Micro (CLI text editor)

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Midas
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Micro (CLI text editor)

#1 Post by Midas »

Anyone looking for a CLI only text editor? Thought so... Here's Micro (https://micro-editor.github.io/), a multi-platform FOSS console only but highly configurable text editor.
https://micro-editor.github.io/ wrote:Micro is a terminal-based text editor that aims to be easy to use and intuitive, while also taking advantage of the full capabilities of modern terminals. It comes as one single, batteries-included, static binary with no dependencies, and you can download and use it right now.
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Download Micro 32 or 64-bit latest release (currently v1.1.4) from https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/releases.

TP109
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Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Midwestern US

Re: Micro (CLI text editor)

#2 Post by TP109 »

This looked like it could be lightweight so I quickly tested it, but it's not as light on usage as might be supposed. It's installation size isn't that small either at 7.5MB and it has about the same usage for RAM, Pk RAM, and VM as Notepad++ or the x-Context programming editors, and those are at at the top of the resource usage scale. It's minimum RAM usage is average at about 3MB, but the Pk RAM on start and VM are surprisingly high. As a comparison, it uses almost x10 the resources and at least x10 the disk space as MetaPad, Editor2, or Notepad2.

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rbon
Posts: 361
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Re: Micro (CLI text editor)

#3 Post by rbon »

micro 2.0.8 released (October 6, 2020)

micro is a CLI editor for write and editing code (but yet text files) in over 75 programming languages.
This program come as a single executable written in Go language for Windows 32 and 64 bit with no external dependences.
All platforms are: Linux, MacOS, BSD, Windows, ARM Linux.
• Web site: https://micro-editor.github.io
• GitHub web project: https://github.com/zyedidia/micro
• GitHub download page: https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/releases/tag/v2.0.8
• direct download Windows 32 bit: https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/relea ... -win32.zip
• direct download Windows 64 bit: https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/relea ... -win64.zip
• license: MIT
• Softpedia: https://www.softpedia.com/get/Programmi ... idia.shtml
• Slant detailled review: https://www.slant.co/topics/3772/viewpo ... tors~micro

Slant review:
• Rating = 94 - Excellent

PROS
• Mouse support
• Small and portable
• Uses standard key-bindings (IBM CUA - Common User Access) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_ ... _shortcuts
• Syntax highlighting for many languages
• Beginner-friendly terminal editor
• Can be extended through plugins
• Great colorscheme support
• Runs in terminal
• Easy to configure
• Multiple cursor support
• Great for beginners
• Split panes
• Macros
• Snippet support
• Great tabs support
• Written in Golang (Go programming language)
• Installable on Linux using Snappy https://snapcraft.io/

CONS
• Small community & ecosystem
• Non-existent plugins for very common languages
• Limited compatibility
Features (from GitHub)
• Easy to use and install.
• No dependencies or external files are needed — just the binary you can download further down the page.
• Multiple cursors.
• Common keybindings (Ctrl-s, Ctrl-c, Ctrl-v, Ctrl-z, …).
• Keybindings can be rebound to your liking.
• Sane defaults.
• You shouldn't have to configure much out of the box (and it is extremely easy to configure).
• Splits and tabs.
• nano-like menu to help you remember the keybindings.
• Extremely good mouse support.
• This means mouse dragging to create a selection, double click to select by word, and triple click to select by line.
• Cross-platform (it should work on all the platforms Go runs on).
• Note that while Windows is supported Mingw/Cygwin is not (see below).
• Plugin system (plugins are written in Lua).
• micro has a built-in plugin manager to automatically install, remove, and update plugins.
• Built-in diff gutter.
• Simple autocompletion.
• Persistent undo.
• Automatic linting and error notifications.
• Syntax highlighting for over 130 languages.
• Color scheme support.
• By default, micro comes with 16, 256, and true color themes.
• True color support (set the MICRO_TRUECOLOR environment variable to 1 to enable it).
• Copy and paste with the system clipboard.
• Small and simple.
• Easily configurable.
• Macros.
• Common editor features such as undo/redo, line numbers, Unicode support, soft wrapping, …
• Plugin list: https://micro-editor.github.io/plugins.html
• Chat on Gitter https://gitter.im/zyedidia/micro?utm_so ... tent=badge

Screenshot from web site
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and
Image

.. other 9 screenshots on web site
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning." - Rick Cook.

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webfork
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Location: US, Texas
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Re: Micro (CLI text editor)

#4 Post by webfork »

I'm really liking this program -- just like the excellent broot search tool, it's very easy interaction with the standard Windows interface makes it almost not even a CLI program. It's similarity with nano and other standard text editors is great and you can do just about everything with the mouse and standard key modifiers (like holding SHIFT to select groups of text and CTRL+C to copy) that you can with other text editors.

I especially like the window separation trick (press CTRL+E and then enter vsplit or hsplit for veritical/horizontal window splits) to break up the editor window into separate boxes:

Image

As visible above, it does seem to support Markdown or some recognizable code, it will add color coding. You can drag-and-drop text files onto the editor and it will open the file automatically. Very impressive.

The only issue I'm seeing right now is that you can hit [X] to close the program and easily lose your work. There seems to be an auto-save and auto-resume, but I'm a little blurry on setup.

Resources: Around 9 megs RAM, 11 megs disk space. It supports multiple instances, which doesn't seem to take up any additional RAM.

TP109
Posts: 571
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Midwestern US

Re: Micro (CLI text editor)

#5 Post by TP109 »

Micro has been getting a lot of attention lately, particularly among Linux users. It's listed as the #1 cli text editor on Slant:
What are the best terminal editors?

YT video that demonstrates some of Micro's main features:
Awesome Linux Tools: The "micro" text editor
webfork wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:12 pm There seems to be an auto-save and auto-resume, but I'm a little blurry on setup.
Backup is enabled by default in the event that Micro crashes or was improperly closed:
backup: micro will automatically keep backups of all open buffers. Backups are stored in ~/.config/micro/backups and are removed when the buffer is closed cleanly. In the case of a system crash or a micro crash, the contents of the buffer can be recovered automatically by opening the file that was being edited before the crash, or manually by searching for the backup in the backup directory. Backups are made in the background for newly modified buffers every 8 seconds, or when micro detects a crash.

default value: true

https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/blob/ ... options.md"\
Whenever a file is reopened from the command line with micro (e.g., micro file2.txt) after micro crashed or was improperly closed, micro will ask the user if they want the backup of that file to be restored.

In Windows, Micro's settings, including backups, are saved to C:\Users\User\.config\micro. The .config directory is created after Micro is first launched. Options are saved to settings.json. To add/change an option, use the command set 'option' 'value' from Micro's command bar.

Micro commands:
https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/blob/ ... ommands.md

Micro also has an autosave option that can be enabled to save everything at a user defined interval, and a backupdir option to change the location of the backup directory.

Micro options:
https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/blob/ ... options.md

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