Arch Linux

Dr Small

Member

From: Behind a Terminal

Registered: 2008-03-02

Posts: 59

Website

Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Apart from my sudo problems, I need a new terminal (preferably something I can customize) and a good GUI editor. I have a throbbing headache from trying to read the small fonts in xterm from 2 feet away.

I know of mousepad and xfce-term, but I wanted to know if I had any other choices before I go installing a bunch of xfce dependencies. I really want to stay away from Gnome, so that excludes gnome-terminal and gedit (which I have been accustomed to).

Dr Small

jbromley

Member

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 268

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Well, for terminals you've got the following options:
* rxvt - lighter than xterm
* aterm - rxvt derivative with transparency and other eye-candy features if you're into that
* rxvt-unicode (urxvt) - aterm plus unicode
* mrxvt - tabbed aterm, not sure if it does unicode or not, nice and very programmable
* sakura - tabbed term for GTK, I've only seen this one

Of course, if the only problem you have with xterm is that the font is too small, you can use X resources to choose a larger font.

For editors, the big two are of course vim (gvim is a "GUI" version) and emacs/xemacs. I never used anything other than those two.

Regards,
j

thayer

Fellow

From: Vancouver, BC

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,560

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

urxvt is my personal choice of terminal, but FYI there are existing threads on this forum that ask the exact same question and dozens of answers await you already.

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thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

skymt

Member

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 443

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Urxvt is probably the best-of-breed terminal emulator at the moment.

Since you asked for a GUI text editor, I'll assume you don't want the learning curve of Vim or Emacs. Geany is a decent editor/IDE without too many dependencies, and it mostly follows normal GUI conventions so learning it will be simple.

danielsoft

Member

From: Czech Republic

Registered: 2008-02-16

Posts: 102

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

For terminal I use roxterm. Small, no big dependencies, with tab support, URL launching...

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may the Source be with you

finferflu

Forum Fellow

From: Manchester, UK

Registered: 2007-06-21

Posts: 1,899

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

I use gnome-terminal as my default terminal on any WM, so here I can't suggest you anything
As for a text editor, I really encourage you to learn Vim (as suggested, Gvim is the GUI version on Vim). It really is a powerful text editor, I use it for everything, from editing config files to writing essays. There are plenty of good tutorials on the web, and there is a special "tips" section on the official Vim website, which is very handy when you are looking for specific information.

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synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

I really like mrxvt.  You can make it very pretty and it really is highly configurable.  Setting up font sizes is not a problem whatsoever.

I've never tried urxvt, perhaps I should?

torin_dan

Member

Registered: 2008-04-10

Posts: 8

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

urxvt & scite

Dr Small

Member

From: Behind a Terminal

Registered: 2008-03-02

Posts: 59

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.
I am a Vim user, I just haven't got around to installing Vim (currently using Vi). But the reasoning behind a GUI editor, was so I could read the fonts. Everything in xterm is so small. Maybe if I could just get the font size bigger in it, that would really help.

Dr Small

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

evilvte is a nice little terminal

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

thayer

Fellow

From: Vancouver, BC

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,560

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.
I am a Vim user, I just haven't got around to installing Vim (currently using Vi). But the reasoning behind a GUI editor, was so I could read the fonts. Everything in xterm is so small. Maybe if I could just get the font size bigger in it, that would really help.

Dr Small

Sounds like you just need to add an ~/.Xdefaults text file and you'll be fine.  You can specify your font and font sizes like so:

urxvt*font: xft:Monospace:pixelsize=14
urxvt*boldFont: xft:Monospace:pixelsize=14

Granted, that's for the urxvt terminal, but if you change it to xterm, or remove urxvt* entirely you should be fine. A quick search on the forums will provide plenty of examples.

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thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

peets

Member

From: Montreal

Registered: 2007-01-11

Posts: 936

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Yeah, what Thayer says.

To change font size on the fly, I use what's mentioned there: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=44121. It might work with terminals other than urxvt (don't they all emulate some VT####-or-rather terminal?)

MONODA

Member

Registered: 2008-02-09

Posts: 256

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

i use sakura and leafpad but you may want geany as a text editor since it is more powerful.

thayer

Fellow

From: Vancouver, BC

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,560

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Yeah, what Thayer says.

To change font size on the fly, I use what's mentioned there: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=44121. It might work with terminals other than urxvt (don't they all emulate some VT####-or-rather terminal?)

That's awesome, peets I had never seen that printf urxvt tip before. Thanks!

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thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

Zepp

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2006-03-25

Posts: 334

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

urxvt and vim

dunc

Member

From: Glasgow, UK

Registered: 2007-06-18

Posts: 559

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

For terminal I use roxterm. Small, no big dependencies, with tab support, URL launching...

Very similar to Xfce-Terminal, too.

As is Sakura, which I just installed yesterday. The only thing I miss from ROXTerm is drag-and-drop from the desktop.

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0 Ok, 0:1

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

A really teeny tiny text editor I used to use before mousepad (switched to XFCE) was Beaver.  I love the simplicity of it, and it's really powerful.  AFAIK, it's not being developed any longer though.

http://www.nongnu.org/beaver/

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=10914

ToastedToad

Member

From: Sequim, WA

Registered: 2006-03-08

Posts: 79

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Another vote for urxvt, and medit for editing confs.

scrawler

Member

Registered: 2005-06-07

Posts: 318

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

editors:
emacs, geany, scite bluefish and medit.

Terminal:
mrxvt, terminal (xfce4), xterm. On this new box mrxvt is flaky (garbage characters everywhere).  I just got roxterm, and I like it.  I also just got sakura, but don't see the point.  I'm willing to believe urxvt is the greatest, but first I have to know what's so great about it.

sujoy

Member

From: Finland

Registered: 2008-02-08

Posts: 95

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

urxvt and vim, a great combo!
actually i never used an editor other than vi/vim

Procyon

Member

Registered: 2008-05-07

Posts: 1,819

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

I use urxvt because I need unicode. Before I used aterm and I'm a bit sad that urxvt is quite a bit slower with displaying a lot of text.
My favorite GUI editor is leafpad. My favorite console editor is ed.

fuscia

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 398

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

if you like mousepad, but don't want the xfce baggage, try leafpad. mousepad was modelled after leafpad. for terminals, urxvt is pretty darn good (and i even like xterm, a lot).

Husio

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 359

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

vim + best terminal for it - xterm.

xelados

Member

Registered: 2007-06-02

Posts: 314

Website

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Like the others, I recommend urxvt if you want a dependency-free terminal. Unfortunately, I can't think of any GUI text editors that aren't tied to their respective desktop environment. I'd go with vim (gvim if you prefer a GTK+ interface) or emacs.

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fuscia

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 398

Re: Terminal and Text Editor recommendations

Like the others, I recommend urxvt if you want a dependency-free terminal. Unfortunately, I can't think of any GUI text editors that aren't tied to their respective desktop environment. I'd go with vim (gvim if you prefer a GTK+ interface) or emacs.

leafpad only depends of gtk2, so if you're already using stuff that depends on gtk2, that would be the choice.