Xref: utzoo comp.editors:576 alt.flame:5296
Path: utzoo!censor!becker!ziebmef!ncrcan!hcr!stacey
From: stacey@hcr.UUCP (Stacey Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.editors,alt.flame
Subject: Re: Vi bashing
Keywords: holy mackerel
Message-ID: <24@hcr.UUCP>
Date: 23 Mar 89 01:50:02 GMT
References: <587@alice.marlow.uucp> <4048@ttidca.TTI.COM> <960@myrias.UUCP>
Reply-To: stacey@hcrvax.UUCP (Stacey Campbell)
Organization: HCR Corporation, Toronto
Lines: 51

You gotta see this to believe it, truly a case of the moronic
leading the blind.

In article <960@myrias.UUCP> dbf@myrias.UUCP writes:
>In article <4048@ttidca.TTI.COM> kevin@ttidcb.tti.com (Kevin Carothers) writes:
>>I am continuously amazed at the lack of knowledge about Vi some of the 
>>people who post to this newsgroup display!

Ditto.

>>NO, you DO NOT have to count lines! [to delete a block of text] 
>>1.  Mark the beginning and end of your block of text 
>>    Lets say the beginning is register "a", and the end is "b".
>>2.  Enter the following command:
>>    :'a,'bw !wc -l
>>           +---- This space is very important.
             +---- This command is totally twisted.

>>If you don't like Vi, fine. Just don't post untrue junk about it.
>
>Thanks for posting an ingenious and elegant solution. 
>With my amazing lack of knowledge of vi, it would have taken me 
>hours of pulling together information scattered among many 
>pages of UNIX documentation on vi, ex, and wc to come up with 
>this nifty get-around. [...]

This little exchange just totally freaks me out.  Of all the ways
to delete text in vi I have never seen this solution, can anyone
think of a more bizarre way to do this?

For reality try...

    :'a,'bd

or if the cursor is at the end of the range for deletion...

    :'a,.d

for orthogonal functionality...

    d[any mark]

where [any mark] is:

     'a			- to mark 'a
     $			- to end of line
     /[search string]   - to char before start of [search string]
     G			- to end of file
     etc...
-- 
Stacey Campbell, HCR Corporation, {lsuc,utzoo,utcsri}!hcr!stacey