Hi all,

Am I getting weird that I actually like using vim these days?

-- digi <8D~

... I pulled a muscle digging for gold. Just a miner injury.
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digimaus wrote to All <=-

Hi all,

Am I getting weird that I actually like using vim these days?

Yes.

Please take 2 aspirin and fire up nano.

You should feel better almost immediately. ;-)



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Hello Gamgee (& Sean)!

On 22 Jan 2026, Gamgee said the following...

Please take 2 aspirin and fire up nano.
You should feel better almost immediately. ;-)

+1 for nano! :-D

Looks pretty nice (even has color!) these days -- kind of like vim, but easier. :-D

Best regards
Zip

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Gamgee wrote to digimaus <=-

You should feel better almost immediately. ;-)

I've found that once you get to its modal mode setup, it's not bad. I love
how nice its syntax coloring is as well as how you can easily write macros.

nano and joe are also favorites. MBSE uses joe as its external message editor (in a modified form).

-- digi <8D~

... I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.
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Zip wrote to Gamgee <=-

Looks pretty nice (even has color!) these days -- kind of like vim, but easier. :-D

Oddly, I find vim easier now and I find that kinda weird...

-- digi <8D~

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digimaus wrote to Gamgee <=-

You should feel better almost immediately. ;-)

I've found that once you get to its modal mode setup, it's not bad. I love how nice its syntax coloring is as well as how you can easily
write macros.

Yes, I actually do use vim for a few things. One of them is some
display files in Synchronet use "Ctrl-A" codes for colors, and vim is
the only CLI editor that I know of that can insert the proper secret
code to make that work correctly (you use Ctrl-V and then Ctrl-A, and
then the color letter).

FWIW, nano does a nice job of syntax highlighting these days, too.

nano and joe are also favorites. MBSE uses joe as its external message editor (in a modified form).

Cool. I know some folks prefer joe, but it was never one of my
favorites.



... Carrots may be good for your eyes but booze will double your vision.
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On 21 Jan 26 21:01:22, Digimaus said the following to All:

Am I getting weird that I actually like using vim these days?

Sean peels off the mask, reveals he likes Edlin?

Nick

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Atreyu wrote to Digimaus:

Sean peels off the mask, reveals he likes Edlin?

I'm not that masochistic (sp). LOL

-- digi <8D~



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Atreyu wrote to Digimaus:

Sean peels off the mask, reveals he likes Edlin?

I'm not that masochistic (sp). LOL

Hah! I used that in HS with FORTRAN! That was back in 1987 I think... I don't remember it now. Now I use nano. It's the simplest.

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,wss) (Ports 22,23,110,21,119,999)


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FWIW, nano does a nice job of syntax highlighting these days, too.

Yes, it is my go-to for editing scripts.

Mike
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Gamgee wrote to digimaus <=-

FWIW, nano does a nice job of syntax highlighting these days, too.

It dooesn't support Pascal directly and the file that I found for syntax coloring supports Delphi, not Turbo Pascal.

Cool. I know some folks prefer joe, but it was never one of my
favorites.

joe has great support for macros (but I like vim's macro support better) and it
has Wordstar-like keycombos.

I'm afraid if I start using vim more, I'll become a neckbeard. LOL

-- Sean

... Anything can be made to work if you fiddle with it long enough.
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digimaus wrote to Gamgee <=-

FWIW, nano does a nice job of syntax highlighting these days, too.

It dooesn't support Pascal directly and the file that I found for
syntax coloring supports Delphi, not Turbo Pascal.

I found this file: https://github.com/sith-ikjetil/pascal.nanorc

Put it in /usr/share/nano (there are likely other .nanorc files there already).

Then, create/edit .nanorc in your home directory, and put this line in
it:

include /usr/share/nano/*.nanorc

After that, I found that syntax highlighting worked very nicely on some
*OLD* Turbo Pascal source files of mine from the early 90's... :-)

Here's the catch: That syntax file expects the extension of the file
you're editing to be ".pas". in LOWERCASE. It doesn't work if the file extension is in CAPS. If you look at the first line of the .nanorc file
you can see that specified. I didn't bother, but that could likely be
edited to include ".PAS" if desired, as old TP versions (or maybe it was
just DOS) seemed to save filenames in CAPS.

Anyway, hope that helps.



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Hello digimaus!

