[vile] replace multiple chars (used to work)

[hymie!]

Greetings.  Long-time vile user.

As recently as version 9.7, I could use the construct
<number> r <character>
to replace a string of characters with a matching number of a single
character.

For example,  given the string
hymie!
the command 5r- would change it to
-----!

Starting with 9.8 , the string of characters is replaced with a single
character, so the string
hymie!
becomes
-!

Is this a bug or an intentional change?  If it's intentional, is there
a way to replicate the older behavior?

Thanks.

--hymie!    http://lactose.homelinux.net/~hymie    address@hidden