Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att!mcdchg!laidbak!obdient!gagme!grahj
From: grahj@gagme.chi.il.us (jim graham)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: A vi question
Message-ID: <654@gagme.chi.il.us>
Date: 16 Aug 90 23:30:08 GMT
References: <1990Aug12.194738.7902@ecn.purdue.edu> <14420003@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM>
Organization: GAGME - Public Access UNIX of Niles, Illinois, USA, Earth
Lines: 25

In article <14420003@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM> was@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM (Bill Stubblebine) writes:
>patkar@amide.ecn.purdue.edu (The Silent Dodo)
>
>> I need to do the following in vi.
>> ccccoooossss -> cos
>
>:%s/cc*/c/g
>:%s/oo*/o/g
>:%s/ss*/s/g

First off, if the sources I sent patkar@..... work, this is a dead issue.
the intent was to get rid of the overstriking done by nroff (etc) for bold
type.

Second, and here's where I may simply have more to learn about vi (which is
the case all the time.....), with your search/replace commands above, what
happens with strings such as "success", "pool", and so on?  I guess the real
question should be, does the "*" tell vi that you're talking about strings
of more than 2 of that character?  

Thanks,
Jim Graham

PS:  RTFM isn't a valid answer, since I didn't find the answer there.....
     at least, not in the manuals I have.