Linux @lemmy.ml Alphane Moon @lemmy.ml 3 wk. ago

GNU Nano gains optional modern keybindings – OSnews

www.osnews.com GNU Nano gains optional modern keybindings – OSnews

I almost feel like this a somewhat pointless feature. It's almost easier to just learn the default ones as opposed to adding "-modernbindings" or creating an "enano" variant/copy.

50 comments

That's your opinion.

I like updating it to modern conventions. One day they become default and on another day you get rid of the old ones. The people of the future don't have to learn two sets of keybindings.
- It's definitely just my opinion. Honestly did not mean to imply otherwise.
  
  I would almost prefer them to just switch to the new keybindings by default in version 8.0.
  
  It's definitely just my opinion. Honestly did not mean to imply otherwise.
  
  For my opinion I usually create a comment below my post to seperate my opinion and the post itself.
  
  On-topic: I do believe it's useful to have this switch and there's nothing stopping distros to change their default. Completely replacing the default keybindings might be surprising to long time users, but I also believe it should be done at some point. For the meantime this switch can be simply added as an alias.
- While I am usually resistant to change, I remain ever vigilant to try not be that XKCD guy
After all that, no ^S to save 🥲
- ^S for unprompted save is in the default keybinds, not that I could say when it was added. (Pretty sure it wasn't a pico thing, but that leaves quite a bit of time unaccounted for.)
  
  Muscle memory for other editors kicked in when I was editing something and did a literal slow realisation and double-take when it worked.
  
  Now if only I could stop pressing ^W in Firefox to use nano's "whereis" to find something that'd be great.
  
  For those unaware, it closes the current tab. Or the whole browser. Ugh.
  
  :GASP: ^S does save! I have played myself for a fool all these years!!
  
  Now I just have to unlearn ^X, Y, enter. . . :thisisfine:
  
  Firefox desperately needs a way to customize keyboard shortcuts, especially to disable them. Shortkeys isn't really enough.
  
  FYI: ctrl + shift + t brings back closed tabs.
- True, I remember the first time I used nano, I was like "Ctrl + O to save, huh?"
  
  ^S works!! ...As revealed by our kind palindromic friend on the other sibling comment! Why they don't just list it on the statusbar we would never know!
"modern" is a very loaded term here
creating an “enano” variant/copy

What's wrong with that?

Providing optional alternative keybindings for people who know a set of bindings from other tools makes lot of sense. I always appreciate that some tools provide these. This shows that the devs think about newcomers who are used to other set of bindings. It's optional.

BTW the blog post you posted has only 4 sentences (excluding the quote). I often dislike articles that short, but on the other hand, at least its not blown up with crap. So there is that.
- My issue is that the only time I use vim or nano it's because I'm logged into some server where you're going to be stuck with the defaults anyway. I guess it's nice on your home machine, but customising a bunch of servers with your personal preferences isn't really something you can do in most work situations.
  
  Yes, that's why I still need to learn how vi and vim in their default config work (in fact I started like that, so I know already). I wanted to get into finding as solution to this problem. Years ago I read in Reddit someone setup a keyboard macro (outside of Vim) to execute bunch of commands to setup the environment in the live session, while in Vim. At least some of the configuration can be used like that.
  
  Otherwise, yeah this really sucks. That is not a unique problem to editors, but any software that you run with a customized local setup and with bare naked server version. If you often switch back and forth, it makes sense to just use one set of keybindings. That also is the point: For people using other tools, it makes sense to provide these alternative keybindings, so they don't need to relearn the nano specific setup.
  
  Edit: Too many Buts reduced.
- I’m pretty sure enano means dwarf in Spanish. Not that it’s an issue.
What does "modern" mean? Emacs-like? Vim-like? Some other bastard system?
- Read the Article. Modern like what most Graphical Editors Ship.
  
  So "some other bastard system" it is, then.
  
  That's a shame; a GNU project should be consistently GNU-like (i.e. adopt Emacs key bindings).
I got a temporary ban from, I suspect, the only mod in here to have personally blocked me. The mod log accuses me of breaking the rules 1 & 2. Based on the timing, it aligns with my comments in this post. They neither broke the community bulleted rules (about Linux, no misinformation), nor did they break rules of 1 & 2 of lemmy.ml. There was no bigotry, no racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia nor xenophobia. TThere were no individuals disrespected. I seek clarification of how my posts broke the rules, in DM's please. I am not seeking further ban, just clarification of how those rules cover the opinion that one editor is less than another, lacks necessary features when compared with editors more standard across POSIX compliant systems, and that relying upon its existence could lead to situations where one could be ill equipped for systems where it is not installed, due to it not being such a standard.

I post this as a comment, as I cannot seem to message the entire group of moderators for this community all together, especially where one appears to be unreachable to me... something I don't think mods of a community should do or even be capable of if they are to carry out their duties properly.

I ask the mods (preferably the mod who took the action, since no mod username is in the modlog... that's a separate issue) to DM me and delete this or message me here, which ever is preferred. Can't go navigating safely in here if the alleged offense wasn't clearly communicated and explained how it violated said rules. I'm not even sure which comment, specifically, was at issue. Right now it feels like something I said was just deeply unpopular with one or more mods, and summarily punished and random rules tossed out.

I'll delete this in a few days if no mods respond. But clarification without further punishment would be appreciated.

Thank you.
creating an "enano" variant/copy

Do you also use vim with vi compatibility enabled?

Wait, you probably use emacs...
Wait, people are still using nano?
- People who only use the terminal to edit a few config files are usually fine with nano. Even more so with these new keybindings.
  
  For more involved edits an editor like VSCode is usually more useful anyway.
  
  For me vim works well, but I've already taken the time to learn its basic usage.
- I've never used anything else since I met Linux in 2018
- Nano rock!!!, it get the jobs done and doesn't make everything difficult for no reason
- Yes
- Ships with Gentoo by default, since you actually need a nongraphical editor there and nano is easier to learn than vi or emacs.
- I started with vi, and I still prefer to use nano.
- I'm not sure I'd call them people.
- I use both nano and vim, so eh
- Well yeah, for computers in kindergarten schools.

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