How to open a terminal file in TextEdit

Question

I use nano <file_name> to open/edit files on terminal. However it's very hard to edit so is there a way to open terminal files in TextEdit?

EDIT:

open -a TextEdit <my_file_name> and open -a TextEdit both return this:

open: invalid option -- 'a'
Usage: open [OPTIONS] -- command

This utility help you to start a program on a new virtual terminal (VT).

Options:
  -c, --console=NUM   use the given VT number;
  -e, --exec          execute the command, without forking;
  -f, --force         force opening a VT without checking;
  -l, --login         make the command a login shell;
  -u, --user          figure out the owner of the current VT;
  -s, --switch        switch to the new VT;
  -w, --wait          wait for command to complete;
  -v, --verbose       print a message for each action;
  -V, --version       print program version and exit;
  -h, --help          output a brief help message.

open -e <my_file_name> returns:

Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console

Answer 1

Since you're on Ubuntu, there is no textedit command or application out of the box.

From your question:

1. open -e settings.py On osx, this would execute the python file instead of opening it in your default text editor. Use open -t settings.py to open the python file with the default text editor.

2. open -a TextEdit This doesn't work op Ubuntu because TextEdit simply doesn't exist (works on mac). For your purpose, try gedit settings.py

3. xdg-open settings.py On Ubuntu, try xdg-open. This is the equivalent of Macs' open command which opens any file with the associated default application for the file type. I'm not sure what application would launch if you try to open a python file though.