nano weirdness

syamajala · 2006-01-20 02:23:38

how do you create a new file in already open nano. Like say i am editing bleh i want to be able to create bleh2 without closing nano and doing nano bleh bleh2. the nano help did not say anything about a keyboard shortcut.

syamajala · 2006-01-20 02:26:42

i found it. i wasn't sure what: ^R (F5) Insert another file into the current one meant. I thought it was merge kind of feature where it would take some other text file and put that text in the current one ;-p then i tried it out.

mac57 · 2006-01-20 15:00:19

If you are using nano, you are clearly looking for a good console/xterm text editor. I would recommend VE, available from www.campbellware.com. VE is inherently multi-file, along with LOTS of other stuff (for example, rectangular and columnar text regions, intereactive macros, global undo, etc.). In the case of what you are asking for here, with VE you would simply press F8 for its Edit command, and then select New from the menu. VE then pops up a full screen directory browser through which you can navigate to the file you want to open, or if you know its name right off, you can just type it in directly.

VE then provides multiple alternatives for easily switching between open files, the easiest of which is simply pressing the big "+" key on your number pad. This command switches from one open file to the next in a kind of circular loop, moving to the "next" open file each time it is pressed and eventually wrapping around to the first file. There is also a full screen file selection menu bound to the keypad's "-" key, that allows you to select the open file you want to look at with either a mouse click or via cursoring to the filename and pressing ENTER. VE supports up to 256 simultaneously open files.

I would recommend giving VE a try - I use it every day. The executable is actually SMALLER than nano's (VE's binary is only 70K!) , and yet VE has a much greater feature set than nano. Although VE isn't yet in the Arch repository, the tarball you get at www.campbellware.com comes with a prebuilt 686 optimized binary that runs like a champ on Arch.

...and yes, I am the author of VE! My bias probably shows!

syamajala · 2006-01-20 19:56:32

i'm on a mac.

mac57 · 2006-01-21 18:12:43

Cool. I didn't realize that Arch had a PPC version. That's good to know.

syamajala · 2006-01-21 21:12:27

well it has a ppc version but i'm in os x ;-} there is also an x86_64 version of arch. arch64.org

arooaroo · 2006-01-21 21:59:27

syamajala wrote:

well it has a ppc version but i'm in os x ;-} there is also an x86_64 version of arch. arch64.org

But I'm not sure if either are any where near complete/stable. They're certainly not officially supported.

syamajala · 2006-01-21 22:35:08

x86_64 was doing well but the last commit to svn i made was gnome 2.12 the other devs are keeping things as up to date as possible, but things are still a little behind...

i don't know how ppc is doing but i hope its doing well!

mac57 · 2006-01-22 18:01:55

Just an academic question here. If you are on a Mac, running OS-x, why are you posting questions in an Arch Linux forum? Wouldn't you be better served with a Mac forum? This is not a flame - literally an "academic" question.

syamajala · 2006-01-22 18:52:46

well it wasn't really an os x specific question. just a text editor question. when i have questions that are os x specific i use irc.

iphitus · 2006-01-22 23:51:13

And osx is similar in many aspects, and any editor that works on linux usually works on osx.

Like vim. There's a project you might like called Cream for vim, which takes away the icky vim'ness and makes it easy to use, and on most systems there's also evim which is similar.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-01-20 02:23:38

nano weirdness

#2 2006-01-20 02:26:42

Re: nano weirdness

#3 2006-01-20 15:00:19

Re: nano weirdness

#4 2006-01-20 19:56:32

Re: nano weirdness

#5 2006-01-21 18:12:43

Re: nano weirdness

#6 2006-01-21 21:12:27

Re: nano weirdness

#7 2006-01-21 21:59:27

Re: nano weirdness

#8 2006-01-21 22:35:08

Re: nano weirdness

#9 2006-01-22 18:01:55

Re: nano weirdness

#10 2006-01-22 18:52:46

Re: nano weirdness

#11 2006-01-22 23:51:13

Re: nano weirdness

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