long ago? This editor should be known mo

by ansgri 11y ago

FYI the package 'ne' on Ubuntu does exist. The question is: why didn't it replace the goddamn Nano as a default editor long ago? This editor should be known more widely.

rlongstaff 11y ago
I've just installed it from the Ubuntu 15.10 Software Centre (v3.0.1-2).
- ansgri 11y ago
  It's of course available, but not installed by default, and when e.g. you git commit from console, it by default launches Nano with its counterintuitive shortcuts.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    I was trying to git better the other day and one of the early suggestions in something I looked at was to set a comfortable default editor.
  - drdaeman 11y ago
    Put `export EDITOR=ne` line in your `~/.profile` (or `~/.bashrc` or `~/.zshrc` or whatever). That should do the trick.
jhallenworld 11y ago
In order to avoid fading completely into irrelevance, I've been improving JOE to hopefully better compete with Nano/Pico. People like nano because there is no learning effort at all. I can't argue with that- if you're a student trying to write a first-year program, you don't want to waste time being hindered by the editor. JOE is already pretty simple (it says hit ^K H for help on the screen always, and if you hit it you get the basic commands), but even then I find that a top google search for JOE is "How do you save and exit?" People can't seem to see the "Hit ^K H for help" in the top-right corner. Also this message annoys power users since it's a waste of valuable status line real estate. So I'm trying this for JOE 4.2: the pop-up copyright notice is replace with one-line of help: JOE 4.2 ** Use Ctrl-K X to save/exit, Ctrl-C to abort, or Ctrl-K H for help ** This shows up on the bottom line which I think is more noticeable. ne and emacs both show this kind of help when you first start the editor. But in both cases, you have to do a lot of reading (emacs shows too much, and in ne the help is buried in the middle of a long copyright notice). Ne is pretty nice otherwise, it almost has the Windows cua key bindings and includes column block operations. Of course JOE is better :-)
- Tomte 11y ago
  I like joe a lot! Was the Win32 build a one-time thing or do you see chances that the current (and future) versions will see a Win32 build, as well? Are there technical difficulties? Is the Win32 work not applicable to the last version?
  - jhallenworld 11y ago
    We need to merge. The issue is that the Win32 work was based on the co-routine branch, but I've chickened out on releasing this as the main version. Also JJ just got back from his honeymoon.
- dragonquest 11y ago
  Let me take this opportunity to thank you for your fantastic editor. It is bloody fantastic and I'm not even an old Wordstar user who just has to use its keybindings. I truly think you have created an almost perfect, light console editor. Could you please consider adding soft-wraps (only emulated, visible line breaks for long lines but no actual breaks saved)? With that said, to console newbies - you have to try out 'joe' once. It uses the Unix dev environment fantastically and its not short on features either.
- OJFord 11y ago
  > if you're a student trying to write a first-year > program, you don't want to waste time being hindered by > the editor In my experience, people who don't know what editor they (want to) use won't be hindered by it, because they'll use Eclipse (or equivalent) perhaps the standard GUI editor on the system (TextEdit, Notepad, whatever) or else Google 'text editor' and install Sublime or something.
  - cooper12 11y ago
    I've heard professors suggest it before so it's always possible that they find out about it that way. It's probably also helps that the default $EDITOR for many systems is vi, so students using the terminal or ssh might turn to nano as an alternative.

by ansgri 11y ago

FYI the package 'ne' on Ubuntu does exist. The question is: why didn't it replace the goddamn Nano as a default editor long ago? This editor should be known more widely.

rlongstaff 11y ago

I've just installed it from the Ubuntu 15.10 Software Centre (v3.0.1-2).

ansgri 11y ago
It's of course available, but not installed by default, and when e.g. you git commit from console, it by default launches Nano with its counterintuitive shortcuts.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  I was trying to git better the other day and one of the early suggestions in something I looked at was to set a comfortable default editor.
- drdaeman 11y ago
  Put `export EDITOR=ne` line in your `~/.profile` (or `~/.bashrc` or `~/.zshrc` or whatever). That should do the trick.

jhallenworld 11y ago

In order to avoid fading completely into irrelevance, I've been improving JOE to hopefully better compete with Nano/Pico. People like nano because there is no learning effort at all. I can't argue with that- if you're a student trying to write a first-year program, you don't want to waste time being hindered by the editor. JOE is already pretty simple (it says hit ^K H for help on the screen always, and if you hit it you get the basic commands), but even then I find that a top google search for JOE is "How do you save and exit?" People can't seem to see the "Hit ^K H for help" in the top-right corner. Also this message annoys power users since it's a waste of valuable status line real estate. So I'm trying this for JOE 4.2: the pop-up copyright notice is replace with one-line of help: JOE 4.2 ** Use Ctrl-K X to save/exit, Ctrl-C to abort, or Ctrl-K H for help ** This shows up on the bottom line which I think is more noticeable. ne and emacs both show this kind of help when you first start the editor. But in both cases, you have to do a lot of reading (emacs shows too much, and in ne the help is buried in the middle of a long copyright notice). Ne is pretty nice otherwise, it almost has the Windows cua key bindings and includes column block operations. Of course JOE is better :-)

Tomte 11y ago
I like joe a lot! Was the Win32 build a one-time thing or do you see chances that the current (and future) versions will see a Win32 build, as well? Are there technical difficulties? Is the Win32 work not applicable to the last version?
- jhallenworld 11y ago
  We need to merge. The issue is that the Win32 work was based on the co-routine branch, but I've chickened out on releasing this as the main version. Also JJ just got back from his honeymoon.
dragonquest 11y ago
Let me take this opportunity to thank you for your fantastic editor. It is bloody fantastic and I'm not even an old Wordstar user who just has to use its keybindings. I truly think you have created an almost perfect, light console editor. Could you please consider adding soft-wraps (only emulated, visible line breaks for long lines but no actual breaks saved)? With that said, to console newbies - you have to try out 'joe' once. It uses the Unix dev environment fantastically and its not short on features either.
OJFord 11y ago
> if you're a student trying to write a first-year > program, you don't want to waste time being hindered by > the editor In my experience, people who don't know what editor they (want to) use won't be hindered by it, because they'll use Eclipse (or equivalent) perhaps the standard GUI editor on the system (TextEdit, Notepad, whatever) or else Google 'text editor' and install Sublime or something.
- cooper12 11y ago
  I've heard professors suggest it before so it's always possible that they find out about it that way. It's probably also helps that the default $EDITOR for many systems is vi, so students using the terminal or ssh might turn to nano as an alternative.