7 ms·

"nano" is an interesting creature - it was originally developed as a replacement for the "pico" command that shipped with "pine" (an amazing curses-based email

"nano" is an interesting creature - it was originally developed as a replacement for the "pico" command that shipped with "pine" (an amazing curses-based email client) because the license on pico was just not really clear. I still use nano 50% of the time because it's so easy to jump into a file, make some quick changes, and jump out. Plus the mark/cut/paste keystrokes are seared into my memory after years of use.

simias 8y ago
Being an Emacs user I use Zile for that since it's effectively a trimmed-down version of Emacs. Of course unlike nano it's not usually installed by default on most distros, so I still have to use nano or vi from time to time, but I can't say I enjoy it very much.
- komon 8y ago
  I often reach for emacs -nw -Q It boots up quickly and the basic editing defaults are all there. Has the advantage of being everywhere Emacs already is as well
  - mruts 8y ago
    I like mg as an emacs-like editor that is simple and quick. Made by the great OpenBSD folks and is of great quality with good documentation.
    - wglb 8y ago
      Actually made by David G Conroy while he was at Mark Williams, and open sourced. I kicked around to various folks and ended up in the gnu fold.
- spudlyo 8y ago
  If I want a light version of emacs (like on OpenWRT, or a constrained embedded device) I reach for JOVE, or Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs. JOVE was actually the version of emacs I first learned on back in the late 80s. JOVE is tiny, and has implemented a huge amount of emacs. After you spend 15 minutes or so tweaking your .joverc file you won't even notice it's not GNU.
  - dehrmann 8y ago
    When I'm not using an IDE, I'm a vi user because it's always there. When my /usr on FreeBSD has issues, vi is in /bin. OpenWrt ships with vi. I honestly have no idea if Emacs is any better, but not being a default makes it a non-starter for me.
    - h1d 8y ago
      Do you really have that many occasions to work in an environment where you can't ask for/install a package? Limiting yourself for such rare occasions just sounds wrong.
      - dsq 8y ago
        Production corporate environments are often firewalled/locked down. To change anything you have to go through layers of dis/approval. You are generally stuck with the defaults till the end of time.
Cyph0n 8y ago
I also used nano quite a bit for quick editing tasks, but that changed after I learned Vim.
- kilroy123 8y ago
  Yup same here. It's not any slower IMO.
nicoburns 8y ago
I would recommend micro. It's simple like nano, but has full mouse support. The only real downside is that it's not installes by default.
- Scarblac 8y ago
  So one day someone will write the improvement and call it milli, but then what? Is there a prefix for 10^0? Do these people not plan ahead?
  - blattimwind 8y ago
    Well you can use some of the convenience steps around 1, e.g. centi and deci and then skip the 1.0 and go straight to deca and hecto.
    - sandov 8y ago
      You can call it one, or alternatively:
    - klyrs 8y ago
      How about uno
  - the8472 8y ago
    unit
  - tomsmeding 8y ago
    EINE [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EINE_and_ZWEI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EINE_and_ZWEI
  - earenndil 8y ago
    Well, it seems we've already skipped to kilo[1], so it'll have to be mega. 1: https://github.com/antirez/kilo https://github.com/antirez/kilo
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
copperx 8y ago
What happened to pine, by the way? It was absolutely fantastic because it was minimalistic. I like mutt, but it's not the same.
- unveres 8y ago
  There's alpine, but I haven't use it yet, so can't say if it's as good ;)
- stevekemp 8y ago
  There was a fork/successor called alpine, I recall having to setup for my wife. But beyond that I think that mutt eventually "won". (Especially when development started picking up again with mutt-ng, etc.) I wrote a console-based mail-client with lua-based scripting, over at https://lumail.org/ https://lumail.org/ but I don't think I have more than 50 hard-core users. It seems like most people use mutt, and work around its annoyances, or use web-browser for their mail. (I realize at some point notmuch came out and became popular, but I've never had a strong feeling for how popular. I think I'm a little biased since I read of people using it, but nobody "local" to me does.)
  - Ologn 8y ago
    I was used to pine and pico so I migrated to alpine and nano. Alpine works fine for me, alpine is very much like pine. I have spamassassin tagging mail as spam, and I have an alpine filter that moves those tagged messages to a possible spam folder. I was used to pine when mutt came out, so I always used pine or alpine. You can check both out and see which you prefer.
- jonah-archive 8y ago
  The UW no longer wanted to support Pine but they were unable to release it under the existing license. It was mostly rewritten as Alpine ( https://www.washington.edu/alpine/overview/story.html https://www.washington.edu/alpine/overview/story.html ), and is now sort of maintained by other folks: http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/ http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/ I still use it regularly and it still works well, but I should probably be looking for something else.

