Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 01:05:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Mark Terribile <materribile@yahoo.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Suggestions to a command line editor Message-ID: <20030904080559.86997.qmail@web21107.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20030903190045.1D4C816A4F0@hub.freebsd.org>
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> On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 10:50:47AM -0400 or > thereabouts, Gerard Samuel wrote: >> Well I've been using FreeBSD for the past maybe 4 >> years now. I've been using "ee" (don't laugh) to >> do all my editing on the command line. >> Im looking to grow out of "ee" into something else. >> Naturally, something that can open/edit files. >> And if possible, I've heard of editors with color >> syntax highlighting, search/replace, and other >> voodoo, that "ee" isn't capable of. >> In general, I edit FreeBSD system files, php/html >> and related files. If you can do without the language-specific syntax stuff and the color, try the vi route. Or nvi , which on my box has source code in /usr/src/contrib . vi/vim and nvi are full-screen editors which also have a command line mode. Unlike emacs they are moded (commands in command mode, input text in input mode), they have a search-and-replace capability that can do magic (and even some voodoo -- frighten your family and friends) and they have some very programmer-friendly features, like the ability to match parens, curly braces and (in nvi) angle brackets with one keystroke. They can shift whole blocks of text by tabwidth, intelligently use tabs (and set the tabwidths to your preference) and use full regex searches. They have a very regular input language, they keep your fingers on the keyboard (no sending your hand to Kennedy Airport to catch a flight to the mouse) and nvi can edit multiple files at once. You can pull text into named buffers, drop it where you like, etc. If you like moded and you are doing program text, they can be _very_ fast to use, especially if you can really type -- or can fake it. On the other hand, if you want to program your editor into an entire IDE, look at EMACS. I don't know how to do it, but I have it on reliable sources that it can be done; EMACS is said to be a Lisp operating system disguised as an editor. Mark Terribile __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
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