Terminal-based text editor with color syntax hilighting

[Dave Benjamin]

In article <mailman.1049223987.18476.python-list at python.org>,
Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters wrote:
> Dave Benjamin <ramen at lackingtalent.com> wrote previously:
>|Are there any others? What about Fte, I wonder... is that editor/IDE still
>|being actively maintained? According to their website it supports Python
>|color hilighting, but I'm not sure if the s-lang version does. I'll check
>|into it.
> 
> Unfortunately, AFAIK FTE only works in Unix-like systems over XTerm.  A
> console session doesn't do FTE (under Linux, OS/2 has both console and
> PM versions of FTE).  As with the OP, this rules out using FTE on most
> of my connections--my web host doesn't run an X client, my OS/2, Windows
> and MacOSX machines don't run an X server).

Actually, believe it or not, I just looked into this and there are three
versions of FTE, one for X, one for a terminal (like SSH) and one for
console (I imagine they do direct screen-writes, since it seems to require
root privileges). I was able to get color hilighting and pulldown menus
working with a fresh install. So, this is a viable alternative.

> IMO, the best option for the rather common scenario of remote SSH
> connection is Jed. But I would welcome learning of others.  I *have*
> been using vim on one host recently, and have kinda-sorta learned basic
> navigation, but it won't stick in my head after a month (I know from
> experience).  Likewise with emacs.

That's been my experience also, more or less. I really like the speed and
familiarity of Jed. It gets a little screwy about Python triple-quotes
sometimes, depending on what version you have, but overall its
auto-indentation works great for Python.

> Jed has this wonderful feature of having topbar menus that actually let
> you visually select the most common actions (without needing to remember
> a cryptic key-sequence).  This fabulous design had only been in DOS
> text editors since 1982, so it's nice that Linux is starting to catch up
> with that.

Hehe... if you like that, I'd say FTE is even more in that direction. It
reminds me of editors like Boxer and the TurboC++ environment. It's a bit
more of an IDE than a plain-vanilla text editor though.

<ot>
DOS had the advantage of being relatively predictable, at least as far as
text mode was concerned. Running full-screen text applications remotely was
another story entirely (anyone remember Doorway?) because of the direct
screen writes... anyhow, I'd imagine developing full-screen text apps for
*nixes (and being compatible with the various kinds of terminals) is a more
difficult endeavor, even with the help of ncurses/s-lang/etc.
</ot>

Thanks,
Dave