Re: Wildcard error message

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Harry Binswanger  on Tue, 21 Jan 2003
17:46:41 -0500


> Aha. Just tested this on a very short file (400 bytes) and got the error:

> ci /W,/W;/

> but both the following worked:

> ci / W,/ W;/  ---> space added before the wildstring

> ci /X,/X;/

> Perhaps it's the wildstring character, since it involves a variable
> variable (any string of any length below 80).

Of course! Example #1 is a nonsensical command; how can it search for "any
string of any length" without *real* anchors on either side, e.g. your second
example? You should be saying, in this case, "ci /,/;/". Wild-X will work,
because it's any single character; it would disallow a change to a comma
appearing at character position 0.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------