History

Virgil Dupras 942d2a952d ed: take filename as an argument This hard-binds ed to the filesystem (I liked the idea of working only with blockdevs though...), but this is necessary for the upcoming `w` command. We need some kind of way to tell the destination to write to truncate itself. This only has a meaning in the filesystem, but it's necessary to let the file know that its registered file size has possibly shrunk. I thought of alternatives that would have allowed me to keep ed blkdev-centered, but they were all too hackish to my own taste. Hence, this new hard-bind on files.		2019-07-20 19:43:07 -04:00
..
buf.asm	ed: take filename as an argument	2019-07-20 19:43:07 -04:00
cmd.asm	ed: add support for 'a' and 'i'	2019-07-14 17:35:21 -04:00
glue.asm	ed: add support for 'a' and 'i'	2019-07-14 17:35:21 -04:00
io.asm	ed: take filename as an argument	2019-07-20 19:43:07 -04:00
main.asm	ed: take filename as an argument	2019-07-20 19:43:07 -04:00
README.md	ed: take filename as an argument	2019-07-20 19:43:07 -04:00

README.md

ed - line editor

Collapse OS's ed is modeled after UNIX's ed (let's call it Ued). The goal is to have an editor that is tight on resources and that doesn't require ncurses-like screen management.

In general, we try to follow Ued's conventions and the "Usage" section is mostly a repeat of Ued's man page.

Differences

There are a couple of differences with Ued that are intentional. Differences not listed here are either bugs or simply aren't implemented yet.

Always has a prompt, :.
No size printing on load
Initial line is the first one
Line input is for one line at once. Less scriptable for Ued, but we can't script ed in Collapse OS anyway...
For the sake of code simplicity, some commands that make no sense are accepted. For example, 1,2a is the same as 2a.

Usage

ed is invoked from the shell with a single argument: the name of the file to edit. If the file doesn't exist, ed errors out. If it exists, a prompt is shown.

In normal mode, ed waits for a command and executes it. If the command is invalid, a line with ? is printed and ed goes back to waiting for a command.

A command can be invalid because it is unknown, malformed or if its address range is out of bounds.

Commands

(addrs)p: Print lines specified in addrs range. This is the default command. If only (addrs) is specified, it has the same effect.
(addrs)d: Delete lines specified in addrs range.
(addr)a: Appends a line after addr.
(addr)i: Insert a line before addr.
q: quit ed

Current line

The current line is central to ed. Address ranges can be expressed relatively to it and makes the app much more usable. The current line starts at 1 and every command changes the current line to the last line that the command affects. For example, 42p changes the current line to 42, 3,7d, to 7.

Addresses

An "address" is a line number. The first line is 1. An address range is a start line and a stop line, expressed as start,stop. For example, 2,4 refer to lines 2, 3 and 4.

When expressing ranges, stop can be omitted. It will then have the same value as start. 42 is equivalent to 42,42.

Addresses can be expressed relatively to the current line with + and -. +3 means "current line + 3", -5, +2 means "address range starting at 5 lines before current line and ending 2 lines after it`.

+ alone means +1, - means -1.