Inevitably with a shell account, you are going to need to edit text in files. There are numerous text editors available on SDF. Here is a list of text editors available on SDF

As you can see, there are quite a few to choose from. Some are simple, and some are complex and quite amazingly powerful. Many folks find pico or the similar nano (also see SDF wiki page nano) convenient and easy to use. There are also friendly alternatives such as micro, which works more like Windows Notepad or IOS TextEdit. And for those who are willing to learn them there are much more powerful editors like “vi”, “vim” and "emacs" which offer an unmatched degree of customization. What is important is to choose an editor that you are comfortable working with, as you will be spending considerable time using it.