5 ms·

All I want is CTRL+C and CTRL+V, and to not have to type I before I can edit anything. Is there any way to tell the thing to simply behave like Notepad so that

All I want is CTRL+C and CTRL+V, and to not have to type I before I can edit anything. Is there any way to tell the thing to simply behave like Notepad so that I can edit some text?

graywh 18y ago
If you want to use Vim without learning how to use Vim, you're probably better off not using Vim.
- jasonkester 18y ago
  I'd actually prefer not to use vim, but it appears that the only alternative is editing the files on a windows box and FTPing them across, which is actually slightly more painful. If you know of a good command-line text editor that actually behaves like a text editor, I'd love to hear about it.
  - pookleblinky 18y ago
    I'm an emacs junkie, but I still have to stand up for the vimfidels and say, "man, you just don't get it" That being said, emacs -nw It is the answer to all your problems and will give you oral pleasure.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
ori_b 18y ago
All I want is for my car to behave like walking. How can I replace the ignition key with tying shoelaces? Vim is really a crude programming language for text manipulation, more than anything else. Trying to use it like notepad throws out more or less all the reasons you would have for using it. (As a side note: there are wrappers around it that try to do what you want. see 'evim' or 'cream')
- jasonkester 18y ago
  Both evim and cream appear to be GUI wrappers for vim. I'm hoping for the opposite: a usable text editor for SSH sessions. I mean really, if you have access to a GUI environment, why would you use something as primitive as vi? Know of anything that would fit the bill?
  - ori_b 18y ago
    nano or pico, perhaps?
tannerburson 18y ago
So why even use it? If you're on linux grab Gedit or Kate, on OSX just use the built in textpad, and on windows, you've obviously got Notepad.
- jasonkester 18y ago
  I'm forced to use it because it's the only text editor that comes pre-installed on Linux. I'd love to find something else. How does one go about "grabbing" these things? Are they usable in an SSH session?
  - DougBTX 18y ago
    Every Linux comes with the standard editor, Ed.
  - zouhair 18y ago
    vimtutor No one can do your job for you.
asb 18y ago
If you want a really simply text-mode editor, just use nano/pico. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano_(text_editor) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano_(text_editor) You may also like Cream (an easy to use configuration of vim - perhaps gvim only?) http://cream.sourceforge.net/ http://cream.sourceforge.net/
- jasonkester 18y ago
  Thanks for the link, but how does one go about downloading and installing Nano? My only access to an EC2 Linux machine is via the command line, so there's no visiting the website, downloading and unzipping it. Am I really expected to visit that site from a windows box, view source on the download page, paste the url into an ssh session and do a wget just to get a copy of the source code? And then compile it before I can use it? Just so that I can edit text??? This is a fundamental thing I've never understood about Linux, and probably the reason I find it so painful. I can only assume there is something I'm missing. Any help would be much appreciated.
  - pookleblinky 18y ago
    Depending on the distro used in your EC2 instance, it could be as easy as ssh'ing into it and then running: sudo apt-get install nano or whatever other package manager is used.
    - davidmathers 18y ago
      sudo apt-get install nano It's either going to be that or sudo yum install nano Depending on which linux OS you're using. But it may already be installed.
      - jasonkester 17y ago
        [root@domU-12-31-39-00-E8-E8 ~]# sudo yum install nano Setting up Install Process Setting up repositories Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: updates-released Error: Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: updates-released That's pretty much what I get every time I try to install anything with yum. Are you saying that it can actually find and install software for you? The only time it ever worked for me was installing Mono. I just assumed that there were very few software packages that it worked for and that you had to hand-install the rest. Is there an easy way to teach it how to find stuff? If so, that would be great news.
lena 17y ago
You may like cream ( http://cream.sourceforge.net/ http://cream.sourceforge.net/ ).
shiranaihito 17y ago
I hated vim the first time I ever tried it. It's "natural" to hate it if you're used to only Windowsy things (as I was). After trying it out a couple of times, though, I came to realize that I like it. Maybe you could give it another chance or two.