simias 8y ago

Being an Emacs user I use Zile for that since it's effectively a trimmed-down version of Emacs. Of course unlike nano it's not usually installed by default on most distros, so I still have to use nano or vi from time to time, but I can't say I enjoy it very much.

komon 8y ago
I often reach for emacs -nw -Q It boots up quickly and the basic editing defaults are all there. Has the advantage of being everywhere Emacs already is as well
- mruts 8y ago
  I like mg as an emacs-like editor that is simple and quick. Made by the great OpenBSD folks and is of great quality with good documentation.
  - wglb 8y ago
    Actually made by David G Conroy while he was at Mark Williams, and open sourced. I kicked around to various folks and ended up in the gnu fold.
spudlyo 8y ago
If I want a light version of emacs (like on OpenWRT, or a constrained embedded device) I reach for JOVE, or Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs. JOVE was actually the version of emacs I first learned on back in the late 80s. JOVE is tiny, and has implemented a huge amount of emacs. After you spend 15 minutes or so tweaking your .joverc file you won't even notice it's not GNU.
- dehrmann 8y ago
  When I'm not using an IDE, I'm a vi user because it's always there. When my /usr on FreeBSD has issues, vi is in /bin. OpenWrt ships with vi. I honestly have no idea if Emacs is any better, but not being a default makes it a non-starter for me.
  - h1d 8y ago
    Do you really have that many occasions to work in an environment where you can't ask for/install a package? Limiting yourself for such rare occasions just sounds wrong.
    - dsq 8y ago
      Production corporate environments are often firewalled/locked down. To change anything you have to go through layers of dis/approval. You are generally stuck with the defaults till the end of time.

Cyph0n 8y ago

I also used nano quite a bit for quick editing tasks, but that changed after I learned Vim.

kilroy123 8y ago
Yup same here. It's not any slower IMO.

nicoburns 8y ago

I would recommend micro. It's simple like nano, but has full mouse support. The only real downside is that it's not installes by default.

Scarblac 8y ago
So one day someone will write the improvement and call it milli, but then what? Is there a prefix for 10^0? Do these people not plan ahead?
- blattimwind 8y ago
  Well you can use some of the convenience steps around 1, e.g. centi and deci and then skip the 1.0 and go straight to deca and hecto.
  - sandov 8y ago
    You can call it one, or alternatively:
  - klyrs 8y ago
    How about uno
- the8472 8y ago
  unit
- tomsmeding 8y ago
  EINE [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EINE_and_ZWEI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EINE_and_ZWEI
- earenndil 8y ago
  Well, it seems we've already skipped to kilo[1], so it'll have to be mega. 1: https://github.com/antirez/kilo https://github.com/antirez/kilo
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

copperx 8y ago

What happened to pine, by the way? It was absolutely fantastic because it was minimalistic. I like mutt, but it's not the same.

unveres 8y ago
There's alpine, but I haven't use it yet, so can't say if it's as good ;)
stevekemp 8y ago
There was a fork/successor called alpine, I recall having to setup for my wife. But beyond that I think that mutt eventually "won". (Especially when development started picking up again with mutt-ng, etc.) I wrote a console-based mail-client with lua-based scripting, over at https://lumail.org/ https://lumail.org/ but I don't think I have more than 50 hard-core users. It seems like most people use mutt, and work around its annoyances, or use web-browser for their mail. (I realize at some point notmuch came out and became popular, but I've never had a strong feeling for how popular. I think I'm a little biased since I read of people using it, but nobody "local" to me does.)
- Ologn 8y ago
  I was used to pine and pico so I migrated to alpine and nano. Alpine works fine for me, alpine is very much like pine. I have spamassassin tagging mail as spam, and I have an alpine filter that moves those tagged messages to a possible spam folder. I was used to pine when mutt came out, so I always used pine or alpine. You can check both out and see which you prefer.
jonah-archive 8y ago
The UW no longer wanted to support Pine but they were unable to release it under the existing license. It was mostly rewritten as Alpine ( https://www.washington.edu/alpine/overview/story.html https://www.washington.edu/alpine/overview/story.html ), and is now sort of maintained by other folks: http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/ http://alpine.x10host.com/alpine/ I still use it regularly and it still works well, but I should probably be looking for something else.