Re: [Bug-ed] g /RE/COMMAND-LIST not working ?

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Paul Jackson wrote:
> The above online ed manual looks to me to be based on the man page, not
> on the info page.

On the contrary. The above online ed manual was produced with makeinfo 
from the (not yet released) fixed texinfo source.


> The ed man page, at least as far back as early 1990's ed-0.2, which I
> have on my disk right now, and at least as far back as late 1970's
> Version 7 Unix (man page for that ed here:
> http://modman.unixdev.net/?manpath=v7man&page=ed&sektion=1) always had
> that correct.

In the case of GNU ed, the troff source has always included extra 
spaces. They were not noticed because troff, I guess, removes them from 
the formatted output. For example, the following line is from ed.1 in 
GNU ed 0.2:

.RI (1,$)g /re/command-list

Since version 1.6, GNU ed man page is generated with help2man.


> I am reading the "info ed" pages now for the first time. Here's what
> else I notice that looks either wrong, or at least dubious, to me. (Do
> beware that I usually run ed 0.2, not GNU Ed 1.10, so my comments below
> may reflect my archaic expectations.)

Feedback from experienced users is always welcome. :-)


> 1. In the "2 Introduction to line editing" section, it ways "<BACKSPACE>
>    (sometimes labeled <DELETE> or <DEL>)". This is dubious in my view.

Right. In fact neither <DEL> nor the arrow keys seem to work in input 
mode. I have removed the reference to <DEL>. The text now says:

"Prior to typing <RETURN>, corrections to the line may be made by typing 
either <BACKSPACE> to erase characters backwards, or <CONTROL>-u (i.e., 
hold the CONTROL key and type u) to erase the whole line."


> 2. In the same section, the "*,w junk" example is a bit silly, as the
>    default address range for the "w" command is the whole buffer

True. Surely nobody types the comma. And the other examples of the "w" 
command do not include it. So I have removed the comma.


> 3. In the same section, it says "Comments begin with a '#'." It would be
>    more accurate, in my view, to have said "Commands beginning with a
>    '#' are taken as comments and ignored." (Input mode lines that begin
>    with '#' are just more input, otherwise it would require tricky use
>    of the 's' command or some other such workaround to enter '#' comment
>    lines into code.)

Good observation. I have modified it as you suggest.


> 4. In the section "3 Invoking ed", it states of the --restricted option
>    "This mode disables edition of files ...". Typo. Should be "This mode
>    disables editing of files ...".

Corrected.


> 5. In the section "6 Commands", when removing spaces from the 'g' and
>    'G' commands, don't forget to also remove spaces from the 'v' and 'V'
>    commands. So far as I have noticed, spaces are allowed and harmless
>    on other commands.

I have already removed the extra spaces from 'g', 'G', 's', 'v', 'V' and 
'z' commands. Other commands, like 'e', seem to need the space:

$ ed -v
efoo
?
Unexpected command suffix
e foo
3865


> Perhaps some of the above will prove useful. Thanks for continuing to
> keep this ancient dog alive

Sure, thanks. And you are welcome. :-)


Best regards,
Antonio.