Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!limes
From: limes@sun.uucp (Greg Limes)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: Query-replace on VI
Message-ID: <52333@sun.uucp>
Date: 6 May 88 21:30:15 GMT
References: <2587@geac.UUCP> <27909@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <86@skep2.ATT.COM> <393@aiva.ed.ac.uk> <52205@sun.uucp> <2801@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: limes@sun.UUCP (Greg Limes)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 33
Keywords: EMACS JOVE vi

[in response to the wrangling going on about vi's "query replace",]

In article <2801@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> towfigh@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Mark Towfigh) writes:
>The problem is not that vi doesn't have the feature, but how
>difficult it is to remember the key sequence, and how slow it is to
>key it in.

Difficult to remember? gag. I am assuming the guy who did not know about
the "check" feature of the substitute command had never seen it; the
form is similar to specifying "every instance on the line". As for time
to key it in, my search and replace patterns are large enough and I type
with more than two fingers, so the few spare characters do not slow me
down.

>           Just the fact that people had to post a query about how
>to do this function is an indication of the dearth of on-line help
>in vi.

So go to the off-line help; thats one of the things that makes VI small
and EMACS large. VI never claimed to have online help.  You want online
text, you pay for it; maybe in core, maybe in swap, always in disk.
Offline text costs you bookshelf space.

On a slightly different topic, since when did *this* exchange become a
battle of the better editors?  Personally, I use GnuEmacs, vi,
textedit, microemacs, tc, 1word, and edlin. Different tools for
different jobs and different environments.

Consider that some people may not have Emacs or Jove available on their
systems; for their sakes, lets keep the information level up and the
flamage level down.
-- 
   Greg Limes [limes@sun.com]			Illigitimi Non Carborundum