[TUHS] Good ol' ed (Was *ROFF)

[tytso@mit.edu (Theodore Y. Ts'o)]

On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 08:11:48AM -0400, Ron Natalie wrote:
> I never really learned VI.   I can stumbled through it in ex mode if I have
> to.   If there's no EMACS on the UNIX system I'm using, I use ed.
> You get real good at regular expressions.    Some of my employees were
> pretty amazed at how fast I could make code changes with just ed.

/bin/ed's commands are mostly the same as the line editing tools that
Dec's PDP-8's 4k disk monitor system, PDP-15 backround/foreground
monitor, and the RT-11's editor.  I learned it on my own, from the
manuals only --- and when you are using an teletype, you have a *huge*
amount of incentive to learn all of the tricks you can.

So my choice of editors largely follows Ron; I never really learned
VI, so it's Emacs or ed.  And if you're on a ghastly slow
internet-on-an-airplane connection, being able to use ed is a really
useful skill --- it just gives you flashbacks to using a teletype as
an interface.


       	  	       	     	    - Ted