Old school — The text editor method

Just as with website creation fanatics, there is a group of individuals who use only pure text editors as a both data repository and report generation tool. Do not let the apparent lack of features of such a tool fool you though. At DerbyCon this year, I had the pleasure of speaking to one individual who mentioned he had every single step of data collection automated with vi. By using automation and scripting, the output from various tools could be processed, converted, and collected into the vi text file. Using macros and scripts he was then able to produce full reports. The initial setup for this may have been complex, but the simple elegance of the final product is remarkable.

Popular Linux text editors include vim which takes a bit of practice and Nano which provides a convenient method of editing and collecting simple file data.

Nano

Nano has been used throughout this book for various text editing needs. It is quick and simple to learn which makes...