Re:Ask HN: Did anyone write a book in Nano?
by massysett on Tuesday August 01, 2023 @01:02PM
(#36958834)
You say “story” so I guess you’re writing linear, narrative fiction? In which case sure, try Nano. If the story lacks any hierarchy or structure that you’d like to indicate with typesetting, why not use Nano.
If on the other hand you are writing a book with nested hierarchical headings, sidebars, illustrations, etc, Nano will be no help at all. As another poster in this thread noted, you could use Nano to write LaTeX. But LaTeX certainly isn’t going to get out of your way.
So this is really an issue of picking the right tool for the job. If your job is simple, a simple editor will work. (But so would a complicated editor: I use Word for simple documents all the time. You don’t have to fiddle with the knobs just because they’re there.)
If on the other hand you are writing a book with nested hierarchical headings, sidebars, illustrations, etc, Nano will be no help at all. As another poster in this thread noted, you could use Nano to write LaTeX. But LaTeX certainly isn’t going to get out of your way.
So this is really an issue of picking the right tool for the job. If your job is simple, a simple editor will work. (But so would a complicated editor: I use Word for simple documents all the time. You don’t have to fiddle with the knobs just because they’re there.)