22 Jan 26 16:37, you wrote to Gamgee:

Gamgee wrote to digimaus <=-

You should feel better almost immediately. ;-)

True.

I've found that once you get to its modal mode setup, it's not bad. I love how nice its syntax coloring is as well as how you can easily
write macros.

Every time I tried to use vi or vim, I could never figure out how to save what I had written. Sometimes I would just get lucky and it saved the file. Most often, I just did a copy and then paste in in Nano. I even use Nano as my external editor of choice whenever I actually log into the BBS and read messages. I haven't used the Joe editor that much either.

nano and joe are also favorites. MBSE uses joe as its external
message editor (in a modified form).

Years ago when I ran a DOS and/or OS/2 BBS, I often used Q-edit. Especially with the Bluewave offline reader (registered) and later with a QWK reader.

... I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on
me.

Good one...

73 de Ray
Visalia, CA DM06ii
W6RAY/WRKZ506

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Re: Re: Weird
By: Gamgee to digimaus on Sat Jan 24 2026 10:23 am

digimaus wrote to Gamgee <=-

FWIW, nano does a nice job of syntax highlighting these days, too.

It dooesn't support Pascal directly and the file that I found for syntax coloring supports Delphi, not Turbo Pascal.

I found this file: https://github.com/sith-ikjetil/pascal.nanorc

Put it in /usr/share/nano (there are likely other .nanorc files there already).

Then, create/edit .nanorc in your home directory, and put this line in
it:

include /usr/share/nano/*.nanorc

After that, I found that syntax highlighting worked very nicely on some *OLD* Turbo Pascal source files of mine from the early 90's... :-)

Here's the catch: That syntax file expects the extension of the file
you're editing to be ".pas". in LOWERCASE. It doesn't work if the file extension is in CAPS. If you look at the first line of the .nanorc file
you can see that specified. I didn't bother, but that could likely be edited to include ".PAS" if desired, as old TP versions (or maybe it was just DOS) seemed to save filenames in CAPS.

Anyway, hope that helps.

Sean,

Just wondering if you saw this, and/or had any luck with it.

Dan
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Gamgee wrote to digimaus <=-

Just wondering if you saw this, and/or had any luck with it.

I did see it but have busy. I have filed that info away for now, thank you!

-- digi <8D~

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Hello Gamgee!

22 Jan 26 16:22, you wrote to digimaus:

nano and joe are also favorites. MBSE uses joe as its external
message editor (in a modified form).

Cool. I know some folks prefer joe, but it was never one of my
favorites.

joe has the option to not write to x number of lines at the top of the screen, which allows MBSE to display the message header for the message you're writing with the editor below it.

I installed joe when I first switched to MBSE, and usually use it for most things. I do have nano installed as well, and usually manage to muddle through when editing system files that require using vi(m).

Andrew

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Andrew Leary wrote to Gamgee <=-

22 Jan 26 16:22, you wrote to digimaus:

nano and joe are also favorites. MBSE uses joe as its external
message editor (in a modified form).

Cool. I know some folks prefer joe, but it was never one of my
favorites.

joe has the option to not write to x number of lines at the top of the screen, which allows MBSE to display the message header for the message you're writing with the editor below it.

I can see that being useful.

I installed joe when I first switched to MBSE, and usually use it for
most things. I do have nano installed as well, and usually manage to muddle through when editing system files that require using vi(m).

Just installed joe to (re)-check it out, and it's better than I
remembered. I had forgotten that it uses "Wordstar" command keys, which once-upon-a-few-decades-ago I used to know well. :-)

Thanks for the info, and the trip down memory lane. Pretty sure I'm
gonna stick with nano for most general-purpose editing, but nice to have choices.



... Gone crazy, be back later, please leave message.
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Andrew Leary wrote to Gamgee <=-

I installed joe when I first switched to MBSE, and usually use it for
most things. I do have nano installed as well, and usually manage to muddle through when editing system files that require using vi(m).

joe is quick one you learn its key combos and it can handle macros. vim is
not too bad but I have created macros for it so I can very quickly write mail. I still use Nano now and again and even ee (FreeBSD's editor ported to
Linux).

The main reason I use vim is that it is available on all the operating systems I deal with (DOS, OS/2, *NIX) so I don't have to remember different syntax to do the same thing across platforms.

That is the biggest draw to vim for me.

-- Sean

... If your mind goes blank, remember to turn off the sound.
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