From Newsgroup: comp.editors

In article <1106h0l$lb$1@reader1.panix.com>,
Dan Cross <cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net> wrote:

In article <1105ae4$1naub$1@dont-email.me>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:

On 2026-06-08 04:16, Zayd Mohammed wrote:

ed is the standard text editor.

'ed' is _a_ standard text editor; on Unixes. Though a very primitive
one.

Saying, "`ed` is the standard text editor" on Unix systems is an
old joke.

Indeed. And the joke works better if you base it on and sing it to the
tune of "Mr Ed".
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The randomly chosen signature file that would have appeared here is more than 4-ish
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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

ed is the standard text editor.
right now, i am using ed to edit this post!
nvim is based on vim is based on vi is based on ex is based on ed
sed and grep are also based off of ed
ed was created from qed (from which sed takes some extra commands not in
ed!)
ed was created by ken thompsom and dennis ritchie
https://x.com/ed1conf
https://linux.die.net/man/1/ed
https://wiki.c2.com/?EdIsTheStandardTextEditor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_(text_editor)
ed, man! !man ed (or i guess really !info ed)
using ed is a little like using a shell.
first show the prompt (optional) by typing P and hitting enter.
now, here are some commands than can be ran in ed:
[type a number] - go to that line number (1 is first line)
a - append text in lines after the line you were on
to stop appending, type a single period in a line by itself, and hit ent
er.
you can put a line number before a command to go there before running it
.
. can also stand for a line number to mean the current line you are on.
[line number],[line number]d - deleter text from the first to second lin
e number inclusive.
e - chooses a file to edit
p - print the line you are on in case you forgot
! - runs a command.
you can use ! to edit the file you are inside by using %.
e.g. !fold -n 67 %
you can also use it with e: e !ncal
r - like e, buts appends instead of replaces
and = - shows how many lines there are in the file.
you can put . before it to show what line number you are currently on. (
.=)
s/regex/regex/ - substitutes the first instances of the first regex's ma
tch
with the second one. this command is used a lot in grep and sed, so it m
ay seem familiar.
newline by itself - go to the next line and print it (like the more comm
and)
these are just a few commands in ed. the see them all, along with more h
elp,
simply run `info ed'!
i think that's all.
reply here if you use ed and would like to talk about it, or if your nam
e is ed!

(this message is a repost from comp.unix.shell.)
--
https://zaydiscool777.github.io/index.html
https://beacons.ai/zaydiscool777
zaydiscool777@gmail.com
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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

In article <1106ijl$1h9mu$1@news.xmission.com>,
Kenny McCormack <gazelle@shell.xmission.com> wrote:

In article <1106h0l$lb$1@reader1.panix.com>,
Dan Cross <cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net> wrote:

In article <1105ae4$1naub$1@dont-email.me>,
Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:

On 2026-06-08 04:16, Zayd Mohammed wrote:

ed is the standard text editor.

'ed' is _a_ standard text editor; on Unixes. Though a very primitive
one.

Saying, "`ed` is the standard text editor" on Unix systems is an
old joke.

Indeed. And the joke works better if you base it on and sing it to the
tune of "Mr Ed".

(Those in the know refer to it as e-d, pronounced "ee dee", not
"Ed" as in the short form of Edward. :-))

- Dan C.

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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) writes:
[...]

(Those in the know refer to it as e-d, pronounced "ee dee", not
"Ed" as in the short form of Edward. :-))

Oh? I've always heard it pronounced "ed", not "ee dee".
Then again, I see it in writing far more often than I hear it
spoken.

On the other hand, I've almost always heard "vi" pronounced as
"vee eye", not "vie" (and definitely not "six").
--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */
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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

In article <1107cvd$3hr0r$2@kst.eternal-september.org>,
Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> wrote: >cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) writes:

[...]

(Those in the know refer to it as e-d, pronounced "ee dee", not
"Ed" as in the short form of Edward. :-))

Oh? I've always heard it pronounced "ed", not "ee dee".
Then again, I see it in writing far more often than I hear it
spoken.

Yup. Brian Kernighan was in a video talking about it at a
conference a year or two ago and mentioned it as an aside.

