[dunnevens]

Vi's not too bad. 'i' to edit text. ESC to get out of editing. ':w" to save changes. ":q" to quit. ":wq" to do both. ":q!" to quit without saving. "hjkl" for navigation in case the arrow keys don't work.

That's enough to get by for quick edits. I haven't used vi a ton in my life, but I've managed to remember that much.

[mamcx]

Yeah, but you NEED TO KNOW THAT before use it.

With nano, all is straight in the UI. That is powerful, and so obvious.

Why Vim/Emacs not have that?

[michaelmrose]

Emacs comes with extensive built in documentation. At the bottom it says hit C-h C-a which takes you to an about page which has various help links.

The GUI app as a menu bar, a standard gui feature that includes at the far right an entry entitled HELP under which one can find a manual, docs, a tutorial, a FAQ and various other options.

[dunnevens]

I definitely agree with you that nano is more intuitive and certainly much more beginner-friendly.

Just saying that vi at its most basic level isn't bad at all. The user only has to remember i,esc,:w,:q,:q! for basic editing. That's not much.

But I do agree that it would be nice if vi / vim would simply list those commands when starting the editor for those who have never used it or haven't used it in ages.

[klyrs]

Indeed, nano's interface is easily discoverable. Vi(m) gives some hints, and emacs... the tutorial is kinda amazing but takes hours to get through. I can't really imagine a discoverable interface for vim that doesn't take up tons of real estate -- so the alternative is a cheat sheet tacked up next to your monitor