• How to install a text editor in Linux. The best text editors for Ubuntu. Console ASCII file editors

    The text editor must have application for any operating system. We have no shortage of the best modern editors for Linux. But these are graphic editors.

    By the way, we already talked about that earlier. You can also read this article on our website. It will be very useful for many.

    The best text editors for Linux

    As you know, the real power of Linux lies in command line. And when you're working on the command line, you need a text editor that can run right inside the terminal.

    To that end, today we are going to make a list of the best text editors for Linux and the command line.

    Vim

    If you've been in Linux for quite some time, you must have heard of Vim. Vim is highly customizable, cross-platform and highly efficient text editor. We had to add it to our list of the Best Text Editors for Linux.

    Almost every Linux distribution comes with Vim pre-installed. It is extremely popular due to its wide range of features.

    Vim can be quite a pain for first time users. I remember when I tried to edit a text file with Vim, I was completely confused. I couldn't type one letter on it, and the funny part is I couldn't even figure out how to close the thing. If you're going to use Vim, you have to figure it out and understand it in order to climb a very steep learning curve.

    But after you've gone through all that, combed through some paperwork, remembered your commands and shortcuts, you'll find that the hassle was worth it. You can customize Vim as you wish by customizing its interface, but if it looks like it's working for you, give your workflow more efficiency by using various custom scripts, plugins, and so on. Vim supports syntax highlighting, macro photography, and action history.

    The official website says that, Vim: A universal and professional tool for everyone!

    Productivity is entirely up to you and how you use it. You can just use it for simple text editing, or you can set it up as a full-fledged IDE.

    GNU Emacs

    GNU Emacs is undoubtedly one of the most powerful text editors out there. If you've heard of Vim and Emacs, you'll know that both of these editors have a very loyal fan base, and they often take their text editor very seriously. And you can find a lot of humor and stuff on the Internet about this:

    Emacs is cross-platform and has a command line interface and a graphical interface. It is also very rich in various features and most importantly, extensible.

    Like Vim, Emacs also comes with a steep learning curve. But once you master it, you can use your power to its full potential. Emacs can handle almost any type of text file. The interface is customizable to suit your workflow. It supports macro photography and shortcuts.

    The unique strength of Emacs is that it can be transformed into something completely different from a text editor. There is a large collection of modules that can transform an application for use in completely different scenarios, such as a calendar, news reader, word processor, etc. You can even play games in Emacs! We think it also deserves to be included in the list of the Best text editors for Linux.

    Nano

    When it comes to simplicity, Nano is the way to go. Unlike Vim or Emacs, the learning curve for nano is almost flat.

    If you want to simply create and edit a text file and get on with your life, look no further than Nano.

    The shortcuts available on the Nano appear at the bottom of the user interface. Nano includes only basic text editor features.

    It is minimal and ideal for editing system and configuration files. For those who don't need advanced features from a command line text editor, Nano is a perfect match.

    Other text editors

    Another editor I would like to mention:

    Editor Nice(ne): Official website says:

    If you have the resources and patience to use emacs or the right mental twist to use vi, then ne is probably not for you.

    Essentially, ne has many additional features like Vim or Emacs, including scripting and macro recording. But it has more intuitive controls and a less steep learning curve.

    What do you think about these text editors for Linux?

    If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

    Editing text files (with texts in natural language or with program texts) is one of the most frequently performed jobs on any computer and in any operating system. Maybe that’s why so many text editors have already been developed for Linux (about 100 titles are listed on www.linuxlinks.com, and that’s probably not all). So there is plenty to choose from. And it’s worth spending some time choosing the optimal editor.

    Of course, for such a choice to be justified, ideally you need to try all the editors or most of them. This is obviously impossible, so you have to rely either on chance or on the opinion of someone you know or the authors of computer books. (By the way, a good review of text editors, in my opinion, is contained in A. Fedorchuk’s book “Office, Graphics, Web in Linux.” I will also try to express my impressions of some text editors for Linux.)

