My favorite text editor

[drag]

The thing I realy like most about it is that I can type commands and such.

Every function has a 'long-command' or 'short-command' (or something like that). So you can hit alt-x (or m-x, were m is for 'meta') and then do tab complition to help you remember commands and such. Doing scripting and repeating commands and such is easier.

Then have weird things like 'major modes' and 'minor modes' that I realy haven't figured out yet.

For example if your working on a python program you can hit ctrl-c-! and get a python shell.

If you want to check it out check out the latest version Emacs22. Also the GTK version.

Debian Unstable (and testing, I think) have it aviable through the
emacs-snapshot-gtk package. Then also look for the emacs-goodies-el package.

I think that Emacs22 is much more easier to deal with then Emacs21 and the gtk version doesn't make it ugly.

[Vogateer]

We've already gone off topic here, but thought this was interesting in the word processor department, might be of use for people who don't like to do things the text editor way.

http://www.99b.org/wyneken/

An interesting project that might appeal to people who want WYSIWYM without Vim or some other text editor with a steep learning curve.

[snarkout]

I think one of the main reasons I use vim is that vi at least is on every single UNIX and unixlike box I have ever been on. Knowing it is more or less essential. Vim is a whole lot nicer than vi, but other than some munging in my vimrc, I hardly take advantage of even a small part of what vim is capable of. Generally I just type into it, and occasionally use it instead of sed to search and replace strings. That said, I use it so often that I hit esc+:wq constantly when in notepad or email or, hell, even posts on BBSes.

[lizerazu]

Wow, this definitely didn't go the way I thought when i decided to vote on this. I'm a developer (trying not to be) for a EPCM (engineering, procurement, construction management) firm and use Java (by choice.. i refused to do the VBA thing).

My co-worker here is a big VIM/LaTex fan and I do find it appealing. I personally use Eclipse for all my dev work. I now use it actively for Java, C++, ruby and PHP work.

I like to say I'm a cross platform developer but in reality the only coding I do is at work and therefor in StartButtonOS (I'm really enjoying Eclipse's SWT though). I always mean to work on projects at home but never really get around to finding something I passionately want to contribute to (obviously my interests are in OSS projects).

For my general work (modifying .conf files) I tend to use gedit out of habit. Probably because i used nedit at school and pre-university i only had StartButtonOS so i was a - eeeekk - notepad man.

I feel it is my duty as a owner of a beautiful Linux Destop and beautiful Linux Laptop that I should really learn all the things that made the *nix environments so wonderful. VIM is up there on my to do lists.

note: I used emacs in my first year computer science courses and that was it. I never went back. All years after that i did all my C dev in nedit (on Solaris circa 2001) with no syntax highlighting. I got pretty good at makefiles there for a bit. can't remember a thing any more though.

Also, I use xhtml/css for documentation because i know it and it's relatively easy to pump out (also in Eclipse now).

OK, that was long winded... hope you skipped most of it.

[allix]

Wow, this definitely didn't go the way I thought when i decided to vote on this. I'm a developer (trying not to be) for a EPCM (engineering, procurement, construction management) firm and use Java (by choice.. i refused to do the VBA thing).

My co-worker here is a big VIM/LaTex fan and I do find it appealing. I personally use Eclipse for all my dev work. I now use it actively for Java, C++, ruby and PHP work.

I like to say I'm a cross platform developer but in reality the only coding I do is at work and therefor in StartButtonOS (I'm really enjoying Eclipse's SWT though). I always mean to work on projects at home but never really get around to finding something I passionately want to contribute to (obviously my interests are in OSS projects).

For my general work (modifying .conf files) I tend to use gedit out of habit. Probably because i used nedit at school and pre-university i only had StartButtonOS so i was a - eeeekk - notepad man.

I feel it is my duty as a owner of a beautiful Linux Destop and beautiful Linux Laptop that I should really learn all the things that made the *nix environments so wonderful. VIM is up there on my to do lists.

note: I used emacs in my first year computer science courses and that was it. I never went back. All years after that i did all my C dev in nedit (on Solaris circa 2001) with no syntax highlighting. I got pretty good at makefiles there for a bit. can't remember a thing any more though.

Also, I use xhtml/css for documentation because i know it and it's relatively easy to pump out (also in Eclipse now).

OK, that was long winded... hope you skipped most of it.

cool, its fun listening to each others experiences, there all so different.
welcome to TLLS

[lizerazu]

Since Pat decided not to contribute I decided to mention that he also uses Eclipse. It really is very nice and Feisty is working really hard at making sure the CDT (C dev tools) work really well with the auto tools. Yay, maybe I can give my dad back is Autotools/Autoconf/Automake book.

Like I mentioned before, I use it mostly for ruby, PHP and Java but it keeps growing in leaps and bounds.

Having said that, I've started building my own Linux From Scratch system and I'm getting pretty good with vi, cat and sed...

[Patrick]

Since Pat decided not to contribute I decided to mention that he also uses Eclipse. It really is very nice and Feisty is working really hard at making sure the CDT (C dev tools) work really well with the auto tools. Yay, maybe I can give my dad back is Autotools/Autoconf/Automake book.

For most editing I use VI unless it's some heavy duty programming then I use Eclipse. Gotta love the debugger and all the plug-ins.