mcedit

**cga** · 05-18-2002, 12:11 AM

OK, no, not really, but certainly the editor of the non-propeller heads.

I like this editor. *It is simple to use, yet has very nice features found in the Big Editors. *No, it is not Emacs (thank god) nor Vim (thank god). *It is the kind of editor that a non-hardcore like me can use to edit config files, write simple shell scripts, hack some basic Perl and html and just plain have fun using.

It does what I want, does it in console, looks nice and is E-A-S-Y to use.

Combined with Midnight Commader (one of my favorite apps) it is unbeatable.

I do not like Vi (or Vim). *Sorry. *I just don't. *I wanted too- man I wanted too, and I tried hard. *I wanted to be cool. *But I'm just not that cool. *Same with Emacs. *Well, except I could actually use Vim. * *

<Yoda>
Tried a bunch of editor I did, yes.
</yoda>

But folks, I'm not a hacker, or a programmer. *I'm a dumbass end user.

All I need to do is edit some config files, write some simple scripts, tweak the html that I make with Mozilla Composer, and play with Perl (so yes, I am a programmer wannabe).

So, the long and the short, for anyone asking, wondering, questing for a basic text editor that you can use without reading man pages or books or running a tutorial, there is mcedit. *It is part of the Midnight Commander, a tool you should learn to make life better. *Don't fall prey to the Vi vs Emacs war. *Don't worry if you are not cool enough. *Just type mcedit at the CLI and look at the hint bar at the bottom. *Press F9 for some nice pull-down menus.

Edit your files. *Don't worry.

Make text, not war. *

CGA knows that he will incur the wrath of both the Vi and Emacs crowd. *He further knows that the mention of using Mozilla Composer to generate html will incur the wrath of many purists.

CGA also does not care. *Flame me if you will, I am fire-proof. *And, I am not using Windows.

**stryder144** · 05-18-2002, 12:22 AM

When I say the title, I just knew that it had to be you, cga! ;D

Though I like Vi (at least as much as one can like it without really loving it), I wasn't going to say anything. I am starting to get fascinated with Midnight Commander and it's assorted pieces.

I was going to flame you about your choice of web page development environment, though...but since you don't care, I think I'll just put my flamethrower away for now!

I thought that you like nedit? What's up with that? You're not going to dump Mandrake for something else and really confuse me, are you?

**cga** · 05-18-2002, 01:04 PM

When I say the title, I just knew that it had to be you, cga! * ;D

Though I like Vi (at least as much as one can like it without really loving it), I wasn't going to say anything. *I am starting to get fascinated with Midnight Commander and it's assorted pieces.

I was going to flame you about your choice of web page development environment, though...but since you don't care, I think I'll just put my flamethrower away for now!

I thought that you like nedit? *What's up with that? *You're not going to dump Mandrake for something else and really confuse me, are you? *

Midnight Commander is sweet and very powerful indeed.

Composer, hehe, well, I really don't use it much. *I tend to write html with a text editor becuase it is easy. *I've plyed with Composer and tested it to see if it could be used to make w3c valid pages, and it does. *I wanted to get familiar enough with to be able to recommend it to newbies. *I think I feel compfortable to do that now; however, if you have seen my website and understand the design philosophy, then you can see that any text editor (like mcedit *;D) is just fine. *

I do like NEdit still. *It is a very nice editor with great features. *The only real problem I have with it is that it has to run in X. *I really prefer console mode editors over X editors. *Also I find the key bindings in mcedit to be more effective and easier to use than NEdit.

The main thing is that I live in MC anymore. *Desktop One is a maximized RXvt with MC running in it, and I work from the MC CLI. *The nice integration of mcedit makes it perfect for me.

As to changing from Mandrake, well, the thought does cross my mind from time-to-time, though if I do it would be to Slack, Debian, *BSD or LFS. *But I am a bit lazy, and the 'Drake has yet to let me down.

**ursidae** · 05-18-2002, 01:43 PM

As to changing from Mandrake, well, the thought does cross my mind from time-to-time, though if I do it would be to Slack, Debian, *BSD or LFS. *But I am a bit lazy, and the 'Drake has yet to let me down.

You might want to add Gentoo to that list.

**stryder144** · 05-18-2002, 01:51 PM

Midnight Commander is sweet and very powerful indeed.