    Of the many different text editors, the average user usually chooses two or three with which he constantly works. He learns control key combinations to the point of automaticity, gets used to performing standard editing operations in a certain way, through menu items or mouse clicks, and, in general, adapts to the editor environment. Therefore, there must be sufficiently compelling reasons to change the editor.

    In my opinion, an average user who often uses a computer to edit files needs to master at least 3 editors.

    One of them is a powerful word processor operating in WYSIWYG mode, providing extensive text formatting options and a lot of additional features not found in simpler editors. To this type I would include text editors (processors) from the StarOffice, Applixware, KOffice packages, individual word processors Maxwell and WordPerfect 8, AbiWord, as well as the TEX publishing system. I will call all editors of this type word processors. True, some authors, for example, the same A. Fedorchuk, still divide them into simply editors and processors, but I see no reason for this. Strictly speaking, the whole question is in the text formatting capabilities that the editor provides. And it is difficult, if not impossible, to propose any exact criterion for dividing editors of this class into two subclasses.

    The second necessary editor is an editor for creating or editing ASCII files, working in graphical mode. Using this editor, a Webmaster can, for example, edit html pages, write a letter in it for subsequent sending by e-mail, etc. This should be a graphical mode editor, because in many cases it is easier to work in graphical mode and more convenient than text. Examples of such editors are KEdit and KWrite from KDE, nedit.

    And yet you must be able to use one of the console text editors, because you, as the only user (and even superuser) of a personal computer, must be able to edit configuration files, and in any situation, even when the graphical mode does not load. The choice of editors of this type is very wide: vi, vim, bvi, Nvi, Elvis, Levee, vile, Wily, joe, aee, Fred, gred, le, lpe, Zed, Emacs, CoolEdit. Long-time UNIX devotees most often use vi or its improved version vim, but those switching to Linux from a Windows environment will find it easier to master CoolEdit, which is very similar to the built-in editors for Norton Commander and FAR.

    Based on these considerations, the following presentation is divided into three large parts, each of which is devoted to one of the identified types of editors. The first version of the section with a description of each editor discussed below was created in the very editor that is described in this section (these first versions were posted by me on the website http://linux-ve.chat.ru). I hope that after reading these sections you will be able to decide on the choice of text editors. Of course, everyone may have their own selection criteria. But I think that for us, Russian-speaking users, an important factor is the ability to enter and edit texts in Russian. It is also desirable that the menu items and program messages are also Russified (however, to some extent you can put up with English terms here, especially if there is a good description of the program in Russian, because the number of menu items is usually small and their meaning can simply be remembered).

    ,

    The times when the Linux OS seemed like a puzzle to newbies are long gone. Most popular now Linux-distributions have a convenient and intuitive graphical interface, as well as the standard programs supplied with them. But there are also exceptions. Text editor Nano, for example, does not have GUI, using the command line interface instead. What is this for if there is gedit?


    Nano mainly used in server rooms Linux, it is convenient when editing configuration files and, if you decide to master the terminal, along the way it would be highly advisable to master Nano. There is nothing particularly complicated about this, of all console text editors Nano is the simplest, to use it, it is enough to know the basic key combinations with which you work with files and text.

    Installation and launch

    In latest versions Ubuntu editor Nano is present by default and therefore does not need to be installed.

    To run it, you need to open a terminal and run the command nano. If the terminal responds with the message "command not found" or something like that, then it will mean that the editor is not installed. In this case, you will need to install it by running the following command in the console:

    sudo apt-get install nano

    To launch the editor, one command is enough - nano. This will create a new file in the current directory. You can determine which folder is the current one using the command pwd in the terminal. If you need to open a specific file, indicate its name, and if it is located in a folder different from the current one, add the full path to it, as shown in the example of the second command:

    nano hello.thxt
    nano /home/kompick/hello.thxt

    As for configuration files, when opening them after nano should add a key -w, this is important because it disables line breaks, which are not used in system files. The editor interface is represented by a console window, at the top of which the program version and the name of the current file are indicated, as well as the status (whether it was changed or not) . At the bottom of the window there are two lines showing the most commonly used key combinations. There is also a status bar at the bottom, which displays various messages and command fields, for example, the F6 button starts a text search.

    Basic principles of working with the Nano editor

    The hotkey designations may be somewhat confusing for a novice user, but this is only at first. Symbol (^) means the Ctrl key, and (M)Meta- Alt or Esc key. All this can be found in the built-in help. nano called by pressing ^+G, that is, Ctrl + G .

    To move through the content you can use the arrow keys, to save changes - Ctrl + O followed by typing Y for confirmation and N to cancel. At the time of saving, the editor asks for a file name, which must be entered in a special field at the bottom of the window.

    To undo changes made to an unsaved file, you need to press Ctrl + C. For cutting out entire lines and paragraphs in nano the combination Ctrl + K is responsible, for their insertion - Ctrl + U. To highlight certain elements of a line, use Ctrl + 6 or Alt + A, to call the search line - Ctrl + W or F6. The Ctrl + A and Ctrl + E commands allow you to quickly move to the beginning and end of a line, the Ctrl + Y and Ctrl + V commands allow you to scroll the contents of a text file down and up. Finally, Ctrl + X is used to exit the editor to the terminal.

    But all this is only part of the functionality nano. The editor supports counting words, lines and characters, working with several files at once, creating backup copies of edited documents, using the "read-only", enable partial mouse support, describe syntax for highlighting, change tab width, enable auto-save file on exit, and much more. Additional parameters are set mainly when starting the editor, but some, for example, the key responsible for backup -b can be used when saving a file.

    Additional features nano It is worth noting the customization of the appearance of the console window.

    The Linux text editor is probably one of the most frequently used programs, after the browser and file manager. It can be used to write code, edit configuration files, create user instructions or notes, and much more.

    In Linux, text editors exist in two forms: text - console editors, and graphic - text editors for Linux with a graphical user interface. The former are most often used on servers, the latter on home computers. In this article, we'll look at the best open source Linux text editors for both servers and personal computers.

    Vim is a powerful Linux text editor for the command line that extends and improves the functionality of the old Unix editor Vi. It is one of the best editors for Linux and is one of the most popular and frequently used text editors among system administrators and programmers. Many users consider it an editor for programmers. When editing code and configuration files, you can turn on syntax highlighting.

    2.Gedit

    This is a multifunctional best Linux text editor with a graphical interface. It comes by default with the GNOME desktop environment. The editor is very easy to use and customize, and also supports a bunch of plugins.

    Here are its main advantages:

    • UTF-8 support
    • Adjusting font size and colors
    • Setting up syntax highlighting
    • Copy and paste functionality
    • Undo and redo actions
    • Rolling back files
    • Search and replace
    • Clipboard

    3. Nano Editor

    Nano is a very easy to use Linux console text editor for both beginners and advanced Linux users. It is very convenient to use.

    Some features of Nano:

    • Highly customizable keyboard shortcuts
    • Syntax highlighting
    • Undo and redo actions
    • Occupies all available stdout space
    • Supports reading from standard input

    4. GNU Emacs

    It is a highly extensible and customizable Linux text editor, with a built-in interpreter for the lisp programming language. To expand functionality, you can install various extensions.

    • Emacs Features:
    • Lots of documentation
    • Syntax highlighting
    • Multi-language support with Unicode
    • Support for various extensions, including mail, news, debugger, calendar and others.

    5.Kate/Kwrite

    It is a feature-rich and highly extensible text editor that comes bundled with the KDE Plasma desktop environment. The Kate project is aimed at developing two main programs: KatePart and Kate.

    KatePart is a text editor component used in many KDE applications where text editing may be needed, and Kate is an interface for working with multiple documents in a text editor.

