From dcd@tc.fluke.COM (David Dyck)
Subject: Origin of % in replacement pattern in vi
Date: 24 Jun 92 19:57:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: tc.1992Jun24.195718.16732

I've been using vi for a long time, but it's been a while
since I've tried the command
:s/foo/%/

Until now this would replace the string foo with the character '%',
but now it appears that % does something similar to the metacharacter ~ 
in the replacement part of a substitute command.

Earlier vi's did not do this, and the earlier manuals did not mention
this (Although the LATEST manual from Sun that we have (SunOS Release 4.1.2)
has added a sentence about it.

Would someone please explain why vi was changed?

(I have seen mentions about a ucb vs. sysV vi, is this one of the new
 features of sysV?)

            David Dyck			dcd@tc.fluke.COM