Skip to content(if available)orjump to list(if available)

My Ed(1) Toolbox

My Ed(1) Toolbox

11 comments

·September 24, 2025

zabzonk

Ah, ed. Back in the mid 80s, I had to teach a course on Unix & its tools - if I remember correctly it was called "Unix - a modern OS". One of those tools was of course ed. We couldn't use vi because the termcap/terminfo settings were screwed up for the physical serial terminals we had - I eventually fixed this & felt very pleased with myself, as those terminal config files are a b*tch.

Still, teaching bash, C and the usual suspects along with ed was very strenuous for the students, and for me - we only ran the course once.

mkovach

Funny thing about ed: While it is still one of my most common commands, it is also my dad's name. So, I've spent my entire career regularly typing my father's name at work.

jacobvosmaer

I like ed but I prefer 'sam -d' (the terminal mode of Sam). It has a nice looping construct 'x' and you can open multiple files and do batch edits (with 'X').

There is a Go port of Sam, which is easy to install:

go install 9fans.net/go/cmd/sam@latest

http://sam.cat-v.org/

secwang

Aaron have a crossplatform ed in Apl.This is great when you familiar with apl.

tniemi

I used to use EDLIN on my MS/DOS days...

.

null

[deleted]

secwang

love it.

revanwjy

[flagged]