Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!psuvax1!gatech!mcnc!ge
From: ge@mcnc.org (George Entenman)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: vi abbreviation for :w :n ?
Message-ID: <5486@alvin.mcnc.org>
Date: 28 Sep 89 17:09:13 GMT
References: <4728@tekcrl.LABS.TEK.COM> <26465@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> 
Reply-To: ge@mcnc.org.UUCP (George Entenman)
Organization: Microelectronics Center of NC; RTP, NC
Lines: 46

In article  bitbug@lonewolf.sun.com (James Buster) writes:
>There is a much better way. Set autowrite (the "aw" variable) in your
>EXINIT environment variable or .exrc. This will cause the file to be
>automatically written when the :n command is given. If you have job
>control, it will also cause your file to be written automatically
>when ^Z is typed. If you use the ^^ command (that's control-caret),
>the file will also be written when going to the alternate file.

My office mate typically codes C by using the following loop:

	repeat until satisfied with result
		invoke vi on a C file
		edit the file
		write the file
		quit vi
		compile

But one day a couple of weeks ago, she started up vi on a C file and
then used control-Z to stop it.  She then started her typical work loop
and worked for about 3 hours, making extensive changes on the original C
file.

After finishing, she noticed a vi job sitting in background and typed
'fg'.  Seeing that the file was a very old version, she typed ':q' to
get out.

3 hours of work were gone!  There was lots of screaming that I won't
describe here.  It turned out that her .login file, which
she had borrowed from someone, set EXINIT to autowrite.

I don't think that autowrite should ever be set automatically.

But then, I always alias 'rm' to be 'rm -i'.  If I can't trust me,
should you?


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