Vi

Vim is worth learning minimally because it is so common, but U am team nano because I have enough info in my brain and I don’t edit text files in the terminal enough to make it worth remembering how to properly use vim

I used Neovim for a couple of years and then switched to Emacs. I love it.

When I was new at linux, I used nano and vs code; mostly because I don’t want to learn the shortcut / keybind.

Started ricing with XFCE, tried to use keybind as much as possible and as minimalist as possible; that’s where I slowly dip my toes into WMs.

SwayWM was my first WM and I don’t think I’ll ever switch other than that, that’s also how I discovered vim; it was difficult at first but I got used to it very fast.

I use the vi family of text editors in a CLI environment because it is part of the POSIX standard.

Even if nano is the default, vi will be there too, and I can just use that. Plus, if you know some basic vi commands, then you can get by without nano, and you don’t need to know nano to use it for basic stuff as it shows you the key combos.

Emacs

Used to be vim back in the day, neovim with a few lsp plugins — hated the convoluted collection of config scripts — then into vis (modernized vim/sam hybrid) but now settled on helix. After a small adjust for some finger memory, I wouldn’t go back. A lot of quality of life features out of the box.

I just a modal editor that just works with some quality of life features as codebases I worked on grew in complexity.

Nano, because it’s the only one I can remember how to quit from without power cycling the computer.

I typically use nano for the quicker edits but enjoy using vim otherwise.

Vim, but I also find this battle completely stupid.

I use emacs

I use nano because I haven’t learned how to use anything else yet.

Emacs.

With all the vimmery going around nowadays though, I feel like I’m on the losing team. ;_;

At the risk of restarting the Editor wars (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor_war) from days of yore, I find it interesting that emacs wasn’t even in your list of contenders. I hear it mentioned less frequently these days, so perhaps it’s going by the wayside?

For the record, I’m a vi/vim user! I had the privilege of being taught to use it by an RFC-writing greybeard decades ago, and have used it without thinking ever since.

For those who find themselves on a machine with only vi/vim, or want to learn, here’s a quick primer when editing a file (usually done by typing “vi foo.txt” in a shell) –

:q! …Force quit vi (:q also works – gentler!)

:wq! …Save file and quit vi

i (then type characters) …insert text at current position

A (then type characters) …Insert at end of current line

G …go to first character of last line in the file

/foo …search for first occurrence of “foo” in the file (hit / again to find additional instances)

x …Delete character under cursor

:56 …Go to line 56

yy …Copy the line the cursor is currently on into the buffer

p … Paste the buffer

r (then type character) …Replace character under cursor

u …undo (hit multiple times to undo prior actions)

When done with a command like this, hit Esc to go back into normal mode.

Second nature after a bit of practice! I used to work with a guy who insisted on using ed. That was… odd.