All I want is CTRL+C and CTRL+V, and to not have to type I before I can edit anything. Is there any way to tell the thing to simply behave like Notepad so that I can edit some text?

graywh 18y ago

If you want to use Vim without learning how to use Vim, you're probably better off not using Vim.

jasonkester 18y ago
I'd actually prefer not to use vim, but it appears that the only alternative is editing the files on a windows box and FTPing them across, which is actually slightly more painful. If you know of a good command-line text editor that actually behaves like a text editor, I'd love to hear about it.
- pookleblinky 18y ago
  I'm an emacs junkie, but I still have to stand up for the vimfidels and say, "man, you just don't get it" That being said, emacs -nw It is the answer to all your problems and will give you oral pleasure.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]

ori_b 18y ago

All I want is for my car to behave like walking. How can I replace the ignition key with tying shoelaces? Vim is really a crude programming language for text manipulation, more than anything else. Trying to use it like notepad throws out more or less all the reasons you would have for using it. (As a side note: there are wrappers around it that try to do what you want. see 'evim' or 'cream')

jasonkester 18y ago
Both evim and cream appear to be GUI wrappers for vim. I'm hoping for the opposite: a usable text editor for SSH sessions. I mean really, if you have access to a GUI environment, why would you use something as primitive as vi? Know of anything that would fit the bill?
- ori_b 18y ago
  nano or pico, perhaps?

tannerburson 18y ago

So why even use it? If you're on linux grab Gedit or Kate, on OSX just use the built in textpad, and on windows, you've obviously got Notepad.

jasonkester 18y ago
I'm forced to use it because it's the only text editor that comes pre-installed on Linux. I'd love to find something else. How does one go about "grabbing" these things? Are they usable in an SSH session?
- DougBTX 18y ago
  Every Linux comes with the standard editor, Ed.
- zouhair 18y ago
  vimtutor No one can do your job for you.

asb 18y ago

If you want a really simply text-mode editor, just use nano/pico. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano_(text_editor) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano_(text_editor) You may also like Cream (an easy to use configuration of vim - perhaps gvim only?) http://cream.sourceforge.net/ http://cream.sourceforge.net/

jasonkester 18y ago
Thanks for the link, but how does one go about downloading and installing Nano? My only access to an EC2 Linux machine is via the command line, so there's no visiting the website, downloading and unzipping it. Am I really expected to visit that site from a windows box, view source on the download page, paste the url into an ssh session and do a wget just to get a copy of the source code? And then compile it before I can use it? Just so that I can edit text??? This is a fundamental thing I've never understood about Linux, and probably the reason I find it so painful. I can only assume there is something I'm missing. Any help would be much appreciated.
- pookleblinky 18y ago
  Depending on the distro used in your EC2 instance, it could be as easy as ssh'ing into it and then running: sudo apt-get install nano or whatever other package manager is used.
  - davidmathers 18y ago
    sudo apt-get install nano It's either going to be that or sudo yum install nano Depending on which linux OS you're using. But it may already be installed.
    - jasonkester 17y ago
      [root@domU-12-31-39-00-E8-E8 ~]# sudo yum install nano Setting up Install Process Setting up repositories Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: updates-released Error: Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: updates-released That's pretty much what I get every time I try to install anything with yum. Are you saying that it can actually find and install software for you? The only time it ever worked for me was installing Mono. I just assumed that there were very few software packages that it worked for and that you had to hand-install the rest. Is there an easy way to teach it how to find stuff? If so, that would be great news.

lena 17y ago

You may like cream ( http://cream.sourceforge.net/ http://cream.sourceforge.net/ ).

shiranaihito 17y ago

I hated vim the first time I ever tried it. It's "natural" to hate it if you're used to only Windowsy things (as I was). After trying it out a couple of times, though, I came to realize that I like it. Maybe you could give it another chance or two.