vi/comp.editors/demyst

From hansm@wsinti04.info.win.tue.nl (Hans Mulder)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: 29 Jun 1993 14:38:43 +0200

In <C9Cnsu.5Do@vti.com> johnw@vti.com (John Wiegley) writes:

 >Here's something neat I just learned while playing around
 >with vi the other day.  Usually when I learn an arcane tool,
 >I like to guess the author's motives behind naming all the
 >key-combinations (because that helps me remember them).

I'm afraid that for some key-combinations (e.g. control-G),
the motive was mostly that all of the good ones were taken.

 >Two of the ones I couldn't figure out in vi were "t" and "f".

 >  [n] f [character] - jump to the nth occurence of character.
 >  [n] t [character] - jump to the character JUST BEFORE
 >                      the nth occurence of character.
 >  [n] F [character] - jump back to the nth occurence of char.
 >  [n] T [character] - jump back to the character JUST AFTER
 >                      the nth occurence of character.

 >Well, the reason for having these commands seemed a little
 >obscure, and the reason for their names was even MORE obscure,
 >until one day...

 >  I was editing a ":" delimited database, and realized that
 >  I could conveniently jump to field "9" by typing "9f:".  So
 >  the "f" stood for "field".  Or, if I wanted to delete the
 >  first four fields on a line, I could type "d4f:".

 >  And..

 >  I was hacking around in some files, and got to a line where
 >  I wanted to delete everything UP TO, BUT NOT INCLUDING some
 >  character.  I then realized that "t" stands for "to".  You
 >  can read "d2tk" as "delete to the 2nd k".

 >Using those pneumonics I never forget the pair, and find that
 >I use them all the time now..

To save you some wear of the "f" and "t" keys, let me point out
that ";" repeats the most recent "f", "t", "F" or "T", and ","
jumps to the same character in the opposite direction.

I have no idea why ";" and "," were chosen for this function.

HansM


From tbrown@db1 (Terry Brown)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1993 13:50:27 GMT

johnw@vti.com (John Wiegley) writes:
:   I was editing a ":" delimited database, and realized that
:   I could conveniently jump to field "9" by typing "9f:".  So
:   the "f" stood for "field".  Or, if I wanted to delete the
:   first four fields on a line, I could type "d4f:".
: 
	Funny, I always though 'f' stood for 'find'.

: Using those pneumonics I never forget the pair, and find that
: I use them all the time now..
: 
	And not that they only work on the current line, they never
	take you to another line.


       __o
     _`\<,_		Terry
    (_)/ (_)



From ray@Celestial.COM (Ray Jones)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1993 16:35:26 GMT

In <C9Cnsu.5Do@vti.com> johnw@vti.com (John Wiegley) writes:

[stuff about vi being obscure deleted]

>Well, the reason for having these commands seemed a little
>obscure, and the reason for their names was even MORE obscure,
>until one day...

>  I was editing a ":" delimited database, and realized that
>  I could conveniently jump to field "9" by typing "9f:".  So
>  the "f" stood for "field".  Or, if I wanted to delete the
>  first four fields on a line, I could type "d4f:".

>  And..

>  I was hacking around in some files, and got to a line where
>  I wanted to delete everything UP TO, BUT NOT INCLUDING some
>  character.  I then realized that "t" stands for "to".  You
>  can read "d2tk" as "delete to the 2nd k".

>Using those pneumonics I never forget the pair, and find that
>I use them all the time now..

In the classes I teach on vi, I try to point out to the students that almost
all vi commands are pneumonic.  I think "f" means "forward", BTW, but
"field" if it helps you remember.

Some other helpful hints: Uppercase keys have either a greater action than
the lowercase key (as in a,A i,I u,U h,H l,L w,W e,E r,R b,B c,C d,D s,S) or
the opposite action ( as in f,F t,T o,O p,P)
-- 
INTERNET:  ray@Celestial.COM   Ray A. Jones; Celestial Software
UUCP:   ...!thebes!camco!ray   6641 East Mercer Way
             uunet!camco!ray   Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591
The probability of one or more spelling errors in this missive approaches


From william@festival.ed.ac.uk (William Warburton)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: 30 Jun 93 09:34:32 GMT
Reply-To: W.Warburton@ed.ac.uk

|> In <C9Cnsu.5Do@vti.com> johnw@vti.com (John Wiegley) writes:
|> ...
|> >Using those pneumonics I never forget the pair, and find that

In article <1993Jun29.163526.19829@Celestial.COM>, ray@Celestial.COM (Ray Jones) writes:
|> all vi commands are pneumonic.  I think "f" means "forward", BTW, but

 Mnemonic. I think pneumonic implies airheaded.

|> The probability of one or more spelling errors in this missive approaches

 Your .sig is being stripped to four lines, I think, either that or
it could use a full stop to clarify its rather "zen" ring. :-) 

	W.
-- 
| W.Warburton@ed.ac.uk				Tune to KBHR, 570 AM!
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+



From hansm@wsinti04.info.win.tue.nl (Hans Mulder)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: 30 Jun 1993 16:06:27 +0200

In <1993Jun29.163526.19829@Celestial.COM) ray@Celestial.COM (Ray Jones) writes:

)In <C9Cnsu.5Do@vti.com> johnw@vti.com (John Wiegley) writes:

)[stuff about vi being obscure deleted]

)In the classes I teach on vi, I try to point out to the students that almost
)all vi commands are pneumonic.  I think "f" means "forward", BTW, but
)"field" if it helps you remember.

