Re: In with the New

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

N. Sivin wrote:
>
> I hereby announce a non-competitive competition, in two
> stages:
>
> 1. To propose the most useful small XPL program that does
> not already exist. Some of those proposed will inevitably
> already exist, but it will be informative to learn about
> them.

If such a program exists, my apologies. But: I think it would be majorly
useful to have an XPL routine that would in effect take the already
wonderful search across files Xy command, and make it even more
efficient, and therefore useful not only for searching but also for
replacing.

For those who don't know--this requires an open, empty window, whereupon
you enter

se c:filename.* [or *.ext] |item|

whereupon, as if by wizardry, Xywrite seeks the requested item and, upon
(if) finding it offers you the alternative of going on, stopping, or
opening the file.

Now here's how it could be improved:


My wished-for program would put you right at the item, rather at the top
of the file, so that you have to do the search one more time, and might
even have a loop that would allow you the option of replacing the item.
The user when starting the XPL routine would perhaps enter this:

ci [or cv] C:*.ext |item1|item2|

Anybody, anybody?

--
Leslie Bialler
Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx