On Tue, Aug 1, 2023 at 10:59 PM Grant Taylor via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:
I routinely use :'<,'>!sort or some similar external filter program on
lines in the file that I'm working with.
No doubt. Pretty much the intended use. I've been doing that since I first learned ed(1) and discovered I could do the same. It always seemed natural and handy [sort(1), tr(1), and fmt(1) are probably the filters I use the most over the years -- as I pretty much have the switches for the same burned into the ROMs in my fingers]. If I had grown up with GUI's, I suspect I might have used cut/paste in some manner to do the same thing (for me, a less natural sequence).
As Ron points out, in using more(1) on the RS/6000 in maintenance mode, shell escape on a multi-tasking system opens up some interesting security paths/unintended side effects. Security is thought to get right. So many places where good ideas can bite you when abused. It does not make it a bad idea. But you need to consider other uses that might not behave the way you planned.
This brings us back to Roz's warning to Mike: "Always Watching."