Chapter 11 - Editors
11.1 Popular editors
Linux offers many alternatives for console text editors. Among them:
vim: Powerful and light BSD-heritage editor. VI iMproved.
emacs: Ultimate and heavy GNU-heritage editor. RMS (Richard M.
xemacs: Emacs: The Next Generation, originally from Lucid.
mcedit: Newbie GNU editor. Identical to
Editor in MC, Section
ae: Default small editor (Potato). Avoid this.
nano: Default small GNU editor (Woody). Emulates
joe: For WordStar or TurboPascal old-timers.
jed: Fast, full-featured menu-driven editor with Emacs key
jove: Very small editor with Emacs key bindings.
nvi: New vi. Bug-for-bug compatible with the original vi.
Use update-alternatives --config editor to change the default
editor. Also, many programs use environment variables EDITOR or
VISUAL to decide which editor to use. See Editor in MC, Section 4.2.5.
Also a few X-based text editors are noteworthy:
gvim: Vim with GUI (
emacs: The One True Emacs (auto-detect X).
xemacs: Next generation Emacs (auto-detect X).
These xclient commands take standard options such as -fn
a24, which makes life easy for older folks like me :) See X clients, Section 9.4.4.