There are many things here that feel wrong or at least inelegant, starting with the first character. Surely you mean a comma not a period. You are also inconsistent: sometimes you use x to find the pattern and then change it, sometimes you use a substitute. It's more efficient in both time and keystrokes to use c or d when you can: ,x/‘‘|’’/c/"/ ,x/\*/d for example. But overall: If you show us either the ed script you use, or a precise definition of the problem, people could offer solutions. I assure you sam can do this; it's far more powerful than ed. But then: Why not use ed if you have a working script? Or are you just trying to understand sam better? The docs for sam are complete. Lose your line orientation and think of the file as a single string. That's how sam works. -rob On Wed, Jul 21, 2021 at 7:18 PM wrote: > In ed I have a cleanup script which I can apply to several files at once. > The script removes things like blank lines and spaces between words. To run > it on a file or multiple files, I type this command: > ed [name of file(s)] < cleanup-script > I converted all the regular expressions in the file into sam regex format > and tried the same, but to no avail. Here is a list of some of the > commands: > > .x s/\*//g > ,x/^ +/s/// > ,x/ +$/s/// > ,x/ +/s// / > ,x/^$\n/d > ,x/‘‘|’’/s//"/ > ,x/“|”/s//"/ > ,x/‘|’/s//"/ > ,x/^ +/s/// > ,x/ +$/s/// > ,x/ +/s// / > ,x/^$\n/d > ,x/‘‘|’’/s//"/ > ,x/“|”/s//"/ > ,x/‘|’/s//"/ > ,x/teh/c/the/ > wq > > I am not even sure sam can do this, but if it can, I would appreciate > some guidance on how to do it. > > > *9fans * / 9fans / see discussions > + participants > + delivery options > Permalink > > ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T10b1d559ae7d981e-Mcecc24b77fbe2df7b744e4f9 Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription