GNU Nano 8 comes with modern key bindings

by smartmic • 2 years ago

85 35 2 years ago

marssaxman3• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

I'm genuinely intrigued, what made you decide to write your own editor instead of patching the keybindings in nano?

forgotpwd16• 2 years ago

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.)

marssaxman3• 2 years ago

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.

p4bl03• 2 years ago

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 :).

shric• 2 years ago

Is there any reason to use nano over vim other than learning curve?

If nano ever gets run for some reason (e.g. I forgot to set EDITOR) I immediately quit and launch vim.

I readily admit nano is easier for beginners to get something done, but I don't see any value in it if you already know vim enough for basic edits.

p4bl03• 2 years ago

Is there any reason to use nano over vim other than learning curve?

A simple matter of preference, I guess :).

tpoacher3• 2 years ago

The simple answer is "no", in the same way there's no need to write a python script if you really like java.

For a non-trolling answer though, for me iy's the ease with which nano's macros can be used and the easy syntax highlighting.

Not long ago, I wanted to create syntax highlighting to support my own format in nano and vim. The nano one took me 5 minutes. The vim one took me 2 days.

falsaberN13• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

Now if they add an edit.com-style menu at the top I’ll really never need another CLI text editor.

xp842• 2 years ago

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)

falsaberN13• 2 years ago

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.

cwillu• 2 years ago

(edit.com as in the old msdos editor, not as in some new web thing)

kgbcia• 2 years ago

Great move. I'm not a fan of emacs nor vim complexity.

jonathankoren• 2 years ago

I had t realized nano had progressed beyond being a pico clone. Happy to see that.

xp842• 2 years ago

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.

gnuvince• 2 years ago

Probably because some terminals interpret Ctrl+S as a "pause the terminal" command and if you don't know about it, it looks like your editor has frozen.

yingbo• 2 years ago

Great change! I really hate to remember different key bindings crossing editors.

pzmarzly• 2 years ago

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

tpoacher3• 2 years ago

This is not a bug, this is a feature. One of nano's best in fact.

What you say is not true except in the case of consecutive cuts. So this is a way of cutting multiple consecutive lines without requiring a visual selection.

If you don't want that just move the cursor once before the second cut.

bitwize• 2 years ago

Now if only they could enable cua-mode by default in Emacs.

mediumsmart• 2 years ago

I think you can tell init not to allow any mode to launch cua-mode by default.

rurban• 2 years ago

Oh my, I have nano as my default GIT_EDITOR. Will stay with the old defaults definitely.

ars• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

Wasn't nano released after the CUA spec? Hardly seems correct calling these "modern" keybinds

Diris• 2 years ago

Finally, this was probably my biggest gripe with it.

EricRiese• 2 years ago

I don't see an option to set that in nanorc

https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/latest/nanorc.5.html

And mouse mode requires holding shift to select text. Guess I'm sticking with micro.

tpoacher3• 2 years ago

I don't know why people gripe so much about the default keybindings. I used them for like 3 days before realisimg they are easy and make sense.

I'm now in the reverse situation; these "modern" keybindings feel really clunky to me.

GNU Nano 8 comes with modern key bindings

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