Prefer VISUAL to EDITOR

`VISUAL` is often misused to mean desktop GUI editor it's actual purpose
was to distinguish editors like `vi` (which is short for visual) from
editors like `ed` (which was probably short for editor), `EDITOR` is
actually intended to point to one of the latter.

Rifle still defaults to `vim` if both variables are undefined, even
with an old `rifle.conf` after trying to fall back on `EDITOR`.

For some better information on this see,
https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/334022

6 files changed, 39 insertions, 15 deletions

diff --git a/doc/ranger.1 b/doc/ranger.1
index bb7114a2..780027ac 100644
--- a/doc/ranger.1
+++ b/doc/ranger.1
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 4.07 (Pod::Simple 3.32)
+.\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 4.09 (Pod::Simple 3.35)
 .\"
 .\" Standard preamble:
 .\" ========================================================================
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@
 .\" ========================================================================
 .\"
 .IX Title "RANGER 1"
-.TH RANGER 1 "ranger-1.9.0b6" "12/07/2017" "ranger manual"
+.TH RANGER 1 "ranger-1.9.0b6" "2018-01-23" "ranger manual"
 .\" For nroff, turn off justification.  Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
 .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
 .if n .ad l
@@ -508,7 +508,7 @@ Redraw the screen
 Inspect the current file in a bigger window.
 .IP "E" 14
 .IX Item "E"
-Edit the current file in \f(CW$EDITOR\fR (\*(L"nano\*(R" by default)
+Edit the current file in \f(CW$VISUAL\fR otherwise \f(CW$EDITOR\fR otherwise \*(L"vim\*(R"
 .IP "S" 14
 .IX Item "S"
 Open a shell in the current directory
@@ -599,7 +599,7 @@ Toggle the mark-status of all files
 .IP "V" 14
 .IX Item "V"
 Starts the visual mode, which selects all files between the starting point and
-the cursor until you press \s-1ESC. \s0 To unselect files in the same way, use \*(L"uV\*(R".
+the cursor until you press \s-1ESC.\s0  To unselect files in the same way, use \*(L"uV\*(R".
 .IP "/" 14
 Search for files in the current directory.
 .IP ":" 14
@@ -1457,9 +1457,14 @@ by checking for this variable.
 If this variable is set to \s-1FALSE,\s0 ranger will not load the default rc.conf.
 This can save time if you copied the whole rc.conf to ~/.config/ranger/ and
 don't need the default one at all.
+.IP "\s-1VISUAL\s0" 8
+.IX Item "VISUAL"
+Defines the editor to be used for the \*(L"E\*(R" key.  Falls back to \s-1EDITOR\s0 if
+undefined or empty.
 .IP "\s-1EDITOR\s0" 8
 .IX Item "EDITOR"
-Defines the editor to be used for the \*(L"E\*(R" key.  Defaults to \*(L"nano\*(R".
+Defines the editor to be used for the \*(L"E\*(R" key if \s-1VISUAL\s0 is undefined or empty.
+Defaults to \*(L"vim\*(R".
 .IP "\s-1SHELL\s0" 8
 .IX Item "SHELL"
 Defines the shell that ranger is going to use with the :shell command and
diff --git a/doc/ranger.pod b/doc/ranger.pod
index 43926f46..1260c8db 100644
--- a/doc/ranger.pod
+++ b/doc/ranger.pod
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ Inspect the current file in a bigger window.
 
 =item E
 
-Edit the current file in $EDITOR ("nano" by default)
+Edit the current file in $VISUAL otherwise $EDITOR otherwise "vim"
 
 =item S
 
@@ -1566,9 +1566,15 @@ If this variable is set to FALSE, ranger will not load the default rc.conf.
 This can save time if you copied the whole rc.conf to ~/.config/ranger/ and
 don't need the default one at all.
 
+=item VISUAL
+
+Defines the editor to be used for the "E" key.  Falls back to EDITOR if
+undefined or empty.
+
 =item EDITOR
 
-Defines the editor to be used for the "E" key.  Defaults to "nano".
+Defines the editor to be used for the "E" key if VISUAL is undefined or empty.
+Defaults to "vim".
 