    Main features:

    • Extending functionality using scripts
    • Unicode support
    • Editing text in multiple panels
    • Autocompletion support

    It also supports remote file editing and many other functions, including search and replace, programming, text highlighting, backup, etc.

    6. Lime Text

    It's even more than just a powerful text editor for Linux. This is an entire open source IDE. One might say, the successor to the popular Sublime Text. Can be used both on the command line and with a graphical interface.

    7. Pico Editor

    This is another command line editor based on the editor used in Pine news. It is the best Linux text editor for new users, mainly because of its simplicity compared to other GUI editors.

    8. Jed Editor

    This is another Linux console text editor with support for a graphical interface and a drop-down menu. It is made specifically for software development and one of its key features is support for Unicode mode.

    9.GVim

    This is a graphical version of the popular text editor VIm. It has all the same features as Vim, as well as a menu with which you can do a lot of things.

    10. Geany

    This is another IDE similar to a Linux text editor, tailored for software development using GTK tools.

    It has all the necessary basic functions:

    • Syntax highlighting
    • Plugin Interface
    • Support for various file types
    • Code folding and navigation support
    • Auto-completion
    • Support for automatic closing of HTML and XML tags
    • Project Management Features

    11. Leaf Pad

    It is a lightweight Linux text editor with a GTK based GUI. It is popular among new Linux users due to its simplicity.

    Editor Features:

    • Automatic encoding detection
    • Undo and redo functions
    • Line numbers in the file
    • Drag and drop support
    • Print support

    Bluefish is easy to install and use, the best Linux text editor aimed at programmers and web developers. It supports a large number of functions:

    • Lightweight and fast
    • Integration with external LInux utilities: lint, weblint, make, awk, grep, sort and others.
    • Spell check function
    • Support for working on multiple projects
    • Remote file editing
    • Find and replace support
    • Undo and redo support
    • Automatic recovery of changed files

    13. Atom

    This is a highly customizable Linux text editor for Github developers based on the Chromium engine. The program is more like an IDE than just an editor. The functionality can be expanded using a huge number of plugins.

    This is probably one of the best editors for web developers. Here are its features:

    • Modern interface in Flat style
    • Support for a huge number of plugins
    • Supports multiple programming languages
    • Syntax highlighting
    • Debugging programs in Chromium
    • Error highlighting

    14. Brackets

    Another modern Linux text editor based on the Chromium engine, this time from Adobe. Peculiarities:

    • LivePreview - all changes made to the document are immediately visible on the web page
    • Syntax highlighting
    • Editing Tips
    • A large number of plugins and extensions

    A text editor for Linux is one of the most popular programs for users of this operating system.

    Without it, the user simply will not be able to fully use his computer.

    Vi/Vim

    Emacs

    This text editor is a little more complicated than all the previous ones, but if you understand it, you can feel for yourself how functional it is.

    Emacs has a lot of customization options. In addition, each user has the opportunity to extend the functionality of Emacs in a variety of ways.

    The most convenient of them is, which you can download on the Internet or create yourself.

    The complexity of use can be explained very easily - the fact is that initially Emacs was an interpreter of one of the well-known programming languages ​​called lisp.

    At the moment, the editor has a built-in interpreter. This means that you can work with a wide variety of programming languages ​​using Emacs.

    For this purpose, the editor has built-in syntax highlighting. In general, very convenient.

    Here are some more features of Emacs:

    Rice. 6. Emacs

    Geany

    Finally, in last place in our ranking is an editor called Geany. The main objective of this program is to develop software using the GTK toolkit.

    There are also many necessary functions for development, namely syntax highlighting, auto-closing tags ( and ) and much more.

    Developers will also be interested to know that Geany has project management support.

    That is, the user will not need to install any additional programs, but simply use the built-in functionality of the program.

    Other features of Geany:

    • support for plugins (the same extensions);

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