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From: s887212@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Stephen Riehm [Romulis])
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: vi with windows?
Message-ID: <6284@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au>
Date: 19 Nov 90 08:17:47 GMT
References: <1190@syacus.acus.oz>
Organization: RMIT Computer Centre, Melbourne Australia.
Lines: 62

michaelw@syacus.acus.oz (Michael Wang) writes:

>Is there a public domain vi editor that has a windowing feature?
>If so, where can I get it?  Does Elvis and Stevie have window features?

very nice to have I must admit.. (the 'ol cyber 760 Full Screen Editor had
features like this), but there is more.....

>I'd like to edit one file while looking at another and our SysV
>does not have ^Z feature to swap between different processes.  This makes
>editing related files a pain.  So I am in dire need of a vi editor with
>windowing feature.  (I don't particularly want to learn emacs.)

what you need is to learn how to use vi with multiple files.. it can do
the job quite nicely if you care to learn. Essentially you need to learn
to use the :n and :e commands (these are at their best when  auto-write is
turned on by the way).
I often start a programming session in vi by typing vi *.c
this starts vi up with the first .c file.. no problems so far.
to then move from one file to the next you can use :n to go to the next
file.. (if auto-write is off you will have to :w! first (if you have
changed anything of course)). you can :n until you get to the last file.
to start with the first file again.. :rew rewinds the list and puts you
back.

if you are swapping between two files a lot.. edit one then use :n file2 or
:e file2 to start up the second one.. once you have done this once you can
use :e# or ^^ (ctrl-shift-6) (I have also noticed that ^6 works.. is this
an undocumented feature?) to swap between the two.. 

why use this rather than suspending? well there are advantages... if you
are editing multiple files this way it is easy to copy information from one
file to the next.. by using the labeled buffers (a-z) <the default buffer
is lost when you change files> for example.. to copy one line from file a
to file b you do something like..
vi a b       /* start editing the two files */
             /* locate line to copy */
"zyy         /* yank the line into buffer z */
:n           /* move to the next file .. in this case "b" */
             /* locate place to put line */
"zp  or "zP  /* put the yanked line from "a" under/above the current
              * position in "b" */

there are a few other things like TAGS which you might also want to read up
about.
these solutions don't offer you many files on the screen at once.. just a
way of swapping between files... I don't find it too difficult to cope.

just one question to those that may have followed this note this far.. I
know the :n goes to the next file in your arglist.. :ar lists them and :rew
rewinds them and put you back to the start.. but is there any way to step
through the files backwards one at a time? < :p don't work and :e# has a
toggling effect >

hope this helps ya some
============================================================================
Romulis [Stephen Riehm]	            Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,
					       (124 Latrobe St., Melbourne.)
s887212@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au					   Australia.

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