When I am using ipython or ipython3, I can use the %edit command to open up an editor to write my python scripts in. My problem is that the default editor is vim and I really do not get how to use that editor. What I would like to do is to change the editor to either nano or gedit. I think to stay with the terminal I would prefer to change it to the nano editor.

When I type in the 'edit?' command into the ipython terminal it says :

%edit runs IPython's editor hook. The default version of this hook is
set to call the editor specified by your $EDITOR environment variable.
If this isn't found, it will default to vi under Linux/Unix and to
notepad under Windows. See the end of this docstring for how to change
the editor hook.

Then when I see the end of that docstring I see this:

Changing the default editor hook:

If you wish to write your own editor hook, you can put it in a
configuration file which you load at startup time. The default hook
is defined in the IPython.core.hooks module, and you can use that as a
starting example for further modifications. That file also has
general instructions on how to set a new hook for use once you've
defined it.

Sorry to be such a newbie, but I get lost here. I am not sure how to get to the IPython.core.hooks module, or just simply set an environment variable $EDITOR to nano.

Any suggestions?