09 Mar 1992 | Print  |

TidBITS browsing macro

by Ian Feldman

Those of you that read the weekly issues using the "rn" program (under Unix) may now be able to browse, jumping directly from topic to topic with the help of a special rnmacro. Simply add the following 4 lines to the ".rnmac" file in your home directory (or, if there isn't one, create it first with "cat > .rnmac^M^D"):

 # jump forward to next TidBITS.etx topic/ subhead/ subsubhead;
 # replace the ^M string last in the macro with an embedded carriage
 # return (control-V, control-M in the shell or C-q C-m in emacs)
 V       %(%m=p?g\^[\^-= [(>]^M)

From now on typing an uppercase V (mnemonic for ARROW DOWN) will jump to next topic or subtopic in TidBITS. Subsequent jumps may be commanded either with G (repeat last-defined search pattern) or V. Sadly, it only works forward in the text, not backwards. Should there be a real rnmacro expert among you then you're welcome to enhance it further still. Also, in the process, make it use the "d" half-screen scroll option instead of current full-screen one (to speed things up).

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