Comparizon between text editors in Ubuntu: Vim vs. Emacs vs. Nano

vim text-editor emacs

126,604

Solution 1

Nano is the easiest to use and learn. A lot of people will swear by Vim and Emacs but Nano is a very good text editor. Nano is good for editing a config file but if you are going to program you'll be better off using Vim or Emacs. Nano supports highlighting. But this is very subjective.

Everyone is going to have their favorite editors for some reason. Find the one that you like the best and use it.

Solution 2

I love Vim. It's so powerful and effective and perfect in every way. However, most of the time I just use gedit, because I'm not as powerful and effective as Vim.

Solution 3

Simple answer is ...

Nano is a simple text editor.

Emacs is a full fledged text editor with features for programming. This one is usually easier to learn but is still confusing. This is because advanced features are key combinations like crtl + e (goto end of line).

Vim is like Emacs only it uses a much different form of input. Vim is modal meaning that each key means something different in a different mode.

Basically, Nano is for normal users. Emacs and Vim are for programmers. Take your pick (I'm not taking Vim vs Emacs side for this post lol)

Solution 4

Another good one to use is Geany, found in the Ubuntu package manager or at geany.org . Has really good features and the built-in terminal window is really nice. I use it for most programming projects. I use VIM alot too, mostly when ssh'd into a server. The built-in Gedit is useful for quick edits and config files.

Solution 5

I recommend gedit. It's got color coding for programming code which makes everything from HTML/CSS to PHP easier to read and edit. Emacs can do it, but it takes some effort to learn how to set up and use. Gedit is usable on your first attempt with no documentation required.

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myusuf3

https://mahdiyusuf.com

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

myusuf3 over 1 year

I was wondering the difference between these text editors and which is best used with Ubuntu?

What are each of them good for? Are there better ones?
- Admin over 13 years
  
  Please make this a community wiki [1]meta.stackexchange.com/questions/11740/…
- Admin over 13 years
  
  Are we just discussing console editors?
- Admin over 13 years
  
  Community Wiki'd
William Brendel over 13 years

Well summarized!
Tommy Brunn over 13 years

This is definitely my favorite code/text editor. I use it for almost all my programming.
Richard Holloway over 13 years

+1 For being so right. Geany is the best editor I have found for code when working on a lot of files. I know you can get the same functionality in VIM but it isn't as easy to navigate as Geany. I use VIM for everything else.
Javier Rivera over 13 years

I use Gedit to code quite complex projects right now. It's simple at the beginning, but it has a lot of plugins that let you add functionality. As an example I have a left panel with a project browser, a Find in Files utility and I python syntax analyzer. On the right panel I have a class browser and the documents view. In the text area I have 3 word completion system (including snippets) and a bunch of helpers (like comment/uncomment blocks). Well, you get the idea. It can grow to be a quite complex editor.
Javier Rivera over 13 years

BTW: I noticed that this post is a "comunnity wiki". Should I just edit the original answer instead of commenting it?.
invert over 13 years

+1 for vimperator, or vimium for chrome :)
Bala Clark over 13 years

how can you call vim "perfect in every way" if you are more "powerful and effective" in gedit?
Bala Clark over 13 years

I'm another gedit fan. It is light weight, has a lot of useful extensions and is also cross platform now and available for Mac & Windows.
Bala Clark over 13 years

@Javier what do you use for your class browser? I'm yet to find an plugin that is simple to install.
Andrea Bertani over 13 years

My own personal weaknesses do not in any way diminish the perfection of Vim.
Andrea Bertani over 13 years

Is a fine wine any less fine if tasted by someone who prefers the sweetness of grape soda?
Andrea Bertani over 13 years

Is 2001: A Space Odyssey any less an artistic masterpiece if watched by someone who prefers the fast pacing of Transformers?
Javier Rivera over 13 years

@Bala: Class Browser 0.3, you can find it as gedit-class-browser on the repositories.
frabjous over 13 years

If by theme you mean colorscheme, I suggest beginners pick two: one for normal mode and one for insert mode, making it easy to tell which one you're in. This requires adding, e.g., autocmd InsertEnter * colorscheme <scheme-name> and autocomand InsertLeave * colorscheme <scheme-name> to your .vimrc.
apoorv020 about 13 years

By adding plugins from the repo, and enablung them, gedit really becomes a very powerful editor.
apoorv020 about 13 years

You can also try the pentadactyl plugin, which was forked off from vimperator.
Gaurav Bindal about 13 years

+1, however, "Emacs and Vim are for programmers" ?? I use emacs all the time for writing LaTeX documents.
Jeromy Anglim almost 13 years

There is an important difference between "easy to use" and "easy to learn". In general, powerful editors like Vim and Emacs are easier to use than a simpler editor, once you have learnt how to use them. Thus, it's a matter of return on investment. Are you going to do a sufficient amount of text editing to justify investing time in learning a more powerful editor?
Paul Hänsch over 11 years

You Sir/Madam, made my day!
Anthony over 11 years

Please consider describing how and where you find these customizations. Include instructions on how to install. Also helpful would be general instructions on how to use nano. Consider the OP is not familiar with this software and that other readers might not be either.
Admin over 10 years

Another advantage of vim is that it is portable.
faizal over 9 years

@DLH i have not found a more profound set of statements made in the realm of software tools. I think you just triggered an epiphany.
Mike Williamson about 9 years

@steabert Sure, Emacs & Vim are useful for other cases such as LaTex. But, andol's sentiment is dead on: the power of vim and emacs comes from using them over & over in use cases where "regex search and replace" or personalized functions / macros are helpful. I don't see a book editor, for instance, "search and replacing" all occurrences of "gigantic" with "titanic".
thenaglecode about 9 years

If you write LaTeX to generate documents you are essentially still a programmer, Just not in the commonly perceived way.
RuntimeException almost 8 years

Most programmers use an IDE. vi or emacs or nano would generally be used to open remote files in a terminal window. Saving a file in GEdit - Ctrl + S. Saving a file in vi - Esc, Colon, w, enter. Now which is faster? And I am a touch typist with 60wpm.
Gopal Venu over 7 years

micro-editor.github.io could be a better replacement for user-friendly. If only it was packaged for Ubuntu..
jvriesem about 4 years

@steabert: Scripting is a form of programming, and LaTeX is a form of scripting. Both use a precise syntax and have similar constructs and concepts. I'd say LaTeX users are doing a kind of programming. ^_^
ASWIN VENU almost 3 years

@steabert Preparing Latex documents is programming. You're telling the latex software to what to do using all the latex code, like in HTML or CSS
Rγσ ξηg Lιαη Ημ almost 3 years

@anatolytechtonik very useful, but how to check the installed version? ~$ micro --version and shows Version: 0.0.0-unknown github.com/zyedidia/micro/releases/tag/v2.0.8
Gopal Venu almost 3 years

@RYOENGLianHu it is already packaged for Ubuntu and reports correct version. You install it with apt install micro.