Ed Mastery
by Michael W Lucas · first published 2018
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, entertaining read about ed, the classic Unix line editor. It explains Unix history and why tools work as they do, and shows where vim comes from.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Let me be perfectly clear: ed(1) is the standard Unix text editor. If you don’t know ed, you’re not a sysadmin. You're a mere dabbler. A dilettante. Deficient. Forty years after ed’s introduction, internationally acclaimed author Michael W Lucas has finally unlocked the mysteries of ed for everyone. With Ed Mastery, you too can become a proper sysadmin. Ed Mastery will help you: •understand buffers and addresses •insert, remove, and mangle text •master file management and shell escapes •comprehend regular expressions, searches, and substitutions •create high-performance scripts for
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Earnestly and seriously: Ed Mastery: The Standard Unix Text Editor (IT Mastery) (Volume 13) by Michael W Lucas https://www.librarything.com/work/book/158901150
on “Ask HN: Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2019?” ↗…personally use it almost daily for some task or another. I wish there was a Ubuntu package for the line mode browser of yore [3]... though I admit I wouldn't use it almost daily! [1] https://www.amazon.com/Ed-Mastery-Standard-Unix-Editor/dp/16... [2] https://twitter.com/ed1conf [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_Mode_Browser
on “Is Line Editing a Lost Art?” ↗Of course, there is Ed Mastery by Michael W. Lucas: https://mwl.io/nonfiction/tools#ed that you can read in an afternoon easily. It helps you understand some UNIX history, explains why stuff works the way it works and you can have…
on “Exiting VIM is hard; sometimes we need to take drastic measures” ↗…One of its notable users is Russ Cox, the tech lead of the Golang team. I haven’t used Acme yet, but I want to try it out one day. If you’re interested in learning more about ed, I highly recommend “Ed Mastery” by Michael W Lucas [3] [1] https://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/acme/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP1xVpMPn8M [3] https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07BVBSDNZ
on “Enlightenmentware” ↗…after receiving complaints about his decision to use female sysadmins as examples in his tech books (IIRC he usually alternates genders in examples), Michael Lucas published a "Manly McManface" edition of Ed Mastery which has an all-male cast of sysadmins... at a much higher price.
on “Amazon's Plan to Conquer the World of Publishing” ↗Michael W Lucas has his Ed Mastery [1]. I am not sure how good it is as I am yet to read it, but I have enjoyed his OpenBSD books. [1]: https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/product/ed
on “The original source code of the vi text editor, taken from System V” ↗