[lug] vi(m) question

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Thu, Oct 05, 2000 at 12:39:47PM -0500, Michael J. Hammel wrote:
>Interesting.  I've always used:
>
>:1,$s/  /   /g
>
>(where the first string is a tab and the second 3 spaces)
>
>Does "1G!Gexpand -3" work better?  Will it, for example, maintain alignment
>of columns spaced using tabs?

The difference being that expand understands the difference between
"a<tab>b" and "ab<tab>c" and makes the second column line up.  Your
substitution only works if the tabs appear only at the beginning of
the line.

   a  b
   ab c

versus:

   a   b
   ab   c

Sean
-- 
 Get your data structures correct first, and the rest of the program will
 write itself.  -- David Jones
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python