Several file editors are available to edit text-based source files and configuration files. The primary method of editing files is through the usage of console-based editors. The ones that have been proven to be most useful are: vim, emacs, pico, and nano. Of these, vim and emacs seem to be the most full-featured and configurable.
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Contents
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vim
vim is a full-featured editor with many customizations. There is a guide to getting started at:
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There are several tutorials and references on vim on the web such as:
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Once in the editor, start the tutorial by entering the the: tutor. One can then follow the on-screen instructions.
vim
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Configuration
A An example base configuration file is as shown. It would be acceptable to save this file as $HOME/.vimrc
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syntax on
set tabstop=4
set softtabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
filetype on
filetype plugin indent on
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emacs
emacs is a full-featured editor comparable with vim, but without insert and editor/command modes. Instead, commands are identified by special characters (combinations of the Control and/or Meta keys with regular characters), and regular text is treated as text being added to the document. It also has additional features designed for editing source code , and can be customized and used as an IDE for coding with integrated compiling and debugging. There are several tutorials online as well. The University of Chicago has done a great job on explaining what emacs is and how to use it:
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That web site would be a great start to utilizing emacs.
Other
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Editors
There are several other editors such as pico, nano, and gedit. The editors editors' pico and nano are minimalist console editors whereas gedit is a graphical-based text editor. To utilize gedit, you must start the SSH connection with X forwarding enabled.
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