4 ms·

Doesn't emacs have a nano mode?

klodolph 4y ago
Maybe you can get one. I don’t see a nano mode in MELPA or GNU, and it doesn’t ship with Emacs. Nano is also much more likely to be installed than Emacs, especially since Apple stopped shipping Emacs with macOS.
- jshier 4y ago
  Apple also stopping shipping nano with macOS (as of 12.3) and went back to pico.
  - klodolph 4y ago
    Huh, interesting. Nano is symlinked to pico. I never noticed, since I don’t use it.
    - Fnoord 4y ago
      GNU Nano is GPLv3 which Apple boycots (its v3 since 2007 according to Wikipedia). Tells us GPLv3 works :-) not sure what the license of Pico is. My first text editor was Q&A on MSDOS, it relied on F-keys, and on Windows 9x I got used to ctrl as modifier. Pico/Pine and later Nano was a natural successor, easy to learn. I use Vim and ST now.
      - assttoasstmgr 4y ago
        > not sure what the license of Pico is Apache 2.0. I've used pine as a mail reader for well over two decades at this point, mostly on big old UNIX boxes. GNU nano always felt like the knockoff version.
        Fnoord 4y ago
        Right,it got relicensed. Originally it was not available on e.g. Debian.
      - sigzero 4y ago
        I don't even think Pico is in active development any more.
    - sigzero 4y ago
      I wish they wouldn't do that. Nano is not Pico.
      - klodolph 4y ago
        Vim isn't vi, but vi is usually symlinked to vim. And sh is very often a symlink to something like dash or bash.
gnulinux 4y ago
Regardless emacs can take long to boot up (unless you invoke it with -Q) but nano is instant. So when I need to change one line of a file real quick, nano is the better tool imho.
- melling 4y ago
  I haven’t used Emacs in a few years and I don’t remember the startup time being a problem. Maybe because I always left it running? Anyway, I looked up what people are saying these days. Looks like maybe a second or two? https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/m8d55l/what_is_your_startup_time/ https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/m8d55l/what_is_your_...
- buescher 4y ago
  I like JED for that.
- nanomonkey 4y ago
  Setting up emacs server pretty much solves this problem as each subsequent launch uses the same running daemon. After that you just set up an alias that launches emacsclient like the following: alias editor='emacsclient -t' alias visual='emacsclient -c -a emacs'
  - gnulinux 4y ago
    Unfortunately, I don't expect to have emacs server running in an EC2 instance intended to run a company service since it needs to be a copy of prod instance (for testing/development). In such instances nano is helpful.
    - nanomonkey 4y ago
      Ah, yes that is where tramp emacs package comes in handy, as it allows one to edit remote files within your local instance of emacs. Note there is also helm-aws [https://github.com/istib/helm-aws https://github.com/istib/helm-aws] for managing AWS EC2 server instances directly from Emacs.
- 4y ago
distantsounds 4y ago
can't you just... use nano?

Maybe you can get one. I don’t see a nano mode in MELPA or GNU, and it doesn’t ship with Emacs. Nano is also much more likely to be installed than Emacs, especially since Apple stopped shipping Emacs with macOS.

jshier 4y ago
Apple also stopping shipping nano with macOS (as of 12.3) and went back to pico.
- klodolph 4y ago
  Huh, interesting. Nano is symlinked to pico. I never noticed, since I don’t use it.
  - Fnoord 4y ago
    GNU Nano is GPLv3 which Apple boycots (its v3 since 2007 according to Wikipedia). Tells us GPLv3 works :-) not sure what the license of Pico is. My first text editor was Q&A on MSDOS, it relied on F-keys, and on Windows 9x I got used to ctrl as modifier. Pico/Pine and later Nano was a natural successor, easy to learn. I use Vim and ST now.
    - assttoasstmgr 4y ago
      > not sure what the license of Pico is Apache 2.0. I've used pine as a mail reader for well over two decades at this point, mostly on big old UNIX boxes. GNU nano always felt like the knockoff version.
      - Fnoord 4y ago
        Right,it got relicensed. Originally it was not available on e.g. Debian.
    - sigzero 4y ago
      I don't even think Pico is in active development any more.
  - sigzero 4y ago
    I wish they wouldn't do that. Nano is not Pico.
    - klodolph 4y ago
      Vim isn't vi, but vi is usually symlinked to vim. And sh is very often a symlink to something like dash or bash.

gnulinux 4y ago

Regardless emacs can take long to boot up (unless you invoke it with -Q) but nano is instant. So when I need to change one line of a file real quick, nano is the better tool imho.

melling 4y ago
I haven’t used Emacs in a few years and I don’t remember the startup time being a problem. Maybe because I always left it running? Anyway, I looked up what people are saying these days. Looks like maybe a second or two? https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/m8d55l/what_is_your_startup_time/ https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/m8d55l/what_is_your_...
buescher 4y ago
I like JED for that.
nanomonkey 4y ago
Setting up emacs server pretty much solves this problem as each subsequent launch uses the same running daemon. After that you just set up an alias that launches emacsclient like the following: alias editor='emacsclient -t' alias visual='emacsclient -c -a emacs'
- gnulinux 4y ago
  Unfortunately, I don't expect to have emacs server running in an EC2 instance intended to run a company service since it needs to be a copy of prod instance (for testing/development). In such instances nano is helpful.
  - nanomonkey 4y ago
    Ah, yes that is where tramp emacs package comes in handy, as it allows one to edit remote files within your local instance of emacs. Note there is also helm-aws [https://github.com/istib/helm-aws https://github.com/istib/helm-aws] for managing AWS EC2 server instances directly from Emacs.
4y ago

distantsounds 4y ago

can't you just... use nano?