Re: [tlug] Tex Editor Recommendations?

["Curt J. Sampson" <cjs@example.com>]

On 2024-09-11 11:53 +0900 (Wed), Lyle H Saxon wrote:

> ...but it doesn't seem to have a particularly useful feature I like in
> SciTE - the cursor going to the end of the line (the point before a hard
> return, not the displayed part of a wrapped line) when pressing [End].

FWIW, this is `g$` in Vim (as opposed to `$`, which goes to the end of the
logical line).

On 2024-09-11 15:17 +0900 (Wed), Bernie Innocenti wrote:

> Long time UNIX / Linux users like myself tend to use fully-extensible and
> scriptable console editors: Vim, Neovim, Emacs... These power tools have a
> steep learning curve and require a few weeks of commitment before they start
> paying off in terms of automation.

This is all actually a little more subtle than described above. For
example, Vim has an [easy mode] (started with `evim` or `vim -y`) that
turns it into more of a "Notepad"-type editor: it starts the GUI version,
starts you in insert mode (where, as with regular Vim, you can still move
around with the arrow keys without having to switch to command mode),
Ctrl-S will save, Ctrl-Q will quit (popping up a "Save changes?
Yes/No/Cancel" dialogue box) so on.

This is certainly not going to get you far (or posssibly anywhere at all)
in learning how to use the power of Vim, but it at least does mean that
you're using an editor that is probably going to handle large files and
the like better than nano.

[easy mode]: https://vonheikemen.github.io/devlog/tools/vim-easy-mode/

> In case you wanted a full-blown IDE, nowadays many full-time engineers
> are switching to Microsoft's excellent VS Code (not to be confused with
> the awful Microsoft Visual Studio). Works great on Linux, as well as
> Windows and macOS. Has a rich plugin ecosystem for any programming
> language and workflow. VScode takes considerably less effort to learn and
> customize relative to Neovim.

I've been working with a lot of developers using VSCode over the past few
years, and it does seem to be reasonably powerful, and much more oriented
towards making finding and using plugins easier than Emacs (which in turn
I think is probably easier than Vim).

I do note that if you're hoping to get efficient in the long-term at moving
around and changing things, VSCode users do not seem to pick up that (and I
don't know if VSCode even supports it). I have yet to see any VSCode users
doing things like renaming a parameter by replacing to the next comma
(`ct,`), cutting an entire parenthisised expression (`d%` in Vim), cutting
three paragraphs (`d3}` in Vim), cutting back to a word starting the
section (`d?myfunc`), or even using search to move around on a page rather
than just hammering on arrow keys.

> Ok. And now... flame on!!! ;-)

Can't really start that until we get an Emacs guy in here. :-)

On 2024-09-11 09:38 +0100 (Wed), Darren Cook wrote:

> > Any recommendations for text editors?  I mainly just need it for text dumps
>
> How big will they get?

FWIW, I just did a quick check of Vim, creating a file with 68,000 lines
ranging in length from a few hundred to about 50,000 characters (about 130
MB total). Response is no longer instant, but it's acceptable. This is on a
reasonably modern midrange Ryzen 7 and this seemed to use about 300 MB of
memory.

cjs
-- 
Curt J. Sampson      <cjs@example.com>      +81 90 7737 2974

To iterate is human, to recurse divine.
    - L Peter Deutsch