Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!meyering
From: meyering@cs.utexas.edu (Jim Meyering)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: A vi question
Keywords: substitute, vi
Message-ID: <860@ai.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 13 Aug 90 01:03:51 GMT
References: <1990Aug12.194738.7902@ecn.purdue.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: U of TX at Austin CS Dept
Lines: 19

In article <1990Aug12.194738.7902@ecn.purdue.edu> patkar@amide.ecn.purdue.edu (The Silent Dodo) writes:
    > I need to do the following in vi.
[ Change text like "ccccoooossss" to "cos" ]
    > :1,$s/\(a-zA-Z)\)\1\1\1/\1/g
[ doesn't work ]

If your "in vi" requirement is strict, I'm not
sure I can help.  Otherwise, `sed' can do it.

From in vi,
:%!sed 's/\([a-zA-Z]\)\1\1\1/\1/g'
works for me.

(It looks like maybe you had an extra right
paren and forgot the square brackets)

Regards,
-- 
Jim Meyering          meyering@cs.utexas.edu