9 ms·

Version 1.8 of GNU ed released

63 points by lelf 14y ago

zurn 14y 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/e823e275906f4079 https://groups.google.com/group/comp.unix.shell/msg/e823e275...
- ultimoo 14y ago
  This is really cool, thanks!
- philh 14y 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 14y 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 * http://geocar.sdf1.org/ed.c.orig 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 14y ago
  I use a shell inside Emacs, so I just split my frame.
Mr_T_ 14y ago
But does it have syntax highlighting?
- EliRivers 14y ago
  It certainly does. On my system, the whole syntax is highlighted a sort of off-white against a black background.
  - piqufoh 14y ago
    I can't get code completion to work :-(
    - rufus_t 14y ago
      Once you're done coding, the code will be completed. That's all there is to it.
aeonflux 14y ago
But does it have multiple cursors?
- RBerenguel 14y ago
  One for each term tab. Or tmux/screen session. How cool is that!?
- mhd 14y ago
  You need 'ex' for that, if you can stand the bloat.
jdale27 14y ago
"Ed is the standard text editor."
- michaellacorte 14y ago
  "Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all." The first time I read this, I almost fell out of my chair in laughter.
- rquantz 14y ago
  Is this what you're referring to? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5246071 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5246071
  - jdale27 14y ago
    Yes.
asdfs 14y ago
I found this blog post to be an excellent ingroduction to ed, for the uninitiated: http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/actually-using-ed/ http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/actually-using-ed/ And of course there's the obligatory: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.txt http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.txt
hosay123 14y 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 http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.fsf.announce/1952
sramsay 14y 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 14y ago
  Thank you. You made my morning.
- cema 14y ago
  A great example of a joke which works in HN. Some don't but this one does. Thank you.
- kps 14y ago
  Made me look. Real ed(1) exits on the first EOF. [1] http://www.tuhs.org/ http://www.tuhs.org/ [2] http://puszcza.gnu.org.ua/software/apout/ http://puszcza.gnu.org.ua/software/apout/
  - saurik 14y 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.)
    - kps 14y ago
      Yes, I know it was a joke. I just had to check that my memory wasn't acting up. (I actually had to use nothing but ed for real work for a few months in 1985 — makes for good training in regular expressions.) Real ed only requires two EOF (or 'q' commands) if the file has changed, so you don't quit by accident, but driving it by script won't hang.

63 points by lelf 14y ago

zurn 14y 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/e823e275906f4079 https://groups.google.com/group/comp.unix.shell/msg/e823e275...

ultimoo 14y ago
This is really cool, thanks!
philh 14y 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 14y 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 * http://geocar.sdf1.org/ed.c.orig 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 14y ago
I use a shell inside Emacs, so I just split my frame.

Mr_T_ 14y ago

But does it have syntax highlighting?

EliRivers 14y ago
It certainly does. On my system, the whole syntax is highlighted a sort of off-white against a black background.
- piqufoh 14y ago
  I can't get code completion to work :-(
  - rufus_t 14y ago
    Once you're done coding, the code will be completed. That's all there is to it.

aeonflux 14y ago

But does it have multiple cursors?

RBerenguel 14y ago
One for each term tab. Or tmux/screen session. How cool is that!?
mhd 14y ago
You need 'ex' for that, if you can stand the bloat.

jdale27 14y ago

"Ed is the standard text editor."

michaellacorte 14y ago
"Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all." The first time I read this, I almost fell out of my chair in laughter.
rquantz 14y ago
Is this what you're referring to? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5246071 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5246071
- jdale27 14y ago
  Yes.

asdfs 14y ago

I found this blog post to be an excellent ingroduction to ed, for the uninitiated: http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/actually-using-ed/ http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/actually-using-ed/ And of course there's the obligatory: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.txt http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.txt

hosay123 14y 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 http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.fsf.announce/1952

sramsay 14y 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 14y ago
Thank you. You made my morning.
cema 14y ago
A great example of a joke which works in HN. Some don't but this one does. Thank you.
kps 14y ago
Made me look. Real ed(1) exits on the first EOF. [1] http://www.tuhs.org/ http://www.tuhs.org/ [2] http://puszcza.gnu.org.ua/software/apout/ http://puszcza.gnu.org.ua/software/apout/
- saurik 14y 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.)
  - kps 14y ago
    Yes, I know it was a joke. I just had to check that my memory wasn't acting up. (I actually had to use nothing but ed for real work for a few months in 1985 — makes for good training in regular expressions.) Real ed only requires two EOF (or 'q' commands) if the file has changed, so you don't quit by accident, but driving it by script won't hang.