#+TITLE: Nano
#+setupfile: ../headers
#+PROPERTY: header-args :tangle ~/.config/nano/nanorc

* Nano
#+begin_center
*Before proceeding, be aware that I deprecated this nano config on August 28th, 2020, meaning I won’t update it anymore unless I use it again some day in the future. I will keep it on my website though.*
#+end_center

I nowadays rarely use Nano as a text editor, since I mainly rely on Emacs for all sorts of tasks, including quick file editing. However, at times, Emacs won’t work or won’t be available, and I therefore need a lightweight, fast and reliable text editor: Nano. And despite Nano being a simple piece of software, it does offer some customization I cannot refuse. Here is how I configured it:

** Configuration
When saving a file, create a backup file by adding a tilde (=~=) to the file's name. And make and keep not just one backup file, but make and keep a uniquely numbered one every time a file is saved — when backups are enabled with =set backup= or =--backup= or =-B=. The uniquely numbered files are stored in the directory =~/.cache/nano/backups/=.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set backup
  set backupdir /home/phundrak/.cache/nano/backups/
#+END_SRC

Save a file by default in Unix format. This overrides nano's default behavior of saving a file in the format that it had. (This option has no effect when you also use =set noconvert=.)
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set unix
#+END_SRC

*** Keys behavior
Make the Home key smarter. When Home is pressed anywhere but at the very beginning of non-whitespace characters on a line, the cursor will jump to that beginning (either forwards or backwards). If the cursor is already at that position, it will jump to the true beginning of the line.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set smarthome
#+END_SRC

*** Search
Do case-unsensitive searches by default.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  unset casesensitive
#+END_SRC

Do regular-expression searches by default. Regular expressions in =nano= are of the extended type (ERE).
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set regexp
#+END_SRC

*** Visual settings
Use bold instead of reverse video for the title bar, status bar, key combos, function tags, line numbers, and selected text. This can be overridden by setting the options =titlecolor=, =statuscolor=, =keycolor=, =functioncolor=, =numbercolor=, and =selectedcolor=.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set boldtext
#+END_SRC

Enable soft line wrapping for easier viewing of very long lines.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
 set softwrap
#+END_SRC

When soft line wrapping is enabled, make it wrap lines at blank characters (tabs and spaces) instead of always at the edge of the screen.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set atblanks
#+END_SRC

Display line numbers to the left of the text area.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set linenumbers
#+END_SRC

Constantly display the cursor position in the status bar. This overrides the option =quickblank=.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set constantshow
#+END_SRC

*** Whitespace settings
Convert typed tabs to spaces. Sue me.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set tabstospaces
#+END_SRC

Use a tab size of a certain amount of columns. The value of number must be greater than 0. The default value is 8.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
set tabsize 2
#+END_SRC

Automatically indent a newly created line to the same number of tabs and/or spaces as the previous line (or as the next line if the previous line is the beginning of a paragraph).
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  set autoindent
#+END_SRC

Remove trailing whitespace from wrapped lines when automatic hard-wrapping occurs or when text is justified.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
set trimblanks
#+END_SRC

*** Included configuration file
Nano gives the opportunity to include some files located elsewhere. This is why I added [[https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc][this repo]] as a submodule of my dotfiles so I can access a lot of them at the same time. Since the submodule is cloned in =~/.config/nanorc=, we can add only one line to include all of the =.nanorc= files.
#+BEGIN_SRC conf
  include ~/.config/nano/nano-syntax/*.nanorc
#+END_SRC