Date: Sat, 3 Aug 1996 20:37:46 +0200 (MET DST) From: Robert Eckardt <roberte@mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> To: andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu Cc: kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: vi question Message-ID: <199608031837.UAA18966@gluon.mep.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.94.960803015021.19517A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> from "Annelise Anderson" at Aug 3, 96 02:28:31 am
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> > > Every once in a while I inadvertently use the command :a in vi, and
> > > the keyboard gets rewritten--I end up in insert mode and the arrow
> > > keys no longer work (instead producing [ characters). The escape
> > > key no longer works to get back to command mode.
> >
> > Happened to me recently too and I had to learn from wise people
> > on the list that :a is a feature and you quit it by typing a '.'
> > in the first column. :-)
>
> Thanks Chris! And also Mike Murphy and Robert Eckardt. For once
> everyone's got the same answer. Some feature! And as far as I
> can tell, undocumented in even Abrahams & Larson and the document
> on vi in /usr/share/docs.
At the ':' prompt one can enter ex commands as vi(1) says:
" : Execute an ex command
Under ISC-Unix 2.2 the vi(1) man-page references the ex(1) page which says:
" ex States
" Command Normal and initial state. Input prompted for
" by :. Your line kill character cancels a
" partial command.
"
" Insert Entered by a, i, or c. Arbitrary text may be
" entered. Insert state normally is ter-
" minated by a line having only "." on it, or,
" abnormally, with an interrupt.
"
" Visual Entered by typing vi; terminated by typing Q
" or ^\ (control-\).
And, as everybody knows, Unix is a very portable system. :-)
I think this should go into the F-BSD vi/ex man page.
Robert
--
Robert Eckardt (
Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Inst.f.Theor.Physik, NB6/169 )
Universitaetsstrasse 150, D-44780 Bochum, Germany ----X---8----
Telefon: +49 234 700-3709, Telefax: +49 234 7094-574 8
E-Mail: RobertE@MEP.Ruhr-Uni-Bochum.de --------8----
URL: http://WWW.MEP.Ruhr-Uni-Bochum.de/~roberte
>>> To be successful one needs friends, <<<
>>> To be very successful one needs enemies. <<<
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