My nano configuration

A lot of people think that nano is an editor only for newbies. Not so! Whilst it is minimal, it has a good set of features that allow you to be productive without having to remember syntax for commands, worry about buffers or having to switch modes all the time. Not only that, it’s damn small:


fish@jackson:~$ ls /bin/nano
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 143K Apr 8 2008 /bin/nano

Compared to:

fish@jackson:~$ ls /usr/bin/vim.basic
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.5M Jan 31 2008 /usr/bin/vim.basic


So now that I’ve tempted the non-believers, here we go!

Command Line Options

From the nano website:

The usual way to invoke nano is:

nano [OPTION]… [FILE]But it is also possible to edit several files in a row. Additionally, the cursor can be put on a desired line number by adding this number with a plus sign before any filename, and even in a desired column by adding it with a comma. So the complete synopsis is:

nano [OPTION]… [[+LINE] FILE]…nano [OPTION]… [[+,COLUMN] FILE]…

nano [OPTION]… [[+LINE,COLUMN] FILE]…

I find that chaining files and the goto line options are incredibly useful for debugging code.  Say, you get an error in your script saying “synax error on line 365″, you can go directly to that line by specifying it on the command line.  i.e. like

nano +365 buggyscript.php

Whilst you’re editing …

If you’ve invoked nano without specifying a filename, you might find yourself trying to remember the path you want to save the file in. Hows about a nice file browser? Yep, nano has one! Press ^T when you’re going to save a file and get a nice easy to navigate browser so you can find the path you need.

Spell Chequer? In editing mode, ^T and it’ll invoke spell (for British debian/debianesque users, apt-get install spell ibritish)

.nanorc Tweaks

I’ve found a few nice tweaks that let you make nano even better, especially for the experienced user. All of these require editing the ~/.nanorc file, which has documentation to be found by typing man nanorc. However, here are a few lines which I found to be useful:

set nohelp
Removes the prompt bar at the bottom (good if you already know them all, saves 3 lines!)

set morespace
Gets rid of the extra newline after the header bar, and gives you an extra line!

set smarthome
Makes the home key go to the beginning of the text, after any intending whitespace

set const
Shows your cursor position constantly at the bottom (I find myself doing ^C a lot, so good for me)

set mouse
Enables mouse support (who knew?). This includes scroll-wheels, which is just awesome.

set nowrap
Same as giving -w on command line (I had an alias to do this before)

unset historylog
By default, saves a log of all your search string to ~/.nano_history. I’ve never used that.

set boldtext
Uses bold type instead of inverted for the header and the status bar. Entirely a matter of taste, but I think boldtext looks more pro.

Note that you can also enable syntax hilighting in nano, another feature most people don’t know about.

Hopefully you found out something new about this dinky little editor, and maybe you’ll learn to love its simplicity!  Then again, you might just :q!.

I’ve seen people talking on a mobile phone, and actually move the phone away from their ear and in front of their mouths when they speak.  I don’t quite understand what the point of this is - and it kinda spits in the face of telecoms engineers that made the GSM system full-duplex.  They are intentionally limiting their phones to half-duplex (i.e. you can either talk or listen, not both at the same time).  Also, mobile phones are designed such that the microphone is in the right place to pick up your speech at a sensible level when the phone is held to your ear.  Putting it right up against your lips just makes your voice overly loud and makes the signal clip - even when you’re speaking quietly.  Phones have compressers and limiters in them such that your voice is intelligible, regardless of how loudly you’re speaking. 

The other odd thing is that I’ve only ever seen black people doing this.  Not once have I seen any other ethnicity doing this - which in itself is disturbing (just describing it makes me sound racist). 

Most perplexing.

So I decided to “mark my USB” in case I lost it in the future. I made the file “THIS_IS_A_USB.txt” on the root of the drive with the following content:

HELLO. THIS IS A USB, AND IT BELLONGS TO xxx@KENT.AC.UK ACTUALLY, this is a USB drive. The thing you’re plugging it into is a USB (I suppose, but it’d make more sense to call it a USB connection). Calling it a “USB” just confuses people - it’d be like saying “I have a red”, rather than saying “I have a red ball”. A USB what? A USB flashlight? A USB cable? A USB keyboard? Anyway. I’d quite like this back about now so email me

The compsci IRC channel and everyone on my course have been ruthlessly taking the piss - maybe if this person finds this, they’ll get a clue.

• One - Aimee Man - A song about being lonely
• Alone In Kyoto - Air
• Radio #1 - Air
• Move Along - All American Rejects - I’m not even sure why I have this song
• Northern Birds - Amateur Transplants - an extremely derogatory song about girls from up North.

Just what I needed after a taxing Monday at uni.

It occurred to me - surely that’s giving the mouse some confused messages.  Imagine what it’d be like following the mouses children when they go to make their own nests.

“Here we see the young doormouse venturing into the wild to establish his own nest.  After picking a suitable tree with plenty of nuts to eat, he pops off to Homebase to get a sheet of 5 mil ply, a bottle of PVA wood glue and some 20 mil wood screws and raw plugs to build his home - and in the process earning himself 37 Nectar points - which will provide welcome discounts over the cold winter.  ”

Just, no.

