Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!rutgers!deejay!gear!cadlab!staff
From: staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: Survey: who uses line editors today? and for what?
Keywords: line editors, editors
Message-ID: <298@cadlab.sublink.ORG>
Date: 24 Oct 90 17:06:28 GMT
References: <6@kaspar.UUCP>
Organization: CAD.LAB, Bologna, Italia
Lines: 48


In comp.editors you write:

>WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE AND EMAIL YOUR RESPONSES TO THIS QUESTION:

Fer sure!-) I'll be VERY surprised if your banged-AND-snailed reply-to
address makes it through the mailers between, but, who knows.  I'm ALSO
posting this to comp.editors, just in case...:-)


>[ ]	Do ever use line editors?  If yes, which editors do you use and
>	what do use them for (general line editor stuff like  global
>	substitutions, or editing scripts, or ?)

OH BOY, DO I EVER!
I am an OCCASIONAL user of ed:
	- available on mini-root's, emergency boot floppy/tapes, when
		/usr is dismounted, etc;
	- small, fast to load, easily sticky-bit-settable, thus very
		good for altering files within shell-scripts, for altering
		LARGE files, etc;
	- available on Unix-alikes... on Coherent, I'd rather use ed
		than micro-emacs (...don't quote me, but... - also, micro-emacs
		is limited to 32K-byte files, ed has no such limits).

I am a VERY FREQUENT user of ex:
	- powerful and general for altering files within shell-scripts
	- best alternative when you can't fullscreen (installation
		problems, terminfo broken, etc)
	- perfectly usable, even on very SLOW serial lines (no, I do NOT
		want to use vi on a 1200 modem, even 2400 is marginal, give
		me straight ex for 90% of my work) and/or super-loaded machines
	- all the best stuff in vi is in the ":" command anyway :-)


>Thank you in advance.  I am co-authoring a book on UNIX (with Paul
>Abrahams) and we are trying to decide how extensive we should make
>the section on `ex' as well as whether or not to include a section
>on `ed.'

A short section on ed, maybe presented as an ex-subset, and a detailed
one on ex, would be appropriate in my opinion.  Others will disagree...

-- 
Alex Martelli - CAD.LAB s.p.a., v. Stalingrado 45, Bologna, Italia
Email: (work:) staff@cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) alex@am.sublink.org
Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 250434; 
Fax: ++39 (51) 366964 (work only; any time of day or night).