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From: rudy@alias.UUCP (Rudy Wortel)
Newsgroups: comp.editors,alt.sources
Subject: Re: Vi/Ex: command line editor? - Sort of.
Message-ID: <1991Mar8.153222.14583@alias.uucp>
Date: 8 Mar 91 15:32:22 GMT
References: <1991Jan30.175602.400@convex.com> <4748@male.EBay.Sun.COM> <5104@lure.latrobe.edu.au> <2797@wn1.sci.kun.nl> <1991Mar6.145534.14349@unipalm.uucp>
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In article <5104@lure.latrobe.edu.au> ECSGRT@lure.latrobe.edu.au (GEOFFREY TOBIN, ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING) writes:
>  :.,.+3s/some long expression/another long expression/g...
>    OOPS!  I mistyped something.
>  :BORING REPETITION WITH A ONE-CHARACTER CORRECTION
>Command line editing for ex?

Having done this same thing 5000 times my solution was to never type
long : command at the command line. Instead i type them into the file
where you get all your favorite editing features. i then delete the
line into a named buffer and then execture the buffer with the @
command. To speed things up i have a macro for control X in my .exrc
file the does the delete and execute for me. If the command didn't
behave as expected then i undo the change put the buffer, edit and
reexecute it. It works adequately for me.

Here is my macro. It uses the named buffer 'd'

map ^X "ddd@d

As an aside you can exploit the function key maping to extend your
macro set. VI lets you type #<digit> to simulate pressing a function
key. The versions of vi i use don't check to make sure that the
characters following the # are digits. i have many macros defined as
#<letter> so that at last count i had 43 macros defined.

-rudy