Charlie the Unicorn Drinking Game: get a drink, watch a Charlie the Unicorn video, and take a sip every time the name “Charlie” is spoken.  Down your drink at the end.  Collapse and go into a coma.

WHOA. Tiring work! So many clueless freshers who need help enrolling or setting up their IT account (”Do I really need one?” “Um.  Yes.  Unless you fancy not knowing when any of your classes are, not being able to get your results or register for your modules”).

One of the members of full time staff got a good one.  Bearing in mind the Help and Enquiry desk is in the Library, Level 2 of 4, in the center - “Is the Library upstairs too?” “Um.  Yes” *points at Level 2 East “Are there books in there too?”. Desker looks at the bookshelves in plain view in the East wing.  ” … Yes.”

Then there’s the ones that you ask “Have you followed the instructions?” and they reply quite happily “Yes! Of course!” and then as you read them the instructions, they manage to achieve what they were trying to do.  So obviously they weren’t following the instructions.

Who aren’t quite as bad as the ones who simply slap down their laptop and demand you set wireless up for them (or somesuch); who’ve not even bothered to find the instructions, let alone read them; then get indignant when I give them the documentation and tell them to go try it and if it still doesn’t work come back.  Or those who get annoyed when I have to make an appointment because we’re really busy - it’s not my fault we’re really busy!

But it’s not all bad.  Hilight of today was when I was quietly logging a query, and all of a sudden a rather attractive girl plonked herself down next to me and said “This uni is crap isn’t it?” “Why do you say that” I replied, neutrally.  “I just tried to print to gill1 and nothing has happened and it’s eaten my money” “Oh.  I’ll fix that.  Try gill3 instead” “Will I still get charged?” “Nope!” “Yay.  Thanks!”.  Turns out gill1 did a E_GOT_BORED_AND_CRASHED overnight (the printers tend to do that) and had a 30MB queue of documents from people trying to print their timetables.  After a quick call to The Ones who Can, it was sorted and we brought the printer back up again - but apparently people were still trying to print to it whilst he was clearing out the queue!

As I was leaving, one of the roamers said that a user wanted to know where cafe2 was.  I said that there was no cafe2, but there was a cafe1 which was behind him.  “But they printed to cafe2!” he said “Well, go check Level 1 Center in a parallel dimension and see if it’s there.”

So, that’s fresher madness.  Tomorrow I have lectures from 10AM till 1PM,then a library shift from 1PM to 2PM, then another lecture 2PM till 4PM.  Yes, you’re right.  I’m not going to get a chance to stop for lunch.  Joy.

How embaressing.

Yes yes, the Lambeth Conference has been happening up at UKC, and I’ve been doing some IT support for it.

I have been working on the Help & Enquiry desk at the library. Bishops, it seems, are confusing.

We had one fellow who wanted to “send an email from here”. I explained that we didn’t give out email addresses, but he didn’t understand. He just gave me an email address that he wanted to send the email to, and expected to magically open an email account and just send it. He only wanted to send one email, he kept telling me - like that makes any difference!

I ended up pointing him at Gmail and getting him to sign up. At which point he sat at the helpdesk and started writing an email. I awkwardly asked him to go use another machine, as it looked like he was working there.

Then there was the person who wanted to get the name and addresses of some of the bishops he met. I got him logged on, at which point he started fiddling with the mouse like he’d never used one in his life. Then my replacement turned up and I ran for the hills.

One of the other helpdeskers working in the press office (which, by the way, is not “as far away from the conference as possible”, in fact it’s as close to the conference as possible.  Oh and the fence isn’t 10 foot high.) got a mention in The Times Online.

So, yes. Fun times.

14:39  <crowbar> cookie materials are now here :)14:40  <andee> o.O

14:43  <xand> o.o

14:44  * Steve thinks Crowbar likes cooking

14:44  <steve> ...and cookies

14:44  <xand> who doesn't?

14:44  * Stotty|work likes cooking cookies

14:44  <andee> on a lighter note, my debian package for lastest asterisk works  

14:45  <stotty|work> check it out:  http://www.jstott.me.uk/recipes/chocolatechipcookies.php

14:45  <andee> as in this wont make you fat  

14:45  <steve> I'd use chunks of chocolate  

14:46  <stotty|work> that is the w00test recipe ever

14:50  <crowbar> Stotty|work: you're a star - i was about to look for arecipie :p

14:50  <steve> Use chocolate CHUNKS not chips  

14:50  <crowbar> i've got a bit of cooking chocolate

14:51  <crowbar> and some white chocolate

14:51  <stotty|work> needs milk, white and dark chocolate

14:51  <steve> PERFECT

14:51  <steve> Dark is preferable

14:51  <steve> as an addition  

14:51  <crowbar> i'll have to make my own white chocolate chunks

And thus, cookies.  I made a slight alteration in that I put in chocolate chips AND chocolate chunks, as well as adding some cocoa powder and a smidgen of that nice white chocolate stuffs.  I’ll post my perfected alterations as soon as I’ve worked out exactly what’s best.