| ed (1969) | original, line oriented standard for Unix |
| ex (1976) | extended, more powerful version of ed, introduced visual mode for full screen editing |
| vi (1976) | classic, efficient, visual full-screen editor built on top of ex |
| emacs (1976) | extensible, feature-rich ecosystem known for customisation |
| pico (1992) | simple, menu-driven, for non-technical users |
| vim (1991) | improved and advanced version of vi, with modern features |
| nano (1999) | free open source clone of pico |
| echo 'export EDITOR=nano' >> ~/.bashrc | set nano as default text editor |
| mode | command | function |
| esc | up down left right | move around |
| esc | shift g | move to end |
| esc | i | insert |
| insert | a | move right (and insert) |
| insert | o | line break (and insert) |
| insert | esc | escape current mode |
| esc | x | remove character |
| esc | r | replace character |
| esc | d | delete line |
| esc | u | bring line back |
| esc | :q! | quit |
| esc | :wq! | save and quit |
| ctrl o | save current file (write out) |
| ctrl s | save current file (newer versions) |
| ctrl x | exit |
| ctrl w | search for specific text |
| ctrl \\ | find and replace |
| ctrl k | cut line |
| ctrl u | paste line |
| alt 6 | copy line |
| alt n | toggle line numbers |
| alt u | undo |
| alt e | re-do |