[HN Gopher] GNU Nano 8 comes with modern key bindings
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       GNU Nano 8 comes with modern key bindings
        
       Author : smartmic
       Score  : 55 points
       Date   : 2024-05-31 20:15 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nano-editor.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nano-editor.org)
        
       | marssaxman wrote:
       | Oh, wow! This was one of the reasons I wrote my own editor, years
       | ago - I liked nano and used it frequently, but preferred
       | conventional GUI-style control-key bindings.
        
         | Denvercoder9 wrote:
         | I'm genuinely intrigued, what made you decide to write your own
         | editor instead of patching the keybindings in nano?
        
           | forgotpwd16 wrote:
           | Don't even need patching. Could've CUA keybindings by
           | entering them in the rc file.                 bind ^X cut
           | main       bind ^C copytext main       bind ^V uncut main
           | bind ^Z undo main       bind ^Y redo main       ...
           | 
           | (Those are from an old rc that had around. The copytext/uncut
           | have been renamed in newer versions.)
        
             | le-mark wrote:
             | It blows my mind that this wasn't more widely publicized
             | over the years. At least this is the first time I've seen
             | it, and I learned vim a long time ago. Partly because if it
             | was a choice between weird keys, may as well learn vim.
        
               | 3836293648 wrote:
               | They're even in the default global config, just commented
               | out at the bottom
        
           | marssaxman wrote:
           | That was only one of the reasons. The keybindings were the
           | seed of the idea, but as soon I started thinking about what I
           | would like to change, I realized that I also wanted multiple
           | edit buffers and a directory browser. Essentially it's my
           | all-in-one coding environment.
        
       | p4bl0 wrote:
       | I really love nano. It's so cool to have an easy to use fast and
       | reliable code editor with just a bit more than basic functions. I
       | often see it dismissed as too basic while in reality with a
       | minimal amount of configuration nano supports syntax coloration,
       | line numbering, automatic indentation, the mouse to position the
       | cursor, scroll, and to activate command (by clicking on them in
       | the bottom help), theme customisation, multiple files opening,
       | keyboard macros, and a few more other things that doesn't come to
       | my mind right now. It can actually go a long way before you
       | actually need something more powerful :).
        
       | falsaberN1 wrote:
       | Welp, this is big enough to make Nano my default editor. While
       | it'll take a while to become "ubiquitous" (as in version 8.0+)
       | it's trivial enough to build for any systems I manage.
       | 
       | The new mousewheel behavior is particularly nice. It's totally up
       | to my taste with --modernbindings and --mouse.
        
         | vundercind wrote:
         | Now if they add an edit.com-style menu at the top I'll _really_
         | never need another CLI text editor.
        
           | xp84 wrote:
           | is there a "unix/Linux" cli text editor that replicates or
           | approximates EDIT? I have used micro a lot, but it's a
           | spiritual cousin of nano/pico of course. Curious what others
           | who like editors that are nothing like Vim use. (besides
           | emacs, which as someone who doesn't know lisp, is probably
           | wasted on me)
        
             | lproven wrote:
             | Tilde. It's splendid.
             | 
             | https://github.com/gphalkes/tilde
        
             | falsaberN1 wrote:
             | mcedit is the closest one in general look and feel. It's
             | installed together with Midnight Commander. Of course it
             | can be used as an independent editor.
             | 
             | EDIT:Sibling post proved me wrong, Tilde also exists. How
             | interesting.
        
           | falsaberN1 wrote:
           | I wouldn't complain for sure. I always loved edit.com and
           | have such fond memories of it.
           | 
           | I used mcedit as terminal text editor for a while, but it was
           | never installed anywhere but at home, so ended up defaulting
           | to vi and nano for consistency. If nano became a bit more
           | like edit.com that'd mean it'd be almost everywhere by
           | default once versions catch up...one can dream.
        
       | kgbcia wrote:
       | Great move. I'm not a fan of emacs nor vim complexity.
        
       | jonathankoren wrote:
       | I had t realized nano had progressed beyond being a pico clone.
       | Happy to see that.
        
       | xp84 wrote:
       | This seems like as good a place as any to post the PSA that even
       | on the current version of nano, ^s does a silent save to the
       | current file (as opposed to the "Write Out" ^w which is like a
       | Save As...) Why on earth this one doesn't merit inclusion in the
       | command bar is beyond me.
        
       | yingbo wrote:
       | Great change! I really hate to remember different key bindings
       | crossing editors.
        
       | pzmarzly wrote:
       | This is great! I used to install micro[0] as "nano with better
       | shortcuts", but it was always a bit of an overkill, so I'm really
       | happy with this change.
       | 
       | One quirk that remains: even with --modernbindings, Ctrl+X and
       | Ctrl+C will _add_ to nano 's clipboard, instead of replacing
       | whatever is there.
       | 
       | [0] https://micro-editor.github.io
        
       | bitwize wrote:
       | Now if only they could enable cua-mode by default in Emacs.
        
       | rurban wrote:
       | Oh my, I have nano as my default GIT_EDITOR. Will stay with the
       | old defaults definitely.
        
       | ars wrote:
       | Nano comes from pico which in turn comes from the email client
       | pine (which is currently forked as alpine).
       | 
       | alpine isn't used much anymore (although I still use it) but it's
       | progeny is still widely used, which is nice.
        
       | threePointFive wrote:
       | Wasn't nano released after the CUA spec? Hardly seems correct
       | calling these "modern" keybinds
        
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       (page generated 2024-05-31 23:02 UTC)