I thought it meant "find", but hey...

)Some other helpful hints: Uppercase keys have either a greater action than
)the lowercase key (as in a,A i,I u,U h,H l,L w,W e,E r,R b,B c,C d,D s,S) or
)the opposite action ( as in f,F t,T o,O p,P)

... or something completely unrelated (as in j,J m,M z,Z)

HansM

P.S.  The pairs n,N and x,X are missing from your opposites list.


From Ophof@CS.UWindsor.Ca (F. Scott Ophof)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: 30 Jun 1993 12:47:40 -0500

On 29 Jun 1993 12:38:43 GMT Hans Mulder said:
>In <C9Cnsu.5Do@vti.com> johnw@vti.com (John Wiegley) writes:
> >Here's something neat I just learned while playing around
> >with vi the other day.  Usually when I learn an arcane tool,
> >I like to guess the author's motives behind naming all the
> >key-combinations (because that helps me remember them).

>I'm afraid that for some key-combinations (e.g. control-G),
>the motive was mostly that all of the good ones were taken.

And that points out the main problem when linking commands to
key-combinations instead of supplying the commands as easy-to-
remember WORDS which users can then link to any key-combo they
wish, or type as-is on a command-line...
Disallowing a command-line (or some alternative to the default
method of command-invocation) is imho one of the gravest errors
application implementors make most often.  And I know only one
editor which allows the user the freedom to (re)define commands
and their invocation-method (plus synonyming).  Though I might
change my mind after trying out "ne", advertised recently here
on comp.editors.

Regards.
$$\


From penny@root.co.uk (Penny Gaines)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1993 13:59:19 GMT

In <1993Jul2.210933.17371@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> crosby@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Matthew Crosby) writes:

>Ok.  Why is dd delete line?  Wouldn't dl be better?  Is it just because dd is
>fast to type?  Does anyone know.

>-Matt							crosby@cs.colorado.edu


dl will delete to next character left, but most people use its fast form, 'x'.

In commands that process text that character twice acts on the whole line -
hence dd, cc, yy.

In vi you can combine any command that processes text (e.g. c,d,y) 
with any command that moves the cursor (e.g. l, M, w). 

Once you realise this (i.e. so you can use it without thinking about it), you will 
realise one of the reasons why vi is so powerful.  For the record, when deleting 
the stuff in your posting I used d} and d4L, to delete most of the extraneous stuff.


Penny Gaines




From hansm@wsinti06.info.win.tue.nl (Hans Mulder)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: 6 Jul 1993 21:48:59 +0200

In <C9p2ux.7JA@root.co.uk> penny@root.co.uk (Penny Gaines) writes:

>In <1993Jul2.210933.17371@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> crosby@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Matthew Crosby) writes:

>>Ok.  Why is dd delete line?  Wouldn't dl be better?  Is it just because dd is
>>fast to type?  Does anyone know.

>>-Matt							crosby@cs.colorado.edu


>dl will delete to next character left, but most people use its fast form, 'x'.

Actually, 'l' moves the cursor to the right, 'dl' and 'x' delete the
character under the cursor; 'h' move the cursor left, 'dh' and 'X'
delete the character to the left of the cursor.

>In commands that process text that character twice acts on the whole line -
>hence dd, cc, yy.

For consistency, there is a "line" command: '_', e.g. 'd_' deletes the
current line '42y_' yanks 42 lines, etc.  "Stuttering" (doubling the
operator character) is more convenient, though.

>In vi you can combine any command that processes text (e.g. c,d,y) 
>with any command that moves the cursor (e.g. l, M, w). 

>Once you realise this (i.e. so you can use it without thinking about it), you
>will realise one of the reasons why vi is so powerful.  For the record, when
>deleting the stuff in your posting I used d} and d4L, to delete most of the
>extraneous stuff.

Plus, if you learn more operators and more movement commands, the number
of useful combinations goes up very quickly.

HansM


From ray@Celestial.COM (Ray Jones)
Subject: Re: Demystifying vi one step further..
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1993 20:19:27 GMT

In <1993Jul2.210933.17371@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> crosby@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Matthew Crosby) writes:

>In article <1993Jul01.161714.15055@Celestial.COM> ray@Celestial.COM (Ray Jones) writes:
>>
>...
>>
>Ok.  Why is dd delete line?  Wouldn't dl be better?  Is it just because dd is
>fast to type?  Does anyone know.

Could be, however, (another fact about vi) double letter command are used to
indicate whole lines.  Examples: d=delete, dd delete line(s),  c=chan