Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!boingo.med.jhu.edu!welch.jhu.edu!glenn From: glenn@welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc Subject: Re: vi on ms-dos Message-ID: <1991Jun7.172233.7978@welch.jhu.edu> Date: 7 Jun 91 17:22:33 GMT References: <1991Jun01.110117.19901@cavebbs.gen.nz> <1991Jun3.143356.26128@welch.jhu.edu> <1991Jun05.153324.25760@chinet.chi.il.us> <1991Jun7.111929.8902@news.cs.indiana.edu> Reply-To: glenn@welchlab.welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) Organization: Welch Medical Library, Baltimore Lines: 87 In article <1991Jun7.111929.8902@news.cs.indiana.edu> bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) writes: >glenn@welchlab.welch.jhu.edu (Glenn M. Mason) writes: >| >| > I think I >| >studied the command set for about an hour or so, and I have been able to do >| >just about anything that you can possibly do with vi (which ain't much!-). > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > >Full-featured vi and emacs share the property of doing anything which can >be done, in a sense --- that is to say, macros exist for both editors which >implement Turing machines. So if you can't do something in vi (or in emacs, >given five times as many keystrokes) it's your fault, not the editor's. Then I have a few questions for you which are directed at a standard implementation of vi on a Unix platform. If vi can do "anything that can be done" via mocro customization, please show me how to accomplish the following things ... because if you can, I may actually *use* vi: Can you show me how to customize vi to display 2 or more files for simultaneous editing? Can you tell me how to get vi to use filename completion when I forget the name of a file I want to edit when I am already in vi ... like commanding vi to "e " , then tell vi to display for me a list of files in the working directory that match that expression? Can you show me how to customize vi to split the display and allow me to edit 1 or more files in multiple windows/buffers while giving me an inter- active shell in another window to access the OS while I am editing ... all accomplished by never leaving the editor? Can you show me how to get vi to run an OS command in a window so that I can edit, cut and paste, etc. the OS command output for use within a file that I am editing? Can you show me how to customize vi to run 'make' and automatically bring into the editor source files and move the cursor to the point of syntax errors ... and move forward/backward from/to next error and/or source file tracking each error (just like many integrated edit/compile/debug environments that come with many PC-based language systems? Can you show me how to edit a document in vi and ask vi to invoke 'spell' over the text and then move the cursor forward/backward tracking possible spelling errors at the touch of a key (only after I have been given a chance to edit the list of possible mistakes, deleting the entries that I know are spelled correctly and may not be in the dictionary)? Can you tell me how to make vi push and pop directories so that I can move around easily and edit different files in different directories without leaving ther editor (oh yeah ... and if I forget the name of the directories, I want vi to help me out with their names as well)? Can you tell me how I can make vi map any particular function that it is capable of to a keystroke that I am comfortable with? Can you show me how to make vi *warn* me that the file I am attempting to save has been saved to disk after I invoked vi on the file (which means that someone edited and saved the file within the time I was editing the same file)? Can you tell me how to customize vi to give on-line, context-sensitive help text for *any* possible function that vi has? Can you show me how to make vi aware that when I type a certain word abbreviation, vi really knows that I want the abbreviation expanded? Can you show me how to make vi display the time or date in an obscure portion of the screen, or notify me that new mail has arrived, or display the name of the file I am editing, or tell me what editing mode I am in? If you can show me how to do any of these things, I'd really like to know how! Because these are just *some* of the features that I want in an editor and already have with no customization at all. These features are all available within Jove which is a free, public-domain program ... and Jove is an excellent editor but is really just an emacs implementation that is merely a subset of most of the more powerful emacs implementations available. If these things can be done in vi, show me *how* it can be done, because I would be very interested in knowing how to customize vi to do some of these things ... and I'm sure there are other vi users out there that would like to know as well! Show me!! Glenn