Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!rochester!pt!spice.cs.cmu.edu!mjp
From: mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AmigaDOS script hacking: flames
Message-ID: <1251@spice.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Fri, 31-Jul-87 13:28:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: spice.1251
Posted: Fri Jul 31 13:28:06 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Aug-87 01:40:58 EDT
Reply-To: mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi)
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 59

Keywords:


mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) writes:

> I had similar problems. LIST gives me tabs, but SORT didn't believe in
> them, and would only sort on a specific *character* column. So I wrote
> a quickie detaber. No biggie.

> Uh, I didn't have that kind of problem. Then again, I didn't try to
> make echo do something it wasn't intended to do. I used edit to create
> the multi-line edit script. Worked like a charm.

I yanked those two out quotes of context, but for my purpose it
doesn't matter.  My goal was to create a self-contained CLI script
that could do its work without external files or programs that I had
written.  All I wanted to depend on was the stuff that came with the
Workbench disk. (Remember, this was half experiment, half practical
idea).  Is there a way to make EDIT create a multi-line edit script
without using an external file?  Could you illustrate?

BTW, "intending" a command to be used for a specific purpose merely
cuts down on the utility of the system as a whole, as it limits the
way individual pieces can be combined.

> I don't agree. Edit is a *far* better stream editor than Unix ed. For
> anything complicated, it's better than sed. The builtin ability
> to loop, as opposed to the "all commands on every line" of sed is a
> win. [Warning: the abilities of awk have kept me from really learning
> the magic of sed.] Edit isn't an awk, but it's fairly powerfull.

Okay, the ability to loop a sequence of instructions is a big win in
EDIT.  But a few things I could wish for are:

	* The ability to search for *expressions*, rather than
	  character strings

	* Some sort of temporary storage, analogous to the TECO
	  Q-register, that can be used to hold text or other
	  information

	* The ability to use text extracted from the current line as
	  a parameter for a subsequent command.  Temporary storage can
	  be simulated using temporary files (thank GOD for ramdisks),
	  but there is no way to emulate this feature with EDIT (well,
	  maybe there is, but it's complicated enough to be not worth
	  the trouble)

> Also make *sure* you've got a pipe: driver.

Thanks for the advice.  If something useful comes of this, I'll share
it with everyone.

				--M
-- 

Mike Portuesi / Carnegie-Mellon University Computer Science Department
ARPA:	mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu	UUCP: {backbone-site}!spice.cs.cmu.edu!mjp
BITNET:	rainwalker@drycas (a uVax-1 run by CMU Computer Club...tons o' fun)

"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now...only much, much better"
			--Laurie Anderson, "Lanugage is a Virus"