Edit a text file on the console using Powershell

Question

I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to edit text files in the console (PowerShell in my case). I'm using Windows 7 64 bit. It galls me that I can't just type edit filename.txt to edit a file. That used to work, but that's all changed. What are my options to view and edit text files within the windows console, and if you tell me to install and learn VIM I'm going to punch you in the face. :-)

Answer 1

Why not use notepad?

notepad.exe filename.txt 

The old edit.com works in PowerShell (at least on my box: Windows 7 Pro x86) but in x64 it doesn't work due to its 16bit architecture.

You can take a look at this easy editor.

Answer 2

Kinesics Text Editor.

It's super fast and handles large text files, though minimal in features. There's a GUI version and console version (k.exe) included. Should work the same on linux.

Example: In my test it took 7 seconds to open a 500mb disk image.