On the other hand, I've almost always heard "vi" pronounced as
"vee eye", not "vie" (and definitely not "six").

It's definitely "vee eye"; that's in Bill Joy's original paper
on it. I asked Mary Ann Horton about it once and I thought she
was going to decapitate me for raising the question.

- Dan C.

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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

Zayd Mohammed <zaydm@172.24.208.1> writes:

reply here if you use ed and would like to talk about it, or if your nam
e is ed!

(this message is a repost from comp.unix.shell.)

Yup, ed man! I really enjoy working in
ed. It is comfy, and helps with focus a lot. I
find myself preferring it to Emacs sometimes. I
cheat a little by running it inside rlwrap,
providing some additional features like line
editing, keyboard macros, and a shortcut to clean
the screen. The power of piping text to external
utilities cannot be understated. I like using it
with `par'[1] to fold lines and align them, and I
use aspell from the command line to spellcheck. I
also like running !make and other commands to
build and run and test projects from inside ed
itself. I think it fits perfectly with the "UNIX
as IDE" mindset. Oh, and this is not a repost,
I'm actually writing this message in ed right now~
Oh, and did I tell you about the power of search
backwards when using rlwrap with ed? If I've done
something before, I don't have to remember it or
retype it, I just C-r to search my command history
and repeat the action very quickly. Good stuff.
All the docs are in ed too! !man or !info, you
have it all at your fingertips.

Sadly, I always end up in emacs anyway,
because it is a lot more than an editor to me (I'm
using GNUS to browse and post on Usenet for
example), plus, no editor I've used supports other
languages, especially RTL ones, as much as emacs
does. And I need to be able to write my RTL TeX
documents. In a way ed /does/ support RTL, if the
underlying terminal does, but no terminal I've
seen ever supported Arabic well for that. The
closest was mlterm iirc, but still, it felt off
the whole time.

So yeah, if anyone would like to talk about it~


Best Regards,
Lumin Etherlight
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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

On Tue, 09 Jun 2026 02:59:56 +0300, Lumin Etherlight wrote:

The power of piping text to external utilities cannot be
understated.

Maybe you meant rCLcannot be overstatedrCY ... ?

Otherwise yourCOre saying that it could not be less powerful.
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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

On 2026-06-08 17:42, Keith Thompson wrote:

cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) writes:
[...]

(Those in the know refer to it as e-d, pronounced "ee dee", not
"Ed" as in the short form of Edward. :-))

Oh? I've always heard it pronounced "ed", not "ee dee".
Then again, I see it in writing far more often than I hear it
spoken.

I always thought `ed` was short for editor and `vi` short for visual (`ex` for extended) for similar reasons many older Unix commands are two letters.

I had a boss who pronounced `rm` as "rhum" (as I heard it). Took me a while figure out what he meant.

On the other hand, I've almost always heard "vi" pronounced as
"vee eye", not "vie" (and definitely not "six").

--
Anthony C Howe
achowe@snert.com BarricadeMX & Milters http://nanozen.snert.com/ https://github.com/SirWumpus
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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

In article <1107tl1$fki$1@reader1.panix.com>,
Dan Cross <cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net> wrote:

In article <1107cvd$3hr0r$2@kst.eternal-september.org>,
Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> wrote: >>cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) writes:

[...]

(Those in the know refer to it as e-d, pronounced "ee dee", not
"Ed" as in the short form of Edward. :-))

Oh? I've always heard it pronounced "ed", not "ee dee".
Then again, I see it in writing far more often than I hear it
spoken.

Yup. Brian Kernighan was in a video talking about it at a
conference a year or two ago and mentioned it as an aside.

Aha, I found a reference: Brian Kernighan giving an interview
talks about it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VmQlHGBwRBo

- Dan C.

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From Newsgroup: comp.editors

Lawrence DrCOOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

On Tue, 09 Jun 2026 02:59:56 +0300, Lumin Etherlight wrote:

The power of piping text to external utilities cannot be
understated.

Maybe you meant rCLcannot be overstatedrCY ... ?

Otherwise yourCOre saying that it could not be less powerful.

Yup, meant overstated, my mistake~
Thanks for catching that :)

Best Regards,
Lumin Etherlight
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