Composer, hehe, well, I really don't use it much. *I tend to write html with a text editor becuase it is easy. *I've plyed with Composer and tested it to see if it could be used to make w3c valid pages, and it does. *I wanted to get familiar enough with to be able to recommend it to newbies. *I think I feel compfortable to do that now; however, if you have seen my website and understand the design philosophy, then you can see that any text editor (like mcedit *;D) is just fine. *

I do like NEdit still. *It is a very nice editor with great features. *The only real problem I have with it is that it has to run in X. *I really prefer console mode editors over X editors. *Also I find the key bindings in mcedit to be more effective and easier to use than NEdit.

The main thing is that I live in MC anymore. *Desktop One is a maximized RXvt with MC running in it, and I work from the MC CLI. *The nice integration of mcedit makes it perfect for me.

As to changing from Mandrake, well, the thought does cross my mind from time-to-time, though if I do it would be to Slack, Debian, *BSD or LFS. *But I am a bit lazy, and the 'Drake has yet to let me down.

You know, it's kinda funny, now that I think about it. I used to prefer great automation when deciding on which distro to use. That is why I started out with Caldera, then moved to Mandrake. After awhile, I wanted to have control over as much of the install process as possible, so I moved to Slack. I have not been disappointed.

When I first started out, I used KDE exclusively. Then I started using Gnome. No matter which DE I used, I booted straight into X, never really spending much time at the command line. Well, when I moved to Slack, I started using the command line much more often. I got to a point where I preferred it to X quite often. Don't get me wrong, I like eye-candy. I like using a graphical web browser. I like looking at pictures. I like playing games that use graphics. It's just more fun that way. But, I have found myself going for lightweight window managers, such as xfce. I like to make sure that every possible feature is included, just to have compatibility (since most programs are written for KDE or Gnome). But, I still prefer simplicity.

As for editors, I started out using notepad-style editors. Then I started looking at Office-style editors. Then I moved over to Vim. I haven't been entirely happy with Vim, since it is a bit difficult to remember it's many commands (which you need to remember if you want to harness it's many powerful features). So, I am thinking about trying mcedit for my basic config file manipulation needs. It seems, from you posts, that it is easy to use and powerful, too. Plus, MC itself seems to closely match my philosophy of simplicity, ease of use, and great power. I will have to sit down and really dig deep into it's many features.

You know what, cga? You have had a pretty big influence on me, lately. You have shown me that I don't have to "follow the flock" just to get what I want. You have shown me that simplicity and power can co-exist rather nicely. I just need to look around at the various alternatives that are out there. I just need to look for the "diamonds in the rough". Thanks, man.

**cga** · 05-18-2002, 02:40 PM

As for editors, I started out using notepad-style editors. *Then I started looking at Office-style editors. *Then I moved over to Vim. *I haven't been entirely happy with Vim, since it is a bit difficult to remember it's many commands (which you need to remember if you want to harness it's many powerful features). *So, I am thinking about trying mcedit for my basic config file manipulation needs. *It seems, from you posts, that it is easy to use and powerful, too. Plus, MC itself seems to closely match my philosophy of simplicity, ease of use, and great power. *I will have to sit down and really dig deep into it's many features.
[/qoute]

You know what, cga? *You have had a pretty big influence on me, lately. *You have shown me that I don't have to "follow the flock" just to get what I want. *You have shown me that simplicity and power can co-exist rather nicely. *I just need to look around at the various alternatives that are out there. *I just need to look for the "diamonds in the rough". *Thanks, man.

I think that is why is don't care for Vim. *It is very powerful, but much of the power is in those cryptic keystrokes that I can never remember. *Plus, I really loath the modal interface.

When I first started using Linux, I used Pico as my editor because that's what the book I bought siad to use. *Soon I was in the middle of the whole Vi vs. Emacs thing, and like many newbies, I felt that I had to pick a side. *So I tried to learn Emacs first, and quickly found it to be a monster. *I turned to Vim and struggled with it, though often I just used Pico when no one was watching. *When I started using MC, I began using MC edit for much of the simple editing tasks. *But I kept looking for a real editor for big jobs which lead to the whole series of posts on editors over the last several months. *Now, at the end, I realize that I had what I wanted in front of me all along. *I think you'll like MC and mcedit. *

BTW, you can set Vim (or any other editor) to be the default in MC if you decide you don't like mcedit. *That's veristility. That's business with Linux.

Thanks for the kind words. *I guess that's the whole point of my crazy, rambling posts about trying this and that and so on. *Linux is an adventure, and I just like to share my explorartion and experiences and hope that it helps or inspires others. *Linux should be about having fun.