Beginners' Guide to GNUnano
Franziska Zieger
What’s nano?
Nano simple is a command line text editor.
You can understand it as a canvas ready for your input in form of aiding languages like for example markdown, html or python, just to name the ones we touch upon in this course.
Besides basic text editing, nano offers features like undo/redo, automated syntax coloring (which helps to distinguish syntax structure quickly & easily), interactive search-and-replace, auto-indentation, line numbers, word completion, file locking, backup files, and internationalization support.
story time:
nano’s developers wanted it to be an emulation of Pico, which is a similar (duh) text editor.
Side note, Sebastian scripted his file on his website for our first session in Pico
Wanna fact check me?
Just download the markdown script from its download section, open the script with nano in your terminal and see by yourself 😉
also
GNU is a collection of free software which can be used as an operating system or be combined with other operating systems and is the foundation of Linux OSs. The name is a recursive acronym standing for „GNU’s Not Unix“. The reason behind that is, that this OS family is Unix-like, but unlike Unix, it’s freeware and doesn’t contain any Unix code. (paraphrased from Wikipedia, accessed: 21.02.2024)
What are HFG DESIGN ERSTIES using it for?
Writing out Python scripts on Sebastian’s server
for this: simply write out or save your file with the ending .py
Editing & writing out our Wiki scripts in Markdown on Sebastian’s server
for this: simply write out your file with the ending .md (markdown documentation)
Basic How-to-GNU nano
open your command line
change directory to any folder you want the file to be written out to
OR (very hfg design coding 1 specific 😜)
log into sebastians server (ssh)
type ssh hfg-dc1 & hit ENTER
enter your password
et voila, you’re logged in
change directory to docs (cd docs/ & hit ENTER)
type nano & hit ENTER
Now GNU nano text editor will open in your command line & you can initialize a new script.
type nano FILENAME & hit ENTER
The preexisting file you wanted to open opens & you can start editing it.
(If you want to know if there are any preexisting files etc. in this directory, just type ls into the command line & hit ENTER)
If you are finished or want to check your changes to your Wiki script, simply save (write out) the file:
ctr+S & hit ENTER
(if you change the file name of a preexisting, any changes you made will be saved in a new file with the new name, so there are now two files in this directory)
You can remove files you don’t longer need by typing the following into the directory’s command line:
rm FILENAME & hit ENTER
Nifty Commands
| windows:linux | mac | action |
|---|---|---|
| Ctrl+S | same | Save current file |
| Ctrl+O | same | Offer to write file ("Save as") |
| Ctrl+R | same | Insert a file into current one |
| Ctrl+X | same | Close buffer, exit from nano |
| Ctrl+K | same | Cut current line into cutbuffer |
| Alt+6 | ERROR | Copy current line into cutbuffer |
| Ctrl+U | same | Paste contents of cutbuffer |
| Alt+T | ERROR | Cut until end of buffer |
| Ctrl+] | same | Complete current word |
| Alt+3 | ERROR | Comment/uncomment line/region |
| Alt+U | ERROR | Undo last action |
| Alt+E | ERROR | Redo last undone action |
| Ctrl+Q | same | Start backward search |
| Ctrl+W | same | Start forward search |
| Alt+Q | ERROR | Find next occurrence backward |
| Alt+W | ERROR | Find next occurrence forward |
| Alt+R | ERROR | Start a replacing session |
| Ctrl+H | same | Delete character before cursor |
| Ctrl+D | same | Delete character under cursor |
| Alt+Bsp | ERROR | Delete word to the left |
| Ctrl+Del | ERROR | Delete word to the right |
| Alt+Del | ERROR | Delete current line |
| Ctrl+T | same | Execute some command |
| Ctrl+J | same | Justify paragraph or region |
| Alt+J | ERROR | Justify entire buffer |
| Alt+B | ERROR | Run a syntax chec |
| Alt+F | ERROR | Run a formatter/fixer/arranger |
| Alt+: | ERROR | Start/stop recording of macro |
| Alt+; | ERROR | Replay macro |
| Ctrl+B | same | One character backward |
| Ctrl+F | same | One character forward |
| Ctrl+← | option+← | One word backward |
| Ctrl+→ | option+→ | One word forward |
| Ctrl+A | same OR option+↑ | To start of line |
| Ctrl+E | same OR option+↓ | To end of line |
| Ctrl+P | same | One line up |
| Ctrl+N | same | One line down |
| Ctrl+↑ | ERROR | To previous block |
| Ctrl+↓ | ERROR | To next block |
| Ctrl+Y | same | One page up |
| Ctrl+V | same | One page down |
| Alt+\ | ERROR | To top of buffer |
| Alt+/ | ERROR | To end of buffer |
| Alt+G | ERROR | Go to specified line |
| Alt+] | ERROR | Go to complementary bracket |
| Alt+↑ | ERROR | Scroll viewport up |
| Alt+↓ | ERROR | Scroll viewport down |
| Alt+< | ERROR | Switch to preceding buffer |
| Alt+> | ERROR | Switch to succeeding buffer |
| Ctrl+C | same | Report cursor position |
| Alt+D | ERROR | Report line/word/character count |
| Ctrl+G | same | Display help text |
| Alt+A | ERROR | Turn the mark on/off |
| Tab | same | Indent marked region |
| Shift+Tab | same | Unindent marked region |
| Alt+V | command+V | Enter next keystroke verbatim |
| Alt+N | ERROR | Turn line numbers on/off |
| Alt+P | ERROR | Turn visible whitespace on/off |
| Alt+X | ERROR | Hide or unhide the help lines |
| Ctrl+L | same | Refresh the screen |
•most utilised commands creating this script
Last but definitely not least, the website of GNUnano: GO CHECK IT OUT
•ChatGPT was not involved in the creation of this script - just some googling on basic htlm and css & fun.