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Why nano gets used (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) by Skullgrid@lemmy.world to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev
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Nano has already supplanted the great EMacs and Vim as the most popular text editor of all linux distros, for though it has many omissions in functionality it scores over the older, more complete programs in two important respects. First, it is slightly simpler; and secondly it has the text "^ Exit" inscribed in highlighted text on its footer

EDIT : This sees to be going over some people's heads. It's a hitchiker's guide to the galaxy reference.

The Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions . . . it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

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[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 9 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 1 minute ago)

Big fan of micro. Like nano, it's non-modal, but unlike nano, it doesn't need to print its shortcuts on the bottom because everyone already knows most of the shortcuts from almost every GUI editor. And it has inbuilt syntax highlighting and LSP support (TBH it's a bit much at times, the UI is a bit too intrusive to (by default) complain every time you violate some style guideline).

Though that's moot if you don't have admin privileges on the box you're working on.

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 4 points 10 hours ago

nano -x may be more to your liking then. Or nano -0 if you like being terrified.

Hints: Ctrl+X still works to quit. Alt-Z and Alt-X toggle the title and the help respectively.

You can also use the toggles in regular nano to hide one or the other if you're bothered by them.

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

The UI isn't the issue with nano, it's that it needs that kind of UI ... you could memorize nano's shortcuts, but it doesn't have enough features to justify the effort.

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 9 hours ago

What extra features do you think it ought to have?

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 1 points 3 minutes ago

Well, micro has syntax highlighting and LSP support ... though nano's feature set is honestly fine for what is, it's just that the shortcuts are nonstandard.

[-] Feyd@programming.dev 5 points 9 hours ago

It's not that they want more features - it's that in micro for instance copy is ctrl+c which everyone already knows, where in nano it's different

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 4 points 9 hours ago

Then you want nano -/ which uses the modern key bindings. They've been in nano for a while now.

For historical reasons, it doesn't use them by default.

[-] Feyd@programming.dev 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Yup they could use nano -/0, or they could just use micro.

A note: I couldn't find -/ referenced online easily though when I checked it is indeed there. On Mac nano redirects to pico by default which doesn't have that either. I think it's understandable someone would just choose to use micro

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 4 points 8 hours ago

To flog this dead horse just a bit longer, micro is nearly seven times the size of nano, and Apple are clearly doing it wrong. Pointing an old name at a new thing is fine as long as there's backward compatibility, but a new name at an old thing that doesn't support the same features is a disservice to the old thing, the new thing and the user.

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 1 points 13 minutes ago

, micro is nearly seven times the size of nano,

Still starts up instantly, though, and still smaller than practically every GUI editor.

-/

$ nano -/ test.txt 
nano: invalid option -- '/'

So much for that. Is this a really new option, or does it require a compilation flag that Debian doesn't bother with?

this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026
240 points (100.0% liked)

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