Early Thoughts on Nano
Added 2023-05-22 04:58:01 +0000 UTCI am writing this in nano. I challenged myself earlier this
week to use Nano for a whole month, and I've stuck with it for
almost a week.
Almost.
I'm not quitting, but I've come so close so many times.
Actually, I come close every single time I open the damn
editor. Yes, it's that bad.
No, I guess it's not that bad, but it's that bad for someone
who has been using Vim for years. Which is me.
Most of my thoughts on Nano I'm going to save for the video I
make about it at the end of the month, no sense in having a ton
of spoilers. But I do want to talk about one thing. The biggest
feature I miss on Nano.
Visual Mode.
I would have told you, as a Vim user, that visual mode is the
the least used mode for me. I would have been wrong. Okay, so
maybe Inert Mode is still the winner, but still, I apparently
use Visual Mode a lot more than I thought because I can't tell
you how many times a day I press V or Ctrl+V to do something
and find that IT'S NOT EFFIN THERE IN NANO!
For F##$'s Sake.
It drives me bonkers.
I think there has to be a replacement for Visual Mode in Nano,
but I have not had the gumption to look it up because my
internal grumpy asshole in my head refuses to do it. I'm going
to do it now, but it's soooo frustrating.
Yes there have been the habit-caused mistypes hjkl and :wq, and
no, those haven't stopped in a week, but the Visual Mode thing
is by far the most frustrating because Visual Mode is so damn
useful and that it's not there, just makes Nano seem...bad.
If someone were to ask me what my thoughts on Nano are right
now, I'd say I hate it. I hate it. It's not useful, the default
keybindings are bad, and the flow of the thing is just all wrong.
I hope that I can get some positivity for Nano before I get to
the end of the month, but I doubt it.
I miss Vim.
Matt
PS, and yes, I copied this from Nano. That's why the formatting is the way it is. I really, really miss Vim.
