From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Samuel Karl Peterson Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: opening large files (few hundred meg) Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:47:37 -0800 Organization: University of California, Davis Message-ID: References: <1f94fef6-a335-4ce5-8d4b-7e87025a28dc@e32g2000prn.googlegroups.com> <87r6g1esga.fsf@gmx.de> <2adae7bb-c775-4a6e-bf83-66a8618b326d@s12g2000prg.googlegroups.com> <87ejc1m21x.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1202265641 21669 80.91.229.12 (6 Feb 2008 02:40:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 02:40:41 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Feb 06 03:41:03 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1JMaDa-0005YY-Mz for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:40:58 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JMaD8-0003zc-A8 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:40:30 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.news.ucla.edu!ucdavis!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 40 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: pc14.cs.ucdavis.edu Original-X-Trace: skeeter.ucdavis.edu 1202262457 5102 169.237.5.55 (6 Feb 2008 01:47:37 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ucdavis.edu Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 01:47:37 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:dYa1YAjaQy2HHGtTJpsdQVLIQ6I= Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:155861 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:51235 Archived-At: Tim X on Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:08:42 +1100 didst step forth and proclaim thus: > However, it seems rