Fresh view of text editors – command and graphical variations

[Brian MasinickModerator]

This morning I tried out textadept on Slackware, and also brought the nano configuration bindings I was working on yesterday to Slackware.

Now I’m on my antiX 26 Xfce build originally created by @farmer.

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

I also brought one or two configuration changes to micro that were missed when I reinstalled antiX 26, so nano and micro are now configured consistently across my antiX and MX Linux installations.

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

I put together a script called RebuildDoomEmacs to move or remove the configuration, download the Doom Emacs configuration and install it.

Looks like this:

#!/bin/bash

mv ~/.config/doom ~/.config/doom.bak
rm -rf ~/.config/emacs

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs ~/.config/emacs
~/.config/emacs/bin/doom install
doom doctor

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

No new changes in my text editors today, so unless I decide to do additional reconfiguration tweaks, that’s it today on my text editors.

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

I’m using the Doom Emacs configuration of GNU Emacs and as usual it’s reliable and steady.

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

REPEAT AGAIN: (shared a while ago):
I’m using Doom Emacs on MX Linux as I proceed through distro
updates. The more I use Doom Emacs and investigate both the vi and
Emacs capabilities plus the additional Doom extras, this really is an
excellent setup. After updating this short text file, I simply enter
Esc to return to edit mode, then type ZZ to write/quit. Some people
initially struggle with modal editors. Yes, there are a few things
to become familiar with. For example, in a true modal editor it always
starts out in edit mode, so everything you type in is considered an
edit command; if it isn’t, then it is an invalid command. It’s not
difficult to make certain you are in edit mode either, just type Esc
and you’re back in edit mode.

When I began editing this text, I simply positioned the cursor at the
end of the previous content and pressed a – which means insert text
AFTER the current position. To a newbie that may seem difficult, but
it’s simple to learn. The i means insert; I just entered Esc before
the word insert in this sentence, then typed i; it inserts just before
the t in insert. Other variations of insert include o, which inserts
a new line before the current line, O to insert after the current line;
these are handy to know as you get better at remembering them, but
either a, meaning insert after or i, insert before, are enough to get
started, and remember, Esc gets back to edit mode; important to know
when you want to exit; all of these are classic vi editing letters.

To further this “exercise”, as vi users know, the right hand (at least)
on American English keyboards, contains jkl; where the right hand rests;
just to the left by one character, it’s hjkl, which are the keys to
navigate to the left, down, up, and right respectively.

Other modifiers include w for word, W for WORD, d for delete, and u
for undo. If you learn even half of these, you’re good to go with either
vi or Doom Emacs. If you learn all of them, and a few more, then you
can do any kind of editing. Using a number after the verb object, such
as d or u, affects that number of objects; also with d you typically
include what you want to delete, such as a word, a sentence, or multiple
words.

Paragraphs are a more complex object. Vi, Kakoune, and Helix all have
methods to deal with each of them, but differ in their handling of
actions and objects.

In any case, this is a slightly longer explanation of the capabilities,
probably enough to get started but not quite enough to become an expert.

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Brian Masinick
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[Brian MasinickModerator]

On the Vi side of the equation, I have also been following the Neovim project. This project had stated intentions that this year, 2026, they would try to complete the work they started some time ago.

When I first started using Neovim the project had a package around the 0.10 region; I think it was 0.10.4; the Debian repositories had that version. I’m not sure they’ve changed it, but the Neovim project HAS made progress. When I first looked at their site, 0.12 was the most current development version and their incremental every day versions gradually increased through their 0.11.*; only recently it was 0.11.7. Now the 0.12 version has had three revisions in the past month, 0.12, 0.12.1 and 0.12.2, which as of yesterday was current, and 0.13 was their base level for changing work.

I’m hoping that they DO complete their Version 1 effort this year; it’s a really solid editor, just as Doom Emacs is a really solid effort for the development effort of that integrated vi/emacs solution.

I recommend BOTH Neovim, site: https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases (currently https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/tag/v0.12.2 )

AND Doom Emacs, site: https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs and learning videos from DT:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=doom+emacs+distrotube

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Brian Masinick
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[Brian MasinickModerator]

Today I am using the vim text editor as I maintain and older system.

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

I used one of my quick, easy, convenient, but not that well-known text editors, XnEdit, a modern update to the once popular Nedit text editor, often called “Nirvana” because it was powerful, yet easy to use and effective; XnEdit continues that tradition with solid search capabilities, easy editing, all in a modest sized tool.

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

Today I am using the Doom Emacs “operating system”, oh sorry, Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Yes, it can edit text, but as Distro Tube often says, it’s much more than JUST an editor!

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

Brian Masinick wrote:

I put together a script called RebuildDoomEmacs to move or remove the configuration, download the Doom Emacs configuration and install it.

Looks like this:

#!/bin/bash

mv ~/.config/doom ~/.config/doom.bak
rm -rf ~/.config/emacs

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs ~/.config/emacs
~/.config/emacs/bin/doom install
doom doctor

I reran this script today to get a “fresh” instance of my configuration.

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Brian Masinick
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[Brian MasinickModerator]

Today I’m using a refreshed instance of Doom Emacs.
I also altered the alias to reboot from rb to r, since r is not in use (note to myself).

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

I’m using my HP-14 today, which I pulled out late yesterday afternoon.
I already updated Doom Emacs, but on this system I noticed that since
I have not used this system in a while, Neovim has newer versions so
I’m putting Neovim Version 0.12.2 on this system today.

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

Brian Masinick wrote:

I’m putting Neovim Version 0.12.2 on this system today.

Done on a second partition; checking the others too.

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[Brian MasinickModerator]

Made a few minor changes today with one of my other favorite *simple* text editors: XnEdit.

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