Linux Text Editor BS

In the beginning, there was VI (1976). And it was good, because it was small, and quick to load, and worked in a text based terminal with full functionality.

Then Came the GUI. And people liked playing with a mouse. VI was still used, but EMACS appeared with the intention to smite VI. EMACS required the GUI so when the GUI broke down, VI found it's niche.

Today, VI is under powered (don't write me to contest this point dammit) and is not as handy for quick edits when there is no GUI as nano. EMACS has become so bloated that it is not easy to use. EMACS tried to become a quick and easy way for programmers to wrap a GUI interface around their scripts. It is neither small nor easy in my opinion.

Gedit came about with Gnome interface as an alternative. It lacks some functionality, but that's OK. The idea is to keep it a simple default text editor that novices can master to get things done quickly. Kwrite is pretty much the same idea for KDE interface. I'm sure the other interfaces have something similar. I'm sure they are also there as examples for programmers to learn the Gnome and KDE interface languages.

Nedit is a nice balance between form and function. It's interface is no masterpiece, but it is highly configurable, yet not difficult to use. It acts like it was written by a programmer who knew what they wanted and didn't want.  It has one feature that I require. It does block select and allows you to use keystrokes to move the text back and forth. This is mandatory during programming because it is inevitable that some fuck-tard comes along and mess up the indention. The block select comes in handy to prevent people being burned at the stake to the chant "Four space tabs! Four space tabs!".

I do not feel loyalty to Nedit. I just use it until something better comes along. That said, it surprised me how upset I became when it didn't work correctly on my home machine. When I upgraded to Fedora 7, I noticed the keystrokes (control this and alt that) didn't work reliably. You couldn't get to the menus while editing text. That pissed me off.

Gedit had to take up the slack. As mentioned above, it has limitations and even though those limitations didn't really enter in to it at the house, it still pissed me off. Checking spelling works fine in Gedit, but has a whole new set of keystrokes to memorize. I already have nineteen sets of spell checker keystrokes memorized.

I tried to build the code for Nedit and it was a nightmare. I tried updating things through YUM. I tried a bunch of crap.  I didn't quite give up. This is how some folks fixed the exact same problem at work.

Then, Nedit just started working again. This tells me that something in the dependency tree for the install is not quite set properly. The library Nedit uses to capture magic keystrokes is out of whack with reality. So the solution to the problem is to go look for all the real dependencies for Nedit and make sure they are properly installed by hand. Screw that. That's what YUM is for for God's sake. Or, just keep installing stuff and eventually the right dependency will fall in to place.

That is a crappy solution. It worked for me.

This is an example of why open source software works for lazy people. If something doesn't work, some industrious nerd with no girlfriend will eventually get around to fixing it.

Now, if only that theory worked for Cinelerra.