Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!hp4nl!star.cs.vu.nl!maart From: maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath) Newsgroups: comp.editors Subject: autowrite (was: Re: vi abbreviation for :w :n ?) Message-ID: <3627@solo5.cs.vu.nl> Date: 9 Oct 89 18:44:26 GMT References: <4728@tekcrl.LABS.TEK.COM> <26465@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <5486@alvin.mcnc.org> <455@tuewsd.lso.win.tue.nl> Organization: V.U. Informatica, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Lines: 24 wsinkees@lso.win.tue.nl (Kees Huizing) writes: \... \How is this possible? If you type ':q' nothing is written by our vi! \I quit with '^Z' many times and sometimes I accidentally start up a new \vi-job on the same file. When I see the old jobs hanging around, I \reactivate them and silently quit with ':q' without any harm. \Even if you have autowrite on, vi warns you when you quit this way and some \changes have not been written yet. \So, what is going on here? If there is something harmful in autowrite, I \would really like to know, since I use it very heavily, quitting with '^Z' \and executing latex etc. from within vi with ':!compile' . Can someone \explain me the danger of my ways? This is the way to go! Once you know how to use `autowrite', life with vi becomes so much simpler... From the Vi Reference: ... aw | autowrite - Write at every shell escape. | (useful when compiling from within vi) ... | `:map ^C :!cc %^V' to compile from within vi -- The UNIX Way of doing something [...] is to make it look as much like a filter as possible. (Richard O'Keefe) | Maarten Litmaath (mcsun!botter!maart)