Nano 8.0 Text Editor Released With Modern Bindings Option

Kicking off a new month of open-source releases is the release of the GNU Nano 8.0 text editor.

Nano 8.0 introduces a new modern bindings option "--modernbindings" that makes key binding sequences for commonly used commands like Q for quit, X for cut, V for paste, Z for undo, etc. Nano 8.0 can also be activated if the name of the nano executable or symlink begins with the letter "e".

Besides many bug fixes, the Nano 8.0 feature highlights amount to:

• By default ^F is bound to starting a forward search, and ^B to starting a backward search, while M-F and M-B repeat the search in the corresponding direction. (See the documentation if you want the old bindings back.)
• Command-line option --modernbindings (-/) makes ^Q quit, ^X cut, ^C copy, ^V paste, ^Z undo, ^Y redo, ^O open a file, ^W write a file, ^R replace, ^G find again, ^D find again backwards, ^A set the mark, ^T jump to a line, ^P show the position, and ^E execute.
• Above modern bindings are activated also when the name of nano's executable (or a symlink to it) starts with the letter "e".
• To open a file at a certain line number, one can now use also `nano filename:number`, besides `nano +number filename`.
• and put the cursor on the first and last row in the viewport, while retaining the horizontal position.
• When the three digits in an #RGB color code are all the same, the code is mapped to the xterm grey scale, giving access to fourteen levels of grey instead of just four.
• For easier access, M-" is bound to placing/removing an anchor, and M-' to jumping to the next anchor.
• Whenever an error occurs, the keystroke buffer is cleared, thus stopping the execution of a macro or a string bind.
• The mousewheel scrolls the viewport instead of moving the cursor

Downloads and more details on the Nano 8.0 release via the mailing list announcement.