4 ms·

The target audience is people who casually use the terminal (probably over ssh) and need something simple to edit a config file with. This comes with all the ba

The target audience is people who casually use the terminal (probably over ssh) and need something simple to edit a config file with. This comes with all the basics that people expect from a graphical editor like Notepad++ and comes with familiar keybindings from CUA applications. I could see something like this being very useful for that use case.

discreteevent 9y ago
That's actually a big market. People coming from vim will wonder what would you use it for when vim is so much more powerful. But this is a godsend to users who are used to gui editors. If they want something that behaves like every other editor and IDE they use there is very little available. In particular I don't know of any terminal editor that comes as a single binary and uses standard keystrokes like micro.
- marssaxman 9y ago
  I wrote an editor which more-or-less matches that description: http://www.github.com/marssaxman/ozette http://www.github.com/marssaxman/ozette I've never expected nor done any work to attract users other than myself, so there are a handful of rough edges I've never bothered to polish, but I have in fact been using this thing full-time for several years. Perhaps I wouldn't have written it if micro had existed back then.
  - mixmastamyk 9y ago
    Cool, any screen shots? Would like to see the tabs with a few files open.
    - marssaxman 9y ago
      Thanks for your interest. I've added a couple of screenshots to the readme. I usually run ozette in a terminal filling one monitor, with 2-3 files open. It works fine with more, but you just can't see much of their contents; still, seeing the edges of the other files in a stack behind the active tab somehow helps my sense of spatial navigation. It's funny how life works. There is nothing especially sophisticated about this bit of code, it has many little bugs I've never bothered to fix, and I'd design it completely differently if I started now. Still, though: after thirty-plus years writing code, I've gotten more actual use out of this little tool than anything else I've ever written. Judging by the ratio of hours spent writing it to hours spent using it, nothing else even comes close, not within an order of magnitude.
- kbenson 9y ago
  The reason they don't use those standard keystrokes is because for a terminal there is a much older standard that takes precedence regarding control characters. What's ctrl-z do? Background, or undo? It's nice for undo, but losing backgrounding capability is crippling if you use it.
  - kpil 9y ago
    Solution. Add an additional unix control key to all keyboards. Maybe actually instead of caps-lock. I think I've solved all my keyboard related problems know.
    - kps 9y ago
      The solution adopted by Unix-era GUIs, and the Macintosh, was to use a different key for GUI shortcuts rather than overloading Control. X11 generically calls it ‘Meta’, USB calls it ‘GUI’, Sun had Diamond, etc. It was only Windows that botched it, and the this-is-finally-the-year-of-Linux-on-the-desktop-trust-me-this-time crowd who slavishly imitate it while ignoring Unix experience.
      - gh02t 9y ago
        Funny enough, I use the Win key on my keyboard effectively as a 'meta' for all my shortcuts in i3. It was the only key that wasn't doing anything.
  - mixmastamyk 9y ago
    It’s rare to need to background a console editor, and many can run commands themselves in the background. Combined with tabbed and split terminals not much if anything is lost.
    - kbenson 9y ago
      > It’s rare to need to background a console editor, LOL. My experience with an average of 5-6 backgrounded vims *per each named tmux session" which I use to keep track of different source files I'm working on goes against this. Sure, I can use vim's windows, but I don't want split screen usually (I'll use the other terminal I have open if I do). I don't use tmux's windows either really. It's more a way to preserve session when changing workstations (these are remote terminals), and preserve against network drops. I use each tmux session as a contained work environment for the most part. I do all my software development using vim on a remote server, and have for most of the last two decades. I've worked with numerous other developers that work similarly for professional projects, personal projects, or both. Let's just say that there might be people that use the combined features of terminal applications, terminals, and remote connections in ways that you might think were rare, but actually have large following and leave it at that. :)
- deathanatos 9y ago
  Windows doesn't have sshfs, do they? If it did, you could just mount the remote, and use whatever UI editor you want. I do this with gvim (but on Linux)

discreteevent 9y ago

That's actually a big market. People coming from vim will wonder what would you use it for when vim is so much more powerful. But this is a godsend to users who are used to gui editors. If they want something that behaves like every other editor and IDE they use there is very little available. In particular I don't know of any terminal editor that comes as a single binary and uses standard keystrokes like micro.

marssaxman 9y ago
I wrote an editor which more-or-less matches that description: http://www.github.com/marssaxman/ozette http://www.github.com/marssaxman/ozette I've never expected nor done any work to attract users other than myself, so there are a handful of rough edges I've never bothered to polish, but I have in fact been using this thing full-time for several years. Perhaps I wouldn't have written it if micro had existed back then.
- mixmastamyk 9y ago
  Cool, any screen shots? Would like to see the tabs with a few files open.
  - marssaxman 9y ago
    Thanks for your interest. I've added a couple of screenshots to the readme. I usually run ozette in a terminal filling one monitor, with 2-3 files open. It works fine with more, but you just can't see much of their contents; still, seeing the edges of the other files in a stack behind the active tab somehow helps my sense of spatial navigation. It's funny how life works. There is nothing especially sophisticated about this bit of code, it has many little bugs I've never bothered to fix, and I'd design it completely differently if I started now. Still, though: after thirty-plus years writing code, I've gotten more actual use out of this little tool than anything else I've ever written. Judging by the ratio of hours spent writing it to hours spent using it, nothing else even comes close, not within an order of magnitude.
kbenson 9y ago
The reason they don't use those standard keystrokes is because for a terminal there is a much older standard that takes precedence regarding control characters. What's ctrl-z do? Background, or undo? It's nice for undo, but losing backgrounding capability is crippling if you use it.
- kpil 9y ago
  Solution. Add an additional unix control key to all keyboards. Maybe actually instead of caps-lock. I think I've solved all my keyboard related problems know.
  - kps 9y ago
    The solution adopted by Unix-era GUIs, and the Macintosh, was to use a different key for GUI shortcuts rather than overloading Control. X11 generically calls it ‘Meta’, USB calls it ‘GUI’, Sun had Diamond, etc. It was only Windows that botched it, and the this-is-finally-the-year-of-Linux-on-the-desktop-trust-me-this-time crowd who slavishly imitate it while ignoring Unix experience.
    - gh02t 9y ago
      Funny enough, I use the Win key on my keyboard effectively as a 'meta' for all my shortcuts in i3. It was the only key that wasn't doing anything.
- mixmastamyk 9y ago
  It’s rare to need to background a console editor, and many can run commands themselves in the background. Combined with tabbed and split terminals not much if anything is lost.
  - kbenson 9y ago
    > It’s rare to need to background a console editor, LOL. My experience with an average of 5-6 backgrounded vims *per each named tmux session" which I use to keep track of different source files I'm working on goes against this. Sure, I can use vim's windows, but I don't want split screen usually (I'll use the other terminal I have open if I do). I don't use tmux's windows either really. It's more a way to preserve session when changing workstations (these are remote terminals), and preserve against network drops. I use each tmux session as a contained work environment for the most part. I do all my software development using vim on a remote server, and have for most of the last two decades. I've worked with numerous other developers that work similarly for professional projects, personal projects, or both. Let's just say that there might be people that use the combined features of terminal applications, terminals, and remote connections in ways that you might think were rare, but actually have large following and leave it at that. :)
deathanatos 9y ago
Windows doesn't have sshfs, do they? If it did, you could just mount the remote, and use whatever UI editor you want. I do this with gvim (but on Linux)