Re: text editors

[rhkramer@gmail.com]

On Monday, March 25, 2019 07:05:14 AM tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 04:38:31AM +0000, mick crane wrote:
> > Is there any text editor, preferably in a terminal that has the
> > facility to protect lines in the document, not the document itself ?
> > I've got 2 blocks of "code" that look similar and I keep editing the
> > wrong one and then it doesn't work.
> > mick
> 
> What is "the document"? And what format is it in?
> 
> I have the strong suspicion that the answer to the first would be
> "a configuration file of some sort" and to the second, it might
> be "plain text".

Because there have been some interesting ideas in this thread, I'll add one 
more (which might not be interesting). ;-)

I share the thought that the file / document might be  "a configuration file of 
some sort" and have a suggestion that might be useful in that case, or if the 
document is a program, and maybe even if it is just a text (not necessarily 
plain) file that you open with a word processor.

The thought: put the part of the document that should not be modified in a read 
only file, then "include" that file in another file that you allow to be edited 
(read / write).

There are various ways to do this, depending on the computer language under 
considereration (for example, #include in C / C++).  

There are equivalent approaches in bash, but I forget them (in bash, it might 
be a little more convoluted, like an external / 3rd file that assembles a new 
file from the read-only and read / write files.

I even have a vague recollection that there is / was an "include a file" 
facility in (Microsoft) Word.  And, if so, because LIbre Office seems to make a 
point of providing a feature complete "clone" (mcow) of Word, I suspect there 
is an include facility there as well.