My alternative to vi- what is yours?

[Deleted member 27741]

Sometimes I find it useful to have a text editor other than vi when connected to my N66U with PuTTY. This is especially useful for viewing large files (think syslog) or editing complex files.

My method for this is to use the usb drive and notepad ++. I can then edit/view files from notepad ++ on windows (at \\RT-N66u\MYFOLDER) and save them. On the router I access and move/copy the files from /tmp/mnt/MYUSBDRIVE/MYFOLDER as necessary.

What is your method (if any) to use a text editor other than vi on these routers?

 

[owine]

Install nano from entware.

 

[RMerlin]

I also use nano. I've been using it for years on everything Linux.

 

[bill1228]

Nano is good but in my 30 years of IT you might as well get comfortable with vi Linux appliances, for example, may only have vi available for text editing. VI is always available no matter what Linux/Unix box you are working on. Nano is not always available and vi always is. Lots of appliances do not allow you to install any software so adding editors is not an option in all cases.
--bill

 

[ripdog]

I fail to see the problem with vi. Spend 10 minutes learning a few basic shortcuts and vi beats the pants off nano. I'm nowhere near an advanced vim user, but it drives me nuts when I find myself back in basic editors like nano.

 

[bbsc]

@bill1228
"Do you pine for the days when men were men and wrote their own device drivers?"

My choice is mcedit.
Oh, yes, I'm able to use vi but it makes me nervous.

 

[bill1228]

@bill1228
"Do you pine for the days when men were men and wrote their own device drivers?"

@bbsc, those were interesting days. I am giving my age away but the first computer I worked on as a IBM tech was the IBM 1401 which was announced in 1959. Have done lots of asm language programming as well. Just recently, within last year, retired from an IT position in WAN networks at large multi-state healthcare.

Guess this is why I tell people to get used to vi. I know it is the only one available at times and when you are working on an issue the last thing you want to do is to have to start learning vi to fix a problem.
At least that is my $.02.

--bill

 

[ryzhov_al]

mcedit is my choice.

 

[RMerlin]

I fail to see the problem with vi. Spend 10 minutes learning a few basic shortcuts and vi beats the pants off nano. I'm nowhere near an advanced vim user, but it drives me nuts when I find myself back in basic editors like nano.

I don't like vi's cursor handling.

 

[krabs]

I don't like vi's cursor handling.

Me too, that's why I'm using vi linked to vim if available.
Using vim from entware.

vim-full - 7.3-1
vim-help - 7.3-1
vim-runtime - 7.3-1

# cat /jffs/configs/profile.add

if [ -f /opt/bin/vim ]; then
    alias vi=vim
    EDITOR=/opt/bin/vim
    VISUAL=$EDITOR
    export EDITOR VISUAL
fi