Joe to Nano to Vim
Throughout my Linux career I have been a long fan of the editor joe, it was there on my first production system based on Slackware, I loved it because I was familiar with Wordstar (remember that?). However things change and joe is less frequently installed by default now, it appears to be the trend to use ‘nano’ which I accepted with some reluctance, another set of keystrokes to learn etc. But it has served its purpose, I’m not a programmer but a sysadmin and so my need for regular editing tools are not my greatest concern.
Of course I could have learnt vi or vim and I would be fine as things have changed, but again, I’m not often in a heavy edit mode and the modes just got in the way of hacking a bit of script together quickly. Such topics of course come up on a regular basis at Linux user group meets which I have been running off and on for way too long – editor wars.
Now I am here at ionCube, in a software development focused environment where previously I have been a sysadmin in other industries, the realisation that I should learn a more robust editor has dawned on me. And so, over the past few months I have made a concious effort to wean myself off nano to use vim. Its hard, was much harder to start with but is strangely becoming my first choice, though for very very fast edits I revert to nano.
So much to learn in there with vim and only this week I found out that vim support plugins which have opened a huge area of wonderment. I love NERDTree!
In many of the areas of my life I am a strong believer that learning something new every day is important and I am so pleased that I have taken that step, it has been and will continue to offer challenges and I’m sure in time I will master it. Its amazing how a little application can reinvigorate a desire to learn and engage with my role.
Why don’t you find something new to learn too? See where it takes you.
Kev
