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The "Linux questions (and other stuff)" thread

Do you use vim in its not-vi mode? (It's one of those days, I can't talk right. :()

It's actually also a very good text editor alternative if you're on Windows.
 
Mageia Linux uses a package manager called urpmi, which functions as a wrapper to the RPM package management system. It allows seamless installation of a given software package by automatically installing the other packages needed.

And I hate Vi. I can't never figure out how to save a modified file.
esc, :sq or whatever it is.
 
Vi gained popularity when we lived in a text world, arrow keys were scarce and mnemonics roamed the land.

I still use control-[ exclusively because I once had a keyboard without an escape key. Besides, Esc is too far away.

X is delete, xp is x-pose - transpose.

Vi reads and writes, so to save a file and then quit, it's wq.

The deal with the colon is, before vi, we had ed - the line editor - and ed is still there under vi.

To this day you have to escape: to ed to enter the common commands.

Emacs is considered elegant. Vi is considered primitive as are its users, although both survive because they get results.

^vi/emacs humor, very old.

Anyway - graphical interface. That's it. Saying gvim or vim -g launches a gui if installed.

I think for a gui, gvim is pretty good.
 
saptech said:
And I hate Vi. I can't never figure out how to save a modified file.
Click to expand...
There are several ways, including what EM mentioned, but I'm too lazy for that many keystrokes, so I always use one, x, to save and exit.

Let's say you're editing a file and you want to save it and quit:

[esc] - to exit from editing mode
: - to get to where you can enter a command
x - to write/save the file and exit
 
MoodyBlues said:
x - to write/save the file and exit
Click to expand...
Heresy.
MoodyBlues said:
Proud, primitive vi user here! :laugh:

Seriously, though, considering its power, it's kind of funny that it's considered primitive. And once you know its commands and functions, it's as natural as breathing.
Click to expand...

It's possible to use a tty buffer display model put together with ed and get something more primitive but I don't think it'll be easy. :rofl:
 
One of Kubuntu and/or KDE's zillion configuration options is QtCurve's "GTK button order." It lets you decide which order you want "OK" and "Cancel" buttons to appear:

tmp_AF_settings_4.jpeg


Pretty nifty. I like it. :)
 
MoodyBlues said:
We could substitute DOS's edlin for ed. :idea: When it comes to primitive, that would be a good start! :laugh:
Click to expand...

I know ed is standard in just about all *nix systems, since 1971 I believe. But would anyone actually still use it? - apart from absolute hard core types possibly.

To quote the Wiki...
Famous for its terseness, ed gives almost no visual feedback. For example, the message that ed will produce in case of error, or when it wants to make sure the user wishes to quit without saving, is "?". It does not report the current filename or line number, or even display the results of a change to the text, unless requested. This terseness was appropriate in the early versions of Unix, when consoles were teletypes, modems were slow, and memory was precious.

awesome stuff... :)
 
mikedt said:
I know ed is standard in just about all *nix systems, since 1971 I believe. But would anyone actually still use it? - apart from absolute hard core types possibly.
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My guess is that it's still there purely for historical integrity and, perhaps, backward compatibility. There may still be scripts hanging around that call it...although you have to wonder about a system that hasn't been touched in THAT long. :eek:

To quote the Wiki...
Famous for its terseness, ed gives almost no visual feedback. For example, the message that ed will produce in case of error, or when it wants to make sure the user wishes to quit without saving, is "?". It does not report the current filename or line number, or even display the results of a change to the text, unless requested. This terseness was appropriate in the early versions of Unix, when consoles were teletypes, modems were slow, and memory was precious.

awesome stuff... :)
Click to expand...
No kidding.
 
Ummm... ed... sed... vi.

Want to see a lot of people really angry, really fast, remove the scaffolding so scripts everywhere die and create a new maintenance point for vi. :p
 
I never got into using vi or vim, never mind ed...LOL. But there's a couple of console text editors I'm very familiar with, joe and jstar. Basically because they use Wordstar Ctrl sequences, which is something I'm quite familiar with and still know from my college days. :)
 
I hated vi and ed with a passion, but there were times when I had to use 'em; particularly when I was using Slackware.

Now, I use gedit; which suffices for much more than one would expect, and is a better replacement for Notepad and Wordpad which I use on the MS side of things.
 
I started to really get into vi/vim a few months back, ran through the vim-tutor a few times and was getting the hang of it... then I stopped using it and forgot half of it.

But, for a moment, I could do some kinda cool things easily. :)
 
9to5cynic said:
I started to really get into vi/vim a few months back, ran through the vim-tutor a few times and was getting the hang of it... then I stopped using it and forgot half of it.

But, for a moment, I could do some kinda cool things easily. :)
Click to expand...
That's the thing--it's really powerful. Oh, it definitely can seem daunting (and cryptic and any number of other things) and like the learning curve is ridiculous, but if you start with a few basics and get them down pat, and then add bit by bit to your repertoire, before you know it you're using vi like an old hand.
 
Dngrsone said:
I hated vi and ed with a passion, but there were time when I had to use 'em; particularly when I was using Slackware.
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Using Slackware was my intro to Vi also. It was one of the few distros that I tried at the time that didn't come with nano by default. That's where I left it also.

For gui editor I like gedit and kwrite. For lightweight one I like leafpad.
 
MoodyBlues said:
That's the thing--it's really powerful. Oh, it definitely can seem daunting (and cryptic and any number of other things) and like the learning curve is ridiculous, but if you start with a few basics and get them down pat, and then add bit by bit to your repertoire, before you know it you're using vi like an old hand.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I really want to get back into it. I think I actually posted the coolest thing I learned in this thread a few months ago... it was using a macro to increment a number or alpha character. But it was weird, I had a success rate of about 80% with it. :p

And I used to have a pretty nice .vimrc file... syntax highlighting, line numbers, proper spacing and tabs for python, tons of cool stuff. :D
 
Okay, I am running Mint 15 Cinnamon, with KDE-full installed over it. Using Plasma desktop.

On one of these desktops, I have a launcher which has been there for a couple months. I tried changing the icon for it, and I am not allowed to change the icon from the desktop, nor from Dolphin.

I edited the .desktop file to point to the correct icon (a valid .png file), and from nemo, the icon is correct.

But the desktop icon is still the original.

I have another icon problem where I have no icon at all showing, even though the .desktop file clearly points to a valid icon.

So, any idea where Plasma is hiding these settings?
 
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