#Macvim vs emacs how to#
#Macvim vs emacs code#

Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move around inside of your text file. Your file is now saved! You can type more into your hello.txt file if you wish.

When you do this, nano prompts you to ask what the name of the file should be you can leave it alone as hello.txt and press enter. You can save your file by holding down control and pressing o. Now type some text, for example 'Hello World'. You can type nano hello.txt again to open the nano editor again.

#Macvim vs emacs code#

Each control code is typed by holding down the control key on your keyboard and then pressing a letter.įor example, hold down control and press x to Exit nano. The bottom of the screen lists the control codes that you can use. Instead of clicking on menus, you have control codes that you can type to save, close, etc. Note that the interface is completely text-based. You will now be running the nano editor and editing a file named hello.txt. You first need to be logged into Linux and open a terminal. Nano is among the easiest text editors to use, so let's get you started using nano. Once you are comfortable using the shell/terminal and nano, you should transition to an editor that has more features that are useful for programming (vim, emacs, or one of the graphical text editors). nano is relatively easy to use and shows on the screen what control keys need to be pressed to do different things (e.g., ctrl-x to exit). When you are first getting started, you can use nano to edit files. Video demonstration of text editors in the terminal - nano, vim, emacs editors in the terminal When you have chosen which text editor you plan to use most, you can search online for commonly used shortcuts and other features (search for vim shortcuts, or vim tutorial, or vim cheat sheet). The most popular graphical text editors often have more programming features installed and configured by default than the terminal-based text editors do. You might prefer to use graphical text editors, which can be easier to start using and configure. You should know the basics each because you are likely to run across a situation where a program in the terminal is configured to use one of these for its interface (which you won't be able to change while in the middle of some configuration process).

#Macvim vs emacs how to#

Below we give you the basics on how to use each. At a minimum, you should be able to use the following to do basic editing of text files: nano, vim, emacs. You should be familiar with the basic commands for terminal-based text editors (those that you can use when using a terminal only see CS Server - Terminal).