Modernization

[Bill Campbell]

On Fri, Apr 28, 2006, Fairlight wrote:
>Is it just me, or did Bill Campbell say:
>> This from somebody who quoted 125+ lines of message to add two
>> lines of comment?
>
>It's obviously also getting harder and harder to look at newer input
>devices and understand the use of the Delete key, or how to highlight and
>cut out unneeded text.  :) ^ 64

Actually that's one of the things I find awkward on those rare
occassions when I attempt to reply to e-mail messages using a GUI
mail client.  It's far easier when editing in the ``vi(m)''
editor.  Press ``ma'' at the top of the section to be deleted.
This sets the mark ``a'' at that point.  Move to the bottom of
the text to be deleted and press 'ac...<ESC> (the first character
is a single quote).  This changes everything from the current
cursor postion to the mark'ed place with whatever is typed before
the <ESC>.

Actually vi allows one to place as many as 26 marks in the
document being edited, all the lower case alpha characters.  I
freqently mark a postition ``mr'' (return),  Then to return to
that line after I've been doing things in other places, pressing
'r jumps back to the beginning of the line.

Vi also has 26 hold buffers, a-z, which can be used to store
blocks of text while writing.  Even more scarey is that one can
load sequences of characters in a buffer, then execute them from
the buffer.  I frequently use this when dealing with complex
substitutions which allows me to edit the substitute until I get
it right.

...
Bill
--
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