Date: 2024-06-21
It's hard to imagine now, but two decades ago as of this writing, I was a heavy Emacs user. I was likely underusing it, and in the end gave up because it wasn't always an option, and all other editors used different keys. Having to switch gears all the time grows tiresome after a while. Tried learning Vi, too, along the way. That didn't stick, but years later I could still use Vi at a basic level, yet barely remembered how to quit Emacs. Didn't need to do it very often, however, because by then conventional text editors were ubiquitous even on Linux.
For years, Geany was all I needed. Conveniently so, because it's the default text editor on most Linux distributions. But Geany insists to act like an IDE, with all the associated complexity. So over time I found myself using Mousepad instead. Mousepad is light and simple, but lacks necessary features like word count, autocomplete or spell check. Specialized editors like Ghostwriter work for editing prose, but not code for example.
Worse, sometimes I need to work in a terminal emulator, and it's 2004 all over again.
The text-based editor every Linux distribution installs by default is Nano, which is fine if you're willing to 1) learn a set of keyboard shortcuts unlike any other or 2) just use the basics it shows at the bottom. There's also Vi, because it's The Standard (more about that in a moment), but usually in a limited form. Various other options exist, but I wasn't happy with any of them until I found Micro.
Micro is really nice. You can tell its author was fed up with bullshit and just wanted to get work done without having to remember how to quit their text editor this week! It supports tabs and splits in a terminal, plus all the expected goodies, but mostly you can use your mouse and keyboard in the usual way. That's Micro's killer feature: copy-paste is Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V, period.
(It's not the only one to be honest. In the mean time I also discovered dte, which is much lighter and more portable, but not quite as nice.)
There was only one hitch: Micro has no support for any Basic dialect, and very little for Common Lisp, a language I relearned recently. (Geany does, but see above.) However there is another way.
Turns out one of the most popular editors out there is Vim. Which has dedicated support for Lisp built in as a special feature, and syntax highlighting for other languages I use, that no other editor supports out of the box. Also, because it's one of the Big Two, examples and advice are easy to come by.
Oh, Vim has a learning curve. Except I turned out to be a good way along already, and there's a tutorial built right in. It also runs on operating systems where others don't, even with a GUI if so desired.
Better yet, now it's very noticeable how much Micro is a simplified Vim, or maybe NeoVim, with conventional keybindings. Even commands like vsplit work the same. So many concepts transfer over, which helps with both editors. Level up!
If you want to try Vim, keep in mind that the hard part isn't learning which keys to press; in fact it's easier than in other editors. But Vim requires a mental shift: it separates writing from editing with a flaming sword. You have to come at it with a kind of back-and-forth, snicker-snack motion. That takes an adjustment, but is also rewarding once you figure out the trick.
Have fun writing.
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