Version 1.8 of GNU ed released

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/gnu.announce/2DWsmkhYv5Y

by lelf • 13 years ago

63 24 13 years ago

groups.google.com

zurn• 13 years ago

ed is actually really handy in shell scripts when you want change something in a text file, and want to navigate in the text by following landmarks. Eg. if you are editing an .ini file the sed or awk methods are much more cumbersome, with ed it's just a couple of navigation commands and a in-place replace and save.

Plus you get to try things out interactively and then paste the working set of commands in your script. it's like sed with a repl, only better!

Example: https://groups.google.com/group/comp.unix.shell/msg/e823e275...

ultimoo• 13 years ago

This is really cool, thanks!

philh• 13 years ago

That breaks if the file to include contains a line with just a ., unfortunately. But it's still ridiculously simple, and that's likely not to be a problem in a lot of cases.

geocar• 13 years ago

A while ago I "minimally ported" the V6 ed to modern systems:

* http://geocar.sdf1.org/ed.c

* http://geocar.sdf1.org/ed.c.orig

I actually prefer ed/ex to screen editors when doing quick fixes because I can still see what's in the terminal (although I still use both emacs and vi as well).

gnuvince• 13 years ago

I use a shell inside Emacs, so I just split my frame.

Mr_T_• 13 years ago

But does it have syntax highlighting?

EliRivers• 13 years ago

It certainly does. On my system, the whole syntax is highlighted a sort of off-white against a black background.

piqufoh• 13 years ago

I can't get code completion to work :-(

aeonflux• 13 years ago

But does it have multiple cursors?

RBerenguel• 13 years ago

One for each term tab. Or tmux/screen session. How cool is that!?

mhd• 13 years ago

You need 'ex' for that, if you can stand the bloat.

jdale272• 13 years ago

"Ed is the standard text editor."

michaellacorte• 13 years ago

"Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all."

The first time I read this, I almost fell out of my chair in laughter.

rquantz• 13 years ago

Is this what you're referring to?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5246071

jdale272• 13 years ago

Yes.

asdfs• 13 years ago

I found this blog post to be an excellent ingroduction to ed, for the uninitiated: http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/actually-using-ed/

And of course there's the obligatory: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.txt

hosay123• 13 years ago

It's worth avoiding linking to Google Groups entirely, on the basis that the new UI is unusable and that the product will probably be canned soon enough.

GMane is a good community-oriented alternate:

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.fsf.announce/1952

sramsay• 13 years ago

"* Ed now stops reading stdin when reaching real End Of File the first time. (Before it needed to reach EOF twice)."

Once? You've gotta be kidding. In older, hardcore versions, ed would BLOW RIGHT PAST your first EOF. It would say, "So long, sucka!" to your first EOF. It would assume you weren't serious with that first one, BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T.

What ed was looking for was EOT (end of tape). Because that was serious. When it saw EOF, it thought, "Oh, for fuck's sake. It's amateur hour." Now ed is apparently all about "user friendliness."

This is bullshit.

dhimes• 13 years ago

Thank you. You made my morning.

cema• 13 years ago

A great example of a joke which works in HN. Some don't but this one does. Thank you.

kps2• 13 years ago

Made me look. Real ed(1) exits on the first EOF.

[1] http://www.tuhs.org/ [2] http://puszcza.gnu.org.ua/software/apout/

saurik• 13 years ago

(EOT also happens to be the character you use to represent EOF; this was largely a joke, possibly referencing that "Ed is the real text editor" rant from decades ago that specifically discussed how difficult it was to exit ed as one of its many features. I found it funny.)

Version 1.8 of GNU ed released

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