Choose a Text Editor for Perlmonks?

[dru145]

Who else would like to choose their editor when typing in a new node? Here is my problem. I'm in VI all day writing code, and when I go to post to PM, I'm still in that VI mentality and I get done writing my node and hit the escape key to get out of my virtual insert mode and it erases everything I just wrote. I did this 3 times today, which really ticked me off. I think it would be a cool feature if it wasn't too much work. Maybe there could be an option in user settings that says "Choose your Text Editor" and have VI (rules) Emacs (eeek) or just Text.

Thanks,
Dru
Another satisfied monk.

[perrin]

You can browse the site with emacs, and use emacs as your editor that way. I think you can also browse with lynx and set it to use vi for editing text areas.

[VSarkiss]

That's a browser function, not something the site can control. You may want to compose your node in vi first, then just paste it in.

[belg4mit]

Thins of this nature are in fact within limited control of a programmer. However it requires JavaScript.

--
perl -pe "s/\b;([st])/'\1/mg"

[dhable]

No JavaScript! No! I work very hard to remove all of that crap from my web surfing experience. I think the charm to the site is that it works with any browser at any time. I like bring able to have the full functionalty of Perl Monks from my Windows desktop environment at work to my Solaris desktop environment at school and my Mac OS X desktop at home.

Just my $0.02

[belg4mit]

I think this is reall a matter of "know thy browser". Perhaps consider using a different browser, esp as perrin pointed out, emacs can serve as a web-browser. Note emacs has a vi emulation mode.

--
perl -pe "s/\b;([st])/'\1/mg"

[Smylers]

One of the few reasons why I still occasionally use Lynx for browsing is that it does allow you to pick your own editor.

I'm typing this in Vim right now. Simply set the EDITOR environment variable to what you want to use, then in a text editor press Ctrl+X e. Your editor will be invoked, and when you save and exit, the text you entered appears in the <textarea>.

Smylers

[vagnerr]

I know how you feal :-)
Its a nice idea but what you are typing into is a standard <textarea> field and as such is bound by the way that the browser in question handles it. You need to look for one that doesn't erase on escape. I spose it could be done with a java app, but thats going a long way for a simple problem.

---If it doesn't fit use a bigger hammer

[hossman]

Other methods of submitting posts have been discussed.

[rinceWind]

An alternative would be to provide an upload facility for Perlmonks submissions, which would allow you to use whatever editor you feel like.

Since jeopardy quoting is not an issue in the monastery, there is no requirement to download any text first. For editing previous notes, it is reasonable to assume that the monk has retained a copy on their system, hence also not an issue.

Upload would be very useful for posting code.

[thelenm]

Yeah, I've had that happen too... I'm not much of a Web programmer, but what would it require to get something like this functional? Would it have to be implemented in Javascript or something? If I have anything long to post (which I rarely do), I'll type it out in Vim and then cut and paste.

[snafu]

I have had this happen numerous times! I am a vi[m] freak too! Fortunately, ctrl+z is your friend! I like the idea of having a choice, but I don't think that in all practicality, your idea is a feasible solution (mind you I do mean practicality there). However, I wouldn't put it beyond the capabilities of vim to be able to do something like this. I bet there would be a way to write a script or something where you could use vim to submit your writeup for you. Then you wouldn't have to even touch the windows box for anything. *shrug* dunno. That would be cool though! If I had more time, I would play with that idea. As it is, I am head deep in projects.

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- Jim
Insert clever comment here...