My favorite text editor

allix · Post by **allix** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:22 am

Its that exciting time again

What tool do you craft your fine code with?
or change configurations files as well as reading text files and whatever else you do.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc ... gle+engEDU

A video with Bram Moolenaar

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:31 am

VIM FTW!

Sorry.

CptnObvious999 · Post by **CptnObvious999** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:12 am

it really depends on what I am editing if it is a web page I generally use Quanta, for Python code I usually use SPE unless it's just a small change in which I would use Kate. I use Kate to open .desktop files and basically any other basic text only document unless it requires me to be root in which case I usually pull down yakuake and run NANO.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:28 am

Vim. To know it is to love it.

I only wish I could edit formatted documents using Vim instead of OpenOffice.org or Abiword. I really should learn how to properly use LaTeX.

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 1:58 pm

Speaking of favorite text editors, the LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards Polls will be closing in a few hours. Hurry up and vote!

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... y.php?f=76

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:11 pm

I voted on the first day.

Emacs never really appealed to me. Vim scared me the first time I tried it, but then after I learned a few things, it actually became exciting. Thanks go to Allix for posting the video earlier. That's good stuff.

Ruhar · Post by **Ruhar** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:54 pm

Vim with the elflord colorscheme

mowestusa · Post by **mowestusa** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:01 pm

Ruhar wrote:Vim with the elflord colorscheme

Would that be GVIM?

I have tried to use the color schemes with the command line version of VIM, but it doesn't seem to set the colors the same as what you see in GVIM. I imagine that it must be some limitation with the color palette of my x-windows-terminal, or just my plain terminal. It seems like it only lets you have 16 colors palette in the default gnome terminal.

adam · Post by **adam** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:36 pm

vim. on bsd i just stick with the classic vi.

shopRatt · Post by **shopRatt** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:12 pm

Notepad !

Just kidding. I use VIM most of the time.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:31 pm

Vim FTMFW!

Not sorry. It's the best.

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:20 pm

Vogateer wrote:I only wish I could edit formatted documents using Vim instead of OpenOffice.org or Abiword. I really should learn how to properly use LaTeX.

I just write stuff in HTML in Vim. That way it's not tied to a specific word processor format. Even OO writer and Abiword don't read each other's formats properly, so I gave up and went to Vim.

If I need to print something I'll pull it up in a browser and print or cut and paste from Firefox to OO if I need something fancy.

HTML is also cross-platform and can be edited with pretty much anything.

allix · Post by **allix** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:48 pm

Gomer_X wrote:
Vogateer wrote:I only wish I could edit formatted documents using Vim instead of OpenOffice.org or Abiword. I really should learn how to properly use LaTeX.
I just write stuff in HTML in Vim. That way it's not tied to a specific word processor format. Even OO writer and Abiword don't read each other's formats properly, so I gave up and went to Vim.

If I need to print something I'll pull it up in a browser and print or cut and paste from Firefox to OO if I need something fancy.

HTML is also cross-platform and can be edited with pretty much anything.

taken from the vim FAQ

SECTION 34 - PRINTING

34.1. How do I print a file along with line numbers for all the lines?

You can set the 'printoptions' option and use the ":hardcopy" command to
print your file:

:set printoptions=number:y
:hardcopy

For more information, read

:help 'printoptions'
:help :hardcopy

34.2. How do I print a file with the Vim syntax highlighting colors?

You can use the ":hardcopy" command to print a file with the Vim syntax
highlighting colors. You can also convert your file to a HTML file using
the 2html.vim script and print the HTML file.

For more information, read

:help syntax-printing
:help 2html.vim
:help :hardcopy
:help printing

i hope that satisfies your printing needs , if not then someone will help you in the mailing list

mowestusa · Post by **mowestusa** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:02 pm

Gomer_X wrote:
Vogateer wrote:I only wish I could edit formatted documents using Vim instead of OpenOffice.org or Abiword. I really should learn how to properly use LaTeX.
I just write stuff in HTML in Vim. That way it's not tied to a specific word processor format. Even OO writer and Abiword don't read each other's formats properly, so I gave up and went to Vim.

If I need to print something I'll pull it up in a browser and print or cut and paste from Firefox to OO if I need something fancy.

HTML is also cross-platform and can be edited with pretty much anything.

Gomer has given you a great option Vogateer instead of LaTeX. I also agree that I'm not happy with editing in Abiword and OO and switching between the two. I have also switched to doing my editing in "plain text" mostly in VIM or in some other editor. If I need a pretty printout I might just open up the "plain text" document in OO of Abiword and add some formating.

I have found another option that is really neat. I now do my writing and editing using "readable markup" which is really simple ways to add "markup" for formating to your "plain text" documents without all of the html or xml or LaTeX codes. You simply write the "plain text" document and then let asciidoc do its magic and you can convert your "plain text" with "readable markup" into a beautiful HTML layout or you can convert it to docbook and use db2pdf to produce a very nice PDF document.

You can find asciidoc at: http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/

I'm not saying it is better than HTML, nor do I believe it is always better than LaTeX, but if you want something that is easy to learn, more readable as a "plain text" document before conversion, and able to produce rather nice HTML or PDFs then I would encourage you to take a look.

If you want very granular control than straight XHTML with CSS would be great. If you want high quality pdfs with math formulas than LaTeX is wonderful. For my needs, I'm finding asciidoc to be a great tool.

I'm giving a presentation on this to my local LUG this coming Saturday.

Vogateer · Post by **Vogateer** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:31 pm

Thanks go to Gomer and mowestuse for those options. The HTML formatting seems obvious, though I rarely have good results with printing from Firefox. I simply don't have control of things like widows and proper line-spacing. I need to look into AsciiDoc as well, that looks like a great program.

I immediately have an affinity for LaTeX, though. The fact that TeX has Donald Knuth at the heart of it already brings my utmost respect, and that Eben Moglen and his staff often use LaTeX is also quite an endorsement. Knuth is just a genius, though. I also feel like the WYSIWYM markup is a very good idea. Most people—I should include myself in this group—really have no business trying to typeset their documents. I feel like I have a very rudimentary knowledge of the basics of typography, but compared to Knuth, there's no contest. When you use LaTeX, you are concentrating on the structure of your document, which I find very appealing, and that you can use VIM to do that text editing is really great, too. The more I look at it, the more I believe that this is the ideal set up. LaTeX will take a while to learn, but like many things in Linux, I assume that if you take the time to learn it, you're rewarded in spades.

I've done a few things in LaTeX, and they've always looked great. I'd like to find a few more templates or document types or whatever you call it, but just using the article style alone yields great results. The letter format is also quite good. Anyone else here a LaTeX fan?