Microsoft’s new terminal text editor, Edit, offers a simple, user-friendly interface inspired by classic MS-DOS Editor, focusing on basic text editing functions with mouse and keyboard navigation but lacks advanced features and customization options. While suitable for straightforward tasks and as a fallback editor, it may not meet the needs of power users seeking more robust terminal editors.
The video introduces Microsoft’s new terminal text editor called Edit, which is inspired by the classic MS-DOS Editor editor. This new tool is written in Rust and is available in some Linux distributions like Arch Linux under the name ms-edit to avoid conflicts with other editors named Edit. The interface resembles a text-based user interface (TUI) version of classic Notepad, focusing on simplicity and functionality rather than advanced features found in editors like Vim or Emacs. It offers a straightforward experience similar to Nano but with a distinctly Microsoft design aesthetic, including mouse-controlled menus and line numbers displayed by default.
The editor supports multiple open files simultaneously, allowing users to switch between them using a document picker accessible via the menu or keyboard shortcuts. However, the file management features are quite basic, lacking fuzzy search or filtering capabilities, which can make navigating large numbers of files cumbersome. Opening files involves typing the filename manually without any autocomplete or filtering, which may be inconvenient for longer or complex filenames. Despite these limitations, the editor covers essential text editing functions such as undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, find with regex support, replace, and select all.
One notable aspect is the editor’s menu-driven interface, which can be navigated using both mouse and keyboard. Menus are accessed with Alt key combinations, and users can move through options with arrow keys and Enter. The editor distinguishes between closing a single file and exiting the entire application, prompting to save unsaved changes accordingly. The status bar at the bottom provides information about the current line, character position, and some limited configuration options like line endings, text encoding, and tab settings. However, some features, such as the status bar focus shortcut, are oddly missing dedicated keybindings.
The configuration options are minimal and mostly fixed, with no apparent way to customize the editor beyond what is available in the menus. The editor defaults to using spaces for tabs, which the presenter humorously insists is the correct choice, and supports various text encodings, though most users will stick with UTF-8. The help menu is sparse, containing only an about section without any real documentation or guidance. Overall, the editor is functional but lacks polish and advanced features that power users might expect from terminal editors.
In conclusion, the presenter views Microsoft’s Edit as a decent, no-frills text editor suitable for simple tasks like editing shell scripts or configuration files. It is not intended to replace more powerful editors but could serve as a fallback option on systems where no other editor is available. While it has some quirks and missing features, it fulfills its basic purpose of editing plain text in a terminal environment with a familiar, user-friendly interface. The video ends by inviting viewers to share their thoughts on whether they would consider using this editor and encourages support through various platforms.
MS-DOS Editor is a simple text editor for MS-DOS and Windows. It was included in various versions of these operating systems. The editor is based on the IBM PC Compatible DOS version, QBASIC, and has a quintessentially simple interface, allowing basic text editing functionalities.
The text editor operated through a menu-driven user interface, accessible via keyboard commands, and supported basic editing functions such as cut, copy, and paste. It did not, however, support more advanced features like syntax highlighting or extensibility found in modern editors.
MS-DOS Editor served as a convenient tool for editing configuration files and simple scripts, and for its time, it was appreciated for being straightforward and easy to use. It was particularly valued in environments where graphical user interfaces were not available.