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The article uses nano throughout. Is nano a popularly used editor? I have not seen anyone around using nano. I see vim, atom, sublime, vs code but never nano. J

The article uses nano throughout. Is nano a popularly used editor? I have not seen anyone around using nano. I see vim, atom, sublime, vs code but never nano. Just curious if nano is popular. If nano is popular what are its pros and cons?

csande17 6y ago
Nano is the easiest-to-use terminal-based editor that you're likely to find on a Unix system by default. All the important key commands are listed at the bottom of the screen and everything! It's a great editor to recommend in beginner tutorials since it requires very little setup or learning to use, but if you're already happy with a different one there's probably no reason to switch.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  I was kind of surprised that they had installation steps for it, to be honest–macOS certainly ships with it.
FrankSansC 6y ago
I use it on a daily basis. It's simple, fast and has syntax highlighting. And it's still actively developed[0] (latest release: 2020 December 2 - GNU nano 5.4 "Terre des hommes") [0] https://www.nano-editor.org/news.php https://www.nano-editor.org/news.php
nethunters 6y ago
I've found nano really easy to pick up for quick introductions to editing files via a terminal. Nano seems to have a shallow learning curve for new users in comparison to vi, vim emacs as it works similar to other simple text processors. It isn't as powerful as other editors and can't be configured as much but for some, especially beginners, that's a benefit.
Jonnax 6y ago
Personally it's simple and all the important shortcuts are displayed on the screen. If I ssh into a machine to change a config value I prefer it to vim/vi. I'm not going to write anything using it, but for quick edits it's perfect.
slmjkdbtl 6y ago
to be honest nano is the best thing in this article, everything else is just disaster, nano is at least light weight and functional (imagine using an IDE for this)

csande17 6y ago

Nano is the easiest-to-use terminal-based editor that you're likely to find on a Unix system by default. All the important key commands are listed at the bottom of the screen and everything! It's a great editor to recommend in beginner tutorials since it requires very little setup or learning to use, but if you're already happy with a different one there's probably no reason to switch.

saagarjha 6y ago
I was kind of surprised that they had installation steps for it, to be honest–macOS certainly ships with it.

FrankSansC 6y ago

I use it on a daily basis. It's simple, fast and has syntax highlighting. And it's still actively developed[0] (latest release: 2020 December 2 - GNU nano 5.4 "Terre des hommes") [0] https://www.nano-editor.org/news.php https://www.nano-editor.org/news.php

nethunters 6y ago

I've found nano really easy to pick up for quick introductions to editing files via a terminal. Nano seems to have a shallow learning curve for new users in comparison to vi, vim emacs as it works similar to other simple text processors. It isn't as powerful as other editors and can't be configured as much but for some, especially beginners, that's a benefit.

Jonnax 6y ago

Personally it's simple and all the important shortcuts are displayed on the screen. If I ssh into a machine to change a config value I prefer it to vim/vi. I'm not going to write anything using it, but for quick edits it's perfect.

slmjkdbtl 6y ago

to be honest nano is the best thing in this article, everything else is just disaster, nano is at least light weight and functional (imagine using an IDE for this)