Re: [vile] question about editing multiple files

[Thomas Dickey]

On Wed, Mar 07, 2012 at 10:05:43AM -0500, Paul Fox wrote:
> hymie! wrote:
>  > 
>  > Greetings.  I've been a vile user for years, and a question has come up.
>  > I hope I can explain this correctly.
>  > 
>  > I have a directory with 20 files.  I have to edit all 20 files, and
>  > I start off with a simple
>  > vi *
>  > 
>  > This loads the files in alphabetical order.  But I'm not going to actually
>  > edit the files in alphabetical order.  I will edit them in a random order
>  > which I don't know until I'm actually editing them.  (The files refer to
>  > each other, you see, and ^X-e is wonderful for this purpose).
>  > 
>  > So I edit file 1, and it refers me (say) to file 3, and then to file 6.
>  > I'm done with that chain, so I use :n to edit file 2.  I edit file 2, and
>  > it refers me (say) to file 9.  I'm done with that chain, so I use :n
>  > to edit file 3.  But I've already edited file 3, and I'm ready to go to
>  > file 4.
>  > 
>  > I know that all I have to do is hit :n again.  But I'm wondering if there
>  > is some way that :n can be "taught" to skip the files that I've edited,
>  > and only jump to the next unedited file.
> 
> hi -- not that i know of.  i think you're looking for a :next-unseen-file
> command, or something like that.  it's possible it can be done with a
> stored procedure, but i don't know that the ability to check whether a
> specific file is unseen or not exists.

It could be done with a stored procedure, but there's no state variable
that would be useful.   If you look at the [Buffer List], you'll be able
to see a 'u' in the first column for buffers that have not been loaded.

That corresponds to the $bflags state variable - which applies to the
current buffer (which is nice but not helpful here, since you want a
buffer that is not yet loaded).

So... the procedure would have to make sure that [Buffer List] is open
(visible, since it's a scratch buffer that goes away when hidden), and
walk down the lines looking for a leading 'u'.  The buffer name is in
a fixed column.

-- 
Thomas E. Dickey <address@hidden>
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

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