ires@kaspar.UUCP (Bruce R. Larson) (10/22/90)
WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE AND EMAIL YOUR RESPONSES TO THIS QUESTION: [ ] Do ever use line editors? If yes, which editors do you use and what do use them for (general line editor stuff like global substitutions, or editing scripts, or ?) Replies to: kaspar!blarson@cs.umb.edu Thank you in advance. I am co-authoring a book on UNIX (with Paul Abrahams) and we are trying to decide how extensive we should make the section on `ex' as well as whether or not to include a section on `ed.' I will gladly summarize for the net if there is enough interest. Bruce kaspar!ires@cs.umb.edu Integral Resources, Milton MA
staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli) (10/25/90)
In comp.editors you write: >WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE AND EMAIL YOUR RESPONSES TO THIS QUESTION: Fer sure!-) I'll be VERY surprised if your banged-AND-snailed reply-to address makes it through the mailers between, but, who knows. I'm ALSO posting this to comp.editors, just in case...:-) >[ ] Do ever use line editors? If yes, which editors do you use and > what do use them for (general line editor stuff like global > substitutions, or editing scripts, or ?) OH BOY, DO I EVER! I am an OCCASIONAL user of ed: - available on mini-root's, emergency boot floppy/tapes, when /usr is dismounted, etc; - small, fast to load, easily sticky-bit-settable, thus very good for altering files within shell-scripts, for altering LARGE files, etc; - available on Unix-alikes... on Coherent, I'd rather use ed than micro-emacs (...don't quote me, but... - also, micro-emacs is limited to 32K-byte files, ed has no such limits). I am a VERY FREQUENT user of ex: - powerful and general for altering files within shell-scripts - best alternative when you can't fullscreen (installation problems, terminfo broken, etc) - perfectly usable, even on very SLOW serial lines (no, I do NOT want to use vi on a 1200 modem, even 2400 is marginal, give me straight ex for 90% of my work) and/or super-loaded machines - all the best stuff in vi is in the ":" command anyway :-) >Thank you in advance. I am co-authoring a book on UNIX (with Paul >Abrahams) and we are trying to decide how extensive we should make >the section on `ex' as well as whether or not to include a section >on `ed.' A short section on ed, maybe presented as an ex-subset, and a detailed one on ex, would be appropriate in my opinion. Others will disagree... -- Alex Martelli - CAD.LAB s.p.a., v. Stalingrado 45, Bologna, Italia Email: (work:) staff@cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) alex@am.sublink.org Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 250434; Fax: ++39 (51) 366964 (work only; any time of day or night).