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From: gwc@root.co.uk (Geoff Clare)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: Okay, now, how to you change case of a *word* in vi?
Message-ID: <2567@root44.co.uk>
Date: 18 Dec 90 14:48:27 GMT
References: <622@tessi.UUCP> <111467@convex.convex.com>
Organization: UniSoft Ltd., London, England
Lines: 40

In <111467@convex.convex.com> tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) writes:

>From the keyboard of larry@tessi.uucp (Larry Gillespie):
>:After seeing people discussing how to change an entire file, or a line,
>:to upper or lower case, I'd like to ask a harder one.  For years, I've
>:tried to figure out a way to change the case of just a single word
>:(or, optionally, 'W'ord), and, extrapolating, a number of words (using
>:a range specification).

>    map v ywmno^[P:s/./\~/g^M0"nDdd`n@n
>    map V yWmno^[P:s/./\~/g^M0"nDdd`n@n

Or if your version of vi doesn't understand "\~" (most don't) you can
replace
	:s/./\~/g^M
with
	:s/\([^a-zA-Z]*\)\([a-z]*\)\([A-Z]*\)/\1\U\2\L\3/g^M

I have this as a separate macro for changing case over a whole line,
and call it within the "word" and "Word" macros.

One warning: if you have "showmatch" set, then when vi displays the
command it will pause three times.  I got so annoyed by this I have
stopped using "showmatch" and just use the '%' command when I want to
check bracket matching.  (I prefer this method now, anyway).

On a related note, does anyone know if POSIX.2a has adopted the current
behaviour of "~", or have POSIX done the decent thing and invented a
proper "exchange case" command?  Since "v" is currently unused that
would be a good choice.  It would be great to be able to use "vw" to
change case of a word, "vt." to change case up to a "." character,
"vv" to change a whole line, etc.

Whoever originally implemented "~" as such a horrible botch instead of
making it work like "d", "y", and "c" should be shot!

-- 
Geoff Clare <gwc@root.co.uk>  (Dumb American mailers: ...!uunet!root.co.uk!gwc)
UniSoft Limited, London, England.  Tel: +44 71 315 6600   Fax: +44 71 315 6622
         (From 22nd December 1990, Tel: +44 71 729 3773   Fax: +44 71 729 3273)