dwallach@soda.Berkeley.EDU (Dan Wallach) (12/13/90)
I've been reading the vi power user threads with some interest for a while,
but I'm afraid that I must ask a simple question, that others probably don't
know, either.
Just what's the "meta" key in vi? Tom Christensen mentions the tab key but
when I hit it I just get a beep.
In jove/emacs you would hit esc-key or ^X-key (or ...) for different flavors
of meta, but just what's it in vi and what are "standard" meta key functions?
I've also seen people referencing \U and \L as commands for macros to upper-
case and lower-case letters. Are there more \ commands?
Go ahead and say rtfm, but our esteemed Apollo 10.2 docs mention nothing of meta
keys in vi nor \anything in ex (although it does mention & and \&).
Dan
P.S. As much as I despise emacs, at least it's internally documented to death.
I find out every time I hit ^H :-)tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) (12/13/90)
dwallach@soda.Berkeley.EDU (Dan Wallach) writes:
(Oops, I think there's Dan mail hidden in my inbox unanswered.)
:Just what's the "meta" key in vi? Tom Christensen mentions the tab key but
:when I hit it I just get a beep.
Dan, Dan, Dan, after all the years we've know each other, you *still*
can't spell my name? :-)
That's right. You'll just hear a beep, because this meta idea in vi
is just something that I have defined for myself. I have a set of
more complex macros, like my lint macro or my comment-mode macro, that
all begin with a <TAB> as a lead in. Or you can use backslash. Depends
on where your hands are at the time.
:I've also seen people referencing \U and \L as commands for macros to upper-
:case and lower-case letters. Are there more \ commands?
\u change next char to upper case
\U change next stuff all to upper case until told to do otherwise
\l change next char to lower case
\L change next stuff all to lower case until told to do otherwise
\E, \e stop changing stuff
:Go ahead and say rtfm, but our esteemed Apollo 10.2 docs mention nothing of meta
:keys in vi nor \anything in ex (although it does mention & and \&).
The meta key is just my weird, broken terminology. But you should have
RTFM'd to get the \foo stuff. And considering where you're posting from,
you have no excuse to use anything but original docs (which do indeed
mention this if you dig enough), not some third-hand, user-friendly,
programmer-hostile vendor doc. :-)
--tom
--
Tom Christiansen tchrist@convex.com convex!tchrist
"With a kernel dive, all things are possible, but it sure makes it hard
to look at yourself in the mirror the next morning." -me