Re: [Bug-ed] [patch] proposal: adding '^' address

[Martin Guy]

On 01/12/2015, Antonio Diaz Diaz <address@hidden> wrote:
>> As suggested by Tim Chase, it seems like a good idea to add the '^'
>> address
>> to GNU ed, to improve compatibility with other implementations.
>
> Well, accepting the '^' character as an address is not required by
> POSIX[1].

It doesn't break POSIX either ("POSIX.1-2008 does not require or
prohibit this behavior), so that's a moot point. GNU ed would continue
to be POSIX compliant either way.

> So I wonder what is the use of complicating the code, the testsuite and
> the documentation

Yes, the documentation change is missing from the patch, but I doubt
it makes much difference to the existing complexity!

> "historical and obscure feature of ed"?

I remember using ^ in the 80s, as it "points to the previous line" but
that also makes me a historical and oscure user :) so I'd vote in
favour of the patch, with the doc change.

    M