Terminal Text Editors

Terminal Text Editors

VIM (Vi IMproved)

One of the most popular terminal text editors, vim displays and edits files in the terminal buffer. Usually installed by default on distros (if not vim, then at least vi), this editor enjoys widespread use in the development community. With a wide array of keyboard commands, vim can be intimidating!

vim has two modes of operation - console level, and text editing level. In text-editing, one can either choose insert or replace modes. ESC will bring you from text-editing to console. In the console, the following commands are available:

• :q - Quits the current file, without saving
• :w - Saves the current file
• :x - Saves and quits the current file
• /search_phrase - searches for text in file, hit n for next and N for previous