Re: [vile] mini-buffer question

[Paul Fox]

thomas wrote:
 > On Wed, Mar 04, 2015 at 08:44:58PM -0500, Thomas Dickey wrote:
 > > On Wed, Mar 04, 2015 at 04:30:29PM -0500, Wayne Cuddy wrote:
 > > > According the help doc ^G toggles the mini-buffer insert mode. If I
 > > > use ^G then 'h' to move back a few characters followed by (^G or i) to
 > > > insert a few characters, if the last character that I insert is '\'
 > > > when I hit ^G to exit insert mode an actual control-G character is
 > > > inserted into the mini-buffer. As if I'd entered it similar to ^V^G. 
 > > 
 > > I see (had not noticed).  I'll take a look for the cause.
 > 
 > hmm - it's inserting ^G because in general vile is using '\' to escape
 > things such as double-quote (though I see the point that ^V is treated
 > specially in this regard).
 > 
 > so... should '\' not escape control-characters, or should there be some
 > other special rule?

well, it traditionally (in vi) didn't -- you have to use ^V to insert
^M, or ESC, for instance.  '\' was normally just for quoting, or other
higher level parsing issues.  at least that was my mental model.  i
don't think we've ever been good at enforcing that distinction in
vile, since the actions of ^V and '\' take place in so many places. 
with something like ^G in the minibuffer, it's not like there's
great precedent to look at, but i think wayne was right to be surprised.

paul
=----------------------
 paul fox, address@hidden (arlington, ma, where it's 35.2 degrees)