SmallBASIC in nano

Using nano

“GNU nano is a text editor for Unix-like computing systems or operating environments using a command line interface.” (Wikipedia)

Installation

Download the file smallbasic.nanorc from github
Create the folder ~/.config/nano/syntax
Copy the file “smallbasic.nanorc” into that folder
Edit the nano configuration file -> nano ~/.config/nano/nanorc
In the section ## === Syntax coloring === add include "~/.config/nano/syntax/*.nanorc"

Tweaking nano

Depending on your Linux distribution the default nano settings are a little bit disappointing. But fortunately you can tweak nano quite a bit by activating some settings in nanorc. Just remove the comments for:

set autoindent
set indicator
set linenumbers
set minibar
set mouse
Remove the comments in the section ### Paint the interface elements of nano to make nano colorful.
include "/usr/share/nano/*.nanorc"
To get more common keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+C for copy uncomment all the commands in the section ## If you would like nano to have keybindings that are more "usual"

A useful hint

If you use nano in a console you can suspend it by pressing CTRL-Z. After pressing CTRL-Z you are on the console and you can i.e. start the console version of SmallBASIC to test your program. After testing you can switch back to the suspended nano by executing the command fg in the console.