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From: rouben@math16.math.umbc.edu (Rouben Rostamian)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: Simple VI question?
Message-ID: <1991May9.103552.11085@umbc3.umbc.edu>
Date: 9 May 91 10:35:52 GMT
References: <1991May9.024022.24367@massey.ac.nz>
Sender: newspost@umbc3.umbc.edu (News  posting account)
Organization: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Mathmatics Department
Lines: 21

In article <1991May9.024022.24367@massey.ac.nz> R.Singh@massey.ac.nz (R. Singh) writes:
 >How does one do this in VI.
 >Mark 2 lines, and then from ":'a, 'z" append a >> at the beginning of every
 >line. For example for  whole file, a command of ":g/^./s//la/g" would
 >substitute the first 2 characters of every line with la.
 >
 >What I want to do is insert >> before every line in the region marked with
 >"ma" and "mz".

Try
     :'a,'zs/^/>>/

I prefer to mark one end of the range, say by m, the go to the other
end and do
    :'m,.s/^/>>/

--
Rouben Rostamian                          Telephone: (301) 455-2458
Department of Mathematics and Statistics  e-mail:
University of Maryland Baltimore County   bitnet: rostamian@umbc.bitnet
Baltimore, MD 21228,  U.S.A.              internet: rouben@math9.math.umbc.edu