Learning 'vi'

[cruller]

For X I would suggest Nedit.  It's small fast and has some cool
programming & Text editing features.

http://www-pat.fnal.gov/nirvana/nedit.html

Here it is from there website:

NEdit is a GUI style plain-text editor for X/Motif systems. It is very
easy to use, especially for those familiar with the Macintosh or MS
Windows style of
interface. Don't let the lack of pizzazz of this web-site, or the
simplicity of NEdit's interface fool you. NEdit is now one of the most
popular editors in the Unix
community, and one of the most powerful. It has every significant feature
required by professional programmers and other intensive users of
plain-text editing,
carefully optimized and organized around the principles and conventions
of modern graphical user interfaces. NEdit is also the most
mouse-interactive of all Unix
text editors. Try it and see what you're missing.

Features

       Efficient, proven command set
              Very complete functionality. NEdit is the primary editor
for thousands of Unix and VMS programmers
              Thorough consistency with Motif, MS Windows, and Macintosh
conventions
              Designed for intensive use: keystroke efficiency, fast
response time, streamlined interaction
              Unlimited undo
       100% GUI from the ground up
              True multi-window, fully graphical design
              Mouse-based editing
              Secondary/quick action selections
              Fully integrated rectangular selection
              Interactive WYSIWYG dragable selections
              Maximum compatibility with X, Motif, and inter-client
protocols, for interaction with the widest possible range of X programs
and systems.
       Easy to learn
              Just point and type
              Capabilities are clearly organized and presented in
top-level menus
              Comprehensive on-line help
              No special knowledge of X Windows required, all important
options are GUI-settable within the program
       Features for programmers
              State of the art syntax highlighting with built-in patterns
for C, C++, Java, Ada, FORTRAN, Pascal, Yacc, Perl, Python, Tcl, Csh,
Awk,
              HTML, LaTeX, VHDL, Verilog, and more.
              Auto-indent, programmable language-sensitive smart-indent
              Block indentation adjustment
              Parenthesis flashing and matching
              Find lines directly from compiler error output
              Tab emulation
              Unix ctags support
              Client/Server mode for integration with software
development tools
       Programmable
              Learn / Replay
              Easy to use C-like macro language, safe and fully
interruptable
              Includes a library of over 150 built-in editing functions
       Easy installation
              Self contained single executable file
              Pre-built, tested executables available for Silicon
Graphics, Sun (Solaris & SunOS), HP, Digital Unix, Ultrix, IBM AIX,
Linux, and VMS
              systems

NEdit is freely-distributable software, available in both source and
executable forms by anonymous ftp to ftp.fnal.gov. Sources are also
available from ftp.x.org
in the /contrib directory. For further information, see the plain-text
NEdit documentation, view a picture of NEdit, or better yet, try it out.
Executables are
available for most popular systems, so you could have fetched it and run
it in the time it took to read this. For more information on our software
distribution
policies and other free software from Fermilab, see the FermiTools Home
Page . There is also an NEdit mailing list. If you have a question about
NEdit, you may
find the answer in the Official NEdit FAQ.

HTML versions of the documentation are now available, contributed by
Harry B. Dellicker and Martin Schmidt, for NEdit versions 4.0.3, 5.0.1,
5.0.1 (with
frames). You can also get the html files in a tar archive from from the
NEdit contrib directory.

Has someone already written a macro to do that? Marc Broster is starting
an indexed, web-based, collection of NEdit macros.

This web page and all the NEdit software is also available in Australia
at a mirror site maintained by David Robley.

Where to Get NEdit

       Pre-built executables
       Source code
       Packages and pre-built executables for NetBSD (linked with
Lesstif)
       Contributed software
              Macros
              Syntax-highlighting patterns
              Smart-indent macros
              Max Volken's souped up NEdit (incl. Windows/NT version)
       FAQ
       ReleaseNotes

Fermilab's ftp site has a minor restriction that downloading sites must
have a DNS entry, which all sites are supposed to have, but because of
propagation delays
and configuration problems, a few users may not be able to get in. If you
have trouble downloading, please try the Australian mirror site. The
mirror site also uses
http protocols rather than ftp, so it will also help if your browser has
trouble with ftp, or you're just more comfortable with the http.

Send questions or comments to nedit_support at fnal.gov.

Randy Rathbun wrote:

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>
> Awesome! Thank you, Ed!
>
> I am a relative LINUX newbie and have never been able to figure out
> how in the heck vi works... even when I was at UMKC using the VAX I
> ended up in vi sometimes and never could get it to do anything, so I
> ended up using joe (and I still do... guess those WordStar commands
> just stuck with me).
>

[snip-o-rama]