3 ms·

I still use ed every day. Mostly non-interactive use, i.e., "ed scripts". Have not found any "modern" editors that are as small, fast and robust, especially f

I still use ed every day. Mostly non-interactive use, i.e., "ed scripts". Have not found any "modern" editors that are as small, fast and robust, especially for editing large files.

marttt 6y ago
Plan9's sam (sam -d for command line use) is a great improvement over ed, by the way. Homepage: http://sam.cat-v.org/ http://sam.cat-v.org/ Paper by Rob Pike: http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/sam/ http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/sam/ And another paper by Pike on sam's command language (at the core of which are what he calls 'structural regular expressions'): http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/sam_lang_tutorial/sam_tut.pdf http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/sam_lang_tutorial/sam_tut.pdf
- pwdisswordfish2 6y ago
  That requires a graphics layer. It expects the use of a mouse. With few exceptions, I do not require a mouse nor a graphics layer. The only editor that can beat ed for non-interactive editing is sed.
  - marttt 6y ago
    Sam also has a command line only mode, invoked with the '-d' switch ('sam -d filename'). This is just like 'ed', no graphics layer or mouse needed. But the command language is both simpler and more powerful IMO, especially the 'X' command for editing multiple files at once.
    - pwdisswordfish2 6y ago
      Is it possible to run sam without loading a graphics layer? As far as I know one cannot run Plan9 in "VGA text mode". If trying run sam on an OS other than Plan9, does sam require a graphics layer, e.g., X11? Last I checked, it does. If this has changed, I am interested.
      - marttt 6y ago
        Indeed, the Plan9 ecosystem itself (including its Linux port, plan9port) is heavily built around GUI and a mouse. Sam alone, however, can be compiled for command line only, without X11 support under Linux. This has been done in the 9base package: https://git.suckless.org/9base/file/sam/Makefile.html https://git.suckless.org/9base/file/sam/Makefile.html https://tools.suckless.org/9base/ https://tools.suckless.org/9base/ There is also an updated Linux version of Sam alone, without any other P9 tools. I suppose this should also be trivial to build without X11 support: https://github.com/deadpixi/sam/ https://github.com/deadpixi/sam/
        pwdisswordfish2 6y ago
        I will investigate this. Thank you for setting me straight. The discussion of this GUI dependency came up years ago on HN and someone who worked at Bell Labs now at Google basically said, in so many words, "sam without the mouse is not sam".
        marttt 6y ago
        Very interesting, I was not aware of this. I see what he/she meant, but I would add "sam without the mouse is not sam, but it is still superior to ed in many ways". :) A link to that discussion would be great (if you manage to find it).

I still use ed every day. Mostly non-interactive use, i.e., "ed scripts". Have not found any "modern" editors that are as small, fast and robust, especially for editing large files.

marttt 6y ago

Plan9's sam (sam -d for command line use) is a great improvement over ed, by the way. Homepage: http://sam.cat-v.org/ http://sam.cat-v.org/ Paper by Rob Pike: http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/sam/ http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/sam/ And another paper by Pike on sam's command language (at the core of which are what he calls 'structural regular expressions'): http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/sam_lang_tutorial/sam_tut.pdf http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/sam_lang_tutorial/sam_tut.pdf

pwdisswordfish2 6y ago
That requires a graphics layer. It expects the use of a mouse. With few exceptions, I do not require a mouse nor a graphics layer. The only editor that can beat ed for non-interactive editing is sed.
- marttt 6y ago
  Sam also has a command line only mode, invoked with the '-d' switch ('sam -d filename'). This is just like 'ed', no graphics layer or mouse needed. But the command language is both simpler and more powerful IMO, especially the 'X' command for editing multiple files at once.
  - pwdisswordfish2 6y ago
    Is it possible to run sam without loading a graphics layer? As far as I know one cannot run Plan9 in "VGA text mode". If trying run sam on an OS other than Plan9, does sam require a graphics layer, e.g., X11? Last I checked, it does. If this has changed, I am interested.
    - marttt 6y ago
      Indeed, the Plan9 ecosystem itself (including its Linux port, plan9port) is heavily built around GUI and a mouse. Sam alone, however, can be compiled for command line only, without X11 support under Linux. This has been done in the 9base package: https://git.suckless.org/9base/file/sam/Makefile.html https://git.suckless.org/9base/file/sam/Makefile.html https://tools.suckless.org/9base/ https://tools.suckless.org/9base/ There is also an updated Linux version of Sam alone, without any other P9 tools. I suppose this should also be trivial to build without X11 support: https://github.com/deadpixi/sam/ https://github.com/deadpixi/sam/
      - pwdisswordfish2 6y ago
        I will investigate this. Thank you for setting me straight. The discussion of this GUI dependency came up years ago on HN and someone who worked at Bell Labs now at Google basically said, in so many words, "sam without the mouse is not sam".
        marttt 6y ago
        Very interesting, I was not aware of this. I see what he/she meant, but I would add "sam without the mouse is not sam, but it is still superior to ed in many ways". :) A link to that discussion would be great (if you manage to find it).