UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I need some advice from people who use command line frequently and know how to use both VIM and EMACS pretty well for their daily tasks. Please no opinion on which one better etc..., I got enough at that from the Internet.

A little about my professional background: I have been a firmware engineer working using Windows platform. So far I have been using SlickEdit with CUA mapping.
But now, for my new job, I am forced to work using UNIX/Linux virtual machine, so I have to stick to the standard editors, either VIM or EMACS.

I don't expect to be an expert, I just need to do this:
I will work on a folder containing a set of (mainly C/C++) code. I would like to be able to search a certain keyword or file within that folder and its sub-folders recursively, and when found I would like to navigate those files reasonably easy. I would like to do this either from the command prompt or within the text editor if possible. I would like to navigate those files as a project using something like CTAGS, so I can jump to a definition or reference. I understand VIM/EMACS is powerful, but I also understand it is not as convenient as SlickEdit because they are not a full blown commercial IDE. So I am not sure if what I expect here is reasonable without tremendous efforts (a newbie here) and additional non-standard tools to install.
Those who use CLI, VIM, and EMACS a lot.., your any advice/opinion would greatly appreciate it.

I think you should use nano for editing in console mode. Nano also supports highlight code like VIM, but you have to configure a bit. Nano have friendly and familiar shortcut keys than VIM which is very confuse for Windows users.

I use Nano and feel very comfortable.

Hi,
you may find beneficial reading:
Introduction to Linux

see ya
fra