[ILUG] vi goodies

[Colm Buckley]

Donncha writes:

> Just deleted some lines in a file and discovered this nugget which
> someone might find handy..

> Search for a word using the usual "/" way.
> Then, in command mode, press "d" to delete and type "/<RETURN>" and
> it'll delete to the next occurance of the previous searched for word..
> Of course, you could do "d", and then "/searchword" to delete from the
> current position to position of "searchword" too which is much the same. 
> Makes sense since you can do dw,db,dk, etc..

Actually, this is part of a *really* powerful vi feature.  You can
follow 'd' by *any* movement command and it'll delete the range covered
- between the point you start at and the point you end at.

Examples :

    dG            delete from here to the end of the file
    d1G           delete from here to the start of the file
    d}            delete from here to the end of the paragraph
    d5w           delete 5 words
    d20h          delete 20 characters to the left
    d/echo<RET>   delete to the next occurrence of the word 'echo'

This also works for the 'y' command (yank) - 'd' is to 'cut' what 'y' is
to 'copy'.

vi is a *very* powerful editor; a lot more so than people give it credit
for.

           Colm

-- 
Colm Buckley BA BF | NewWorld Commerce, 44 Westland Row, Dublin 2, Ireland
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Can open.  Worms everywhere.