From kirkenda@eecs.cs.pdx.edu Mon Nov 11 22:54:19 1991
From: kirkenda@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Steve Kirkendall)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Quoting in ex/vi -- more info
Date: 12 Nov 91 01:15:09 GMT
Organization: Portland State University, Portland, OR

The first results are in on my question about character quoting in ex/vi.
The table below shows what I've learned from e-mail, and a few tests.
Please check it out, and let me know of any errors or omissions.

 ex   vi  .exrc  characters to quoted
----+----+------+--------------------------------------------------------
 \    \     ^V    The | command separator
 \    ^V   n.a.   Special control characters on any command line
 ^V  ^V^V   ^V    Whitespace in a :map or :unmap command
 \    \     \     Whitespace in a :set command
 \    \     \     Meta-characters in a regexp or substitution text
 \    \     \     The %, #, and ! characters in a shell escape/filename

  The "ex" column refers to command lines that are interactively typed
  into ex, or for ex macros executed via ":@x".

  The "vi" column refers to ex command lines that are interactively typed
  using vi's ":" command.  It also works for vi macros/maps which use ":".
  Please note that when you're defining the macro, though, you'll need to
  quote any ^Vs to delay their effect until the macro is applied.  Also,
  to quote a whitespace character in a :map command, you need to actually
  insert a ^V into the command line, which is done by hitting ^V twice.

  The ".exrc"  column refers to commands in the .exrc file, or a file
  which is executed via the ":so" command, or for the value of EXINIT.

The quoting character for special control characters is different, but
this is probably due to the serial line discipline, and not so much
ex/vi itself.  This also explains why ^V must be typed twice in vi but
only once in ex, to quote whitespace in a :map.  Bearing this in mind,
the quoting character is consistent in all contexts except when the
'|' command separator is to be quoted in .exrc files.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Kirkendall     kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu      Grad student at Portland State U.