ed(1) conference @ed1conf@bsd.network

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Pikapods/116032800231967704

New business idea for @ed1conf: ed(1) with cloud lock-in.

I got tired of hacking ad-hoc text selection functions, so I wrote edtext: line selection and manipulation using ed address ranges.
https://nedbatchelder.com/blog/202602/edtext

@ed1conf @dallo Kerouac would have used ed(1).

@dallo

You could always use ed(1) for writing your novel instead:

• pure text editing of your .md or .tex files

• no need (or really even much ability) to tinker with its configuration

• the modal-editing lauded in the post

• no elisp or lua to read/modify

• no dreaded Emacs pinky-finger, or even remapping required

@elrohir

Maybe if you want to date Vi, you have to date Ed & Em first?

(just don't date your Ex)

Keeping my streak: next daily source reading is up: https://blog.wollwage.com/2026/20260207-daily-source-reading-ed.html

#FreeBSD #OpenBSD

"Say hello to my little ed(1)" could just be this thing that I occasionally say in a funny voice.

@laxsill re: emacs vs vi

RE: https://mastodon.me.uk/@emily_s/115935318882732555

I could see ed(1) editing this repo with confidence.

Just had lunch with @yarkot and at one point mentioned the difficulties I was having trying to write an interesting blog post about my holiday Rust+ed(1) adventure. He then said "maybe that's because you're not writing it with ed(1)."

(stunned silence).

🤔

So, not only did I recently code a whole-ass programming language using nothing more than Rust and ed(1), I just submitted a proposal (unrelated) to RustConf 2026 a full month before the deadline using no AI.

Today's plan: clean out my inbox, except for the messages from Ken Thompson about blurbing "Ed Mastery."

If you never hear from me again, you know what happened.

@mwl

Bond: "Do you expect me to awk?"

Goldfinger: "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to vi. There is nothing you can awk to me about that I don't already know."

@jpmens

Did you know that POSIX requires AI in vi/ex?

> I don't know what other people think about this, but I have no plans to add plugins to #ed.

— Antonio Diaz Diaz, maintainer of #GNU #ed(1)

Finally someone not falling for the idea of plugins!

CC @ed1conf

#ed(1) gets indexing right. It indexes thing 1 through length of the buffer. There’s a convenient alias for last line—dollar sign $. And there’s zero-th line that’s only used to prepend content to the start of the buffer. Overall, this feels so natural for an interactive text manipulation program. Quite a humane design

@ed1conf

Why am I downloading and installed ed(1) today?

A: mariadb-dump is generating SQL it cannot run. Also. The files are huge and just need one or two tweaks. vim hangs horribly opening the file because of its size. ed(1) just takes a nice pause when saving it, but is otherwise responsive and _fast_.

I love ed.

(Also. There are a lot of "modern" linux distros that don't install it by default. *glares in BSD user*)

@ed1conf

Tested #ChatGPT with generating simple #ed(1) scripts. Not even close. #sed and #awk syntax keeps getting generated into the responses. And overall ed(1) use is pretty nonsensical.

So, I urge you, in case you want to become an irreplaceable professional and an #AI-resistant person… use ed(1)!

🧵 Thread about models I try with ed(1) tasks and observe them fail.