nano is a text editor for Unix-like computing systems or operating environments using a command line interface. It emulates the Pico text editor, part of the Pine email client, and also provides additional functionality.[1] In contrast to Pico, nano is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Released as free software by Chris Allegretta in 1999, today nano is part of the GNU Project.[2]
History
nano was first created in 1999 with the name TIP (This isn't Pico), by Chris Allegretta. His motivation was to create a free software replacement for Pico, which was not distributed under a free software license. The name was changed to nano on January 10, 2000 to avoid a naming conflict with the existing Unix utility tip. The name comes from the system of SI prefixes, in which nano is 1000 times larger than pico. In February 2001, nano became a part of the GNU Project.
nano implements some features that Pico lacks, including colored text, regular expression search and replace, smooth scrolling, multiple buffers, rebindable key support,[3] and (experimental) undoing and redoing of edit changes.[4]
On August 11, 2003, Chris Allegretta officially handed the source code maintenance for nano to David Lawrence Ramsey.[5] On December 20, 2007, Ramsey stepped down as nano's maintainer.[6]
Control keys
nano, like Pico, is keyboard-oriented, controlled with control keys. For example, Ctrl+O saves the current file; Ctrl+W goes to the search menu. Nano puts a two-line "shortcut bar" at the bottom of the screen, listing many of the commands available in the current context. For a complete list, Ctrl+G gets the help screen.
Unlike Pico, nano uses meta keys to toggle its behavior. For example, Meta+S toggles smooth scrolling mode on and off. Almost all features that can be selected from the command line can be dynamically toggled.
Nano can also use pointer devices, such as a mouse, to activate functions that are on the shortcut bar, as well as position the cursor.
See also
References
External links