 =item SHELL
 
diff --git a/doc/rifle.1 b/doc/rifle.1
index 8531d69c..44faa332 100644
--- a/doc/rifle.1
+++ b/doc/rifle.1
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 4.07 (Pod::Simple 3.32)
+.\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 4.09 (Pod::Simple 3.35)
 .\"
 .\" Standard preamble:
 .\" ========================================================================
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@
 .\" ========================================================================
 .\"
 .IX Title "RIFLE 1"
-.TH RIFLE 1 "rifle-1.9.0b6" "12/07/2017" "rifle manual"
+.TH RIFLE 1 "rifle-1.9.0b6" "2018-01-23" "rifle manual"
 .\" For nroff, turn off justification.  Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
 .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
 .if n .ad l
@@ -188,9 +188,14 @@ The syntax is described in the comments of the default \fIrifle.conf\fR that shi
 with ranger.  To obtain it, you need to run: \f(CW\*(C`ranger \-\-copy\-config=rifle\*(C'\fR
 .SH "ENVIRONMENT"
 .IX Header "ENVIRONMENT"
+.IP "\s-1VISUAL\s0" 8
+.IX Item "VISUAL"
+Determines which editor to use for editing files.
 .IP "\s-1EDITOR\s0" 8
 .IX Item "EDITOR"
-Determines which editor to use for editing files (in the default \fIrifle.conf\fR).
+Determines which editor to use for editing files if \s-1VISUAL\s0 is undefined or
+empty (in the default \fIrifle.conf\fR). If both are undefined or empty, \*(L"vim\*(R" is
+used instead.
 .IP "\s-1PAGER\s0" 8
 .IX Item "PAGER"
 Determines which pager to use for displaying files (in the default \fIrifle.conf\fR).
diff --git a/doc/rifle.pod b/doc/rifle.pod
index 7241f6b5..b4d76287 100644
--- a/doc/rifle.pod
+++ b/doc/rifle.pod
@@ -84,9 +84,15 @@ with ranger.  To obtain it, you need to run: C<ranger --copy-config=rifle>
 
 =over 8
 
+=item VISUAL
+
+Determines which editor to use for editing files.
+
 =item EDITOR
 
-Determines which editor to use for editing files (in the default F<rifle.conf>).
+Determines which editor to use for editing files if VISUAL is undefined or
+empty (in the default F<rifle.conf>). If both are undefined or empty, "vim" is
+used instead.
 
 =item PAGER
 
diff --git a/ranger/config/rifle.conf b/ranger/config/rifle.conf
index 2c081479..564fff8d 100644
--- a/ranger/config/rifle.conf
+++ b/ranger/config/rifle.conf
@@ -85,9 +85,9 @@ ext x?html?, has w3m,               terminal = w3m "$@"
 # Misc
 #-------------------------------------------
 # Define the "editor" for text files as first action
-mime ^text,  label editor = $EDITOR -- "$@"
+mime ^text,  label editor = ${VISUAL:-$EDITOR} -- "$@"
 mime ^text,  label pager  = "$PAGER" -- "$@"
-!mime ^text, label editor, ext xml|json|csv|tex|py|pl|rb|js|sh|php = $EDITOR -- "$@"
+!mime ^text, label editor, ext xml|json|csv|tex|py|pl|rb|js|sh|php = ${VISUAL:-$EDITOR} -- "$@"
 !mime ^text, label pager,  ext xml|json|csv|tex|py|pl|rb|js|sh|php = "$PAGER" -- "$@"
 
 ext 1                         = man "$1"
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ label wallpaper, number 14, mime ^image, has feh, X = feh --bg-fill "$1"
 
 # Define the editor for non-text files + pager as last action
               !mime ^text, !ext xml|json|csv|tex|py|pl|rb|js|sh|php  = ask
-label editor, !mime ^text, !ext xml|json|csv|tex|py|pl|rb|js|sh|php  = $EDITOR -- "$@"
+label editor, !mime ^text, !ext xml|json|csv|tex|py|pl|rb|js|sh|php  = ${VISUAL:-$EDITOR} -- "$@"
 label pager,  !mime ^text, !ext xml|json|csv|tex|py|pl|rb|js|sh|php  = "$PAGER" -- "$@"
 
 # The very last action, so that it's never triggered accidentally, is to execute a program:
diff --git a/ranger/ext/rifle.py b/ranger/ext/rifle.py
index a6c0b9f0..c664423a 100755
--- a/ranger/ext/rifle.py
+++ b/ranger/ext/rifle.py
@@ -343,7 +343,9 @@ class Rifle(object):  # pylint: disable=too-many-instance-attributes
         else:
             if 'PAGER' not in os.environ:
                 os.environ['PAGER'] = DEFAULT_PAGER
-            if 'EDITOR' not in os.environ:
+            if 'VISUAL' not in os.environ and 'EDITOR' not in os.environ:
+                os.environ['VISUAL'] = DEFAULT_EDITOR
+                # necessary for compatibility with old rifle.conf
                 os.environ['EDITOR'] = DEFAULT_EDITOR
             command = self.hook_command_postprocessing(command)
             self.hook_before_executing(command, self._mimetype, self._app_flags)