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From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: stupid unix questions
Message-ID: <5990@scolex.sco.COM>
Date: 2 May 90 21:12:05 GMT
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In article <5111@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> doug@jhuvms.bitnet (Douglas W. O'Neal) writes:
>Forgot one. Most of the times I have seen ed used, it has been interactive 
>(usually to make a quick change to a file).  Would Mr. Ullman like this 
>capability taken away to make it more pure?

ed's sole claim to being interactive is its error "message" ('?').

Any program which accepts commands (or data) from stdin, and can produce
output on stdout, fits very nicely into unix.  It can be interactive, since,
unless specified, stdin and stdout are your terminal, or it can be used in a
pipe.  vi, in all incarnations I've seen, cannot be used in a pipe (emacs
might be able to, but I don't think so).

I'd also like to point out that the only times *I* use ed, generally, are to 
do some batch editing of a file.

-- 
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Sean Eric Fagan  | "It's a pity the universe doesn't use [a] segmented 
seanf@sco.COM    |  architecture with a protected mode."
uunet!sco!seanf  |         -- Rich Cook, _Wizard's Bane_
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