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I was shocked to discover that the source code distribution for GNU nano is over 3 megabytes. To be fair, it also has more features than I expected, e.g. synta
by schemescape 3y ago
I was shocked to discover that the source code distribution for GNU nano is over 3 megabytes.
To be fair, it also has more features than I expected, e.g. syntax highlighting. And I’m sure it runs on an obscene number of platforms.
- The_Colonel 3y agoI'm usually not one who complains about bloat, but I think this does not meet expectations set by the name "nano".
- chungy 3y agoKeep in mind that nano's name is derived from the fact it's a clone of pico, and things might start to make more sense. GNU nano's name is a play on words, not a statement about its size.
- cozzyd 3y agoIndeed, one would expect it to be 1000 times bigger than pico. At 3 MB that's even plausible...
- erik_seaberg 3y agoAnd “Pico” is the message composing editor originally written for the “Pine Is Not Elm” email client.
- gray_-_wolf 3y agoI mean, 300kB is just the changelog and >1MB is configure script... Translations take up a lot as well. I am not arguing nano is pinnacle of minimalism, but it is not like it's 3MB of C code.
- FredPret 3y agoNano has syntax highlighting?!
- lovelyviking 3y agoyes. and you can turn it off with passing option: -Y none or: —-syntax=none
- matteoraso 3y agoNano has a surprising amount of features. I actually use it as my main text editor, and I rarely find myself lacking anything I could possibly want. Off the top of my head, it has the ability to run 3rd party code, a file browser, autoindenting, linting, macros, and a rudimentary autocomplete. A lot of it's reputation for being weak comes from bad defaults, which can be quickly fixed by ricing your nanorc file.
- FredPret 3y agoFirst time I heard about nanorc! There’s something really cool about Nano. It’s almost everywhere, it’s super simple, but doesn’t have bonkers key combos like vi and emacs.