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From: hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: line moving while in insert mode
Keywords: line moving while in insert mode
Message-ID: <3095@wn1.sci.kun.nl>
Date: 23 Apr 91 19:44:24 GMT
References: <6219@beryl12.UUCP> <1991Apr22.031302.5020@cbfsb.att.com>
Sender: root@sci.kun.nl
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Lines: 36

In <1991Apr22.031302.5020@cbfsb.att.com> rosen@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (steven.b.rosen) writes:

>	The only movement I know of while in insert mode is ^W (control W).
>	This will back you up one word. You can type this as many times as
>	you want, but you cant back up beyond your initial insert point. If
>	you find any commands, please post them here.

Control-W *deletes* the last word you typed.  The word remains on the screen
as a hint in case you wanted to type something similar.  It will disappear
if you type over it or if escape out of insertion mode.
And you can't always back up to your insertion point, because you can't ^W
back to the previous line.

There are several other control keys for deleting something in insertion mode:
backspace (^H) erases the last character (but not beyond the insertion point
nor beyond the left margin).  If your erase character outside vi is not ^H
than whatever it is works as well.

Your line kill character (^U or whatever you set it to) erases the entire
input line (except the whitespace generated by autoindent mode), or back to
the insertion point if that is on the current line.

^D on the beginning of an autoindented line decreases the autoindent by one
shiftwidth.  ^T increases it by 1 shiftwidth.  0^D erases all the whitespace
generated by autoindent.  ^^D (that is: a caret followed by a control-D)
erases all the autoindented whitespace, but reinstates it on the next line.

The other character that inserts something non-obvious is ^@.  When typed
as the very first character in insertion mode, it inserts the same text
you inserted last time (provided it is less than 128 characters) and ends
insertion mode.

--
Have a nice day,

Hans Mulder	hansm@cs.kun.nl