Early Thoughts on Nano

Editor’s Note: This was written just a week into me using Nano. Therefore I was still getting my sealegs.

I am writing this in nano. I challenged myself earlier this week (as of writing this) to use Nano for a whole month, and I’ve stuck with it for almost a week.

Almost.

I’m not quitting, but I’ve come so close so many times. Actually, I come close every single time I open the damn editor. Yes, it’s that bad.

No, I guess it’s not that bad, but it’s that bad for someone who has been using Vim for years. Which is me.

Most of my thoughts on Nano I’m going to save for the video I make about it at the end of the month, no sense in having a ton of spoilers. But I do want to talk about one thing. The biggest feature I miss on Nano.

Visual Mode.

I would have told you, as a Vim user, that visual mode is the the least used mode for me. I would have been wrong. Okay, so maybe Inert Mode is still the winner, but still, I apparently use Visual Mode a lot more than I thought because I can’t tell you how many times a day I press V or Ctrl+V to do something and find that IT’S NOT EFFIN THERE IN NANO! (and yes, I know holding shift will get you there, but you’re not helping).

For F##$’s Sake.

It drives me bonkers.

Yes there have been the habit-caused mistypes hjkl and :wq, and no, those haven’t stopped in a week, but the Visual Mode thing is by far the most frustrating because Visual Mode is so damn useful and that it’s not there, just makes Nano seem…bad.

If someone were to ask me what my thoughts on Nano are right now, I’d say I hate it. I hate it. It’s not useful, the default keybindings are bad, and the flow of the thing is just all wrong.

I hope that I can get some positivity for Nano before I get to the end of the month, but I doubt it.

I miss Vim.

Matt