Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!samsung!uunet!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!ibmpcug!dylan
From: dylan@ibmpcug.co.uk (Matthew Farwell)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: vi mapping difficulty
Message-ID: <1991Mar12.122340.9153@ibmpcug.co.uk>
Date: 12 Mar 91 12:23:40 GMT
References: <1991Mar08.205940.11108@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Reply-To: dylan@ibmpcug.CO.UK (Matthew Farwell)
Organization: The IBM PC User Group, UK.
Lines: 47

In article <1991Mar08.205940.11108@vpnet.chi.il.us> dattier@vpnet.chi.il.us (David W. Tamkin) writes:
>I want to clear out any lines that don't have text on them.  The purpose is
>to separate paragraphs in quoted text.
>
>So I have this in my .exrc:
>
>map ^X :v/[0-9A-Za-z]/s/.*//^M
>
>where ^X and ^M are ctrl-X and CR.  The ^X doesn't need a ^V to be entered,
>but with or without it, or mapped to a printing character, the results are
>the same.
>
>Now, on some systems I call the mapping works fine.  On all of them, if I
>type the command in, it works.  But on other systems (including those I call
>most), if I try to use a mapping and call it by rebound key, these are the
>effects:
>
>If I've just read the file into the buffer and made no changes yet, it works.
>Otherwise, one or two occurrences of the pattern get replaced and the
>operation stops with "Can't undo in global" -- so who asked for an undo?
>
>It's not a matter of the "modified" flag, because if I do :w or :w! to write
>the buffer out and remove the flag, the operation (if called from a rebound
>key) still aborts with "Can't undo in global."  If I :w and then :e %, it
>will work if I use it before making any more changes.
>
>Short of expecting the system administrators to install new versions of vi,
>is there any way I can change the mapping to make it function?  Binding
>:g/^[^0-9A-Za-z]*$/s///^M to a key acts the same way.

I had a similar problem to this. My mapping was

map ^W 1G:1,/^$/g/: $/d^M

Where ^W is ctrl-W and ^M is ctrl-M.

(This removes all blank headers when you're entering a news article)

This works fine when you type it in. It even works when its a macro, but
it beeps at me. I can undo it, but then it doesn't work. Anyone got
any ideas? (Other than this, my problem is similar to above)

Dylan.
-- 
Matthew J Farwell: dylan@ibmpcug.co.uk || ...!uunet!ukc!ibmpcug!dylan
If you've ever wondered how to get triangles from a cow, you need
	butter, milk and cheese and an equilateral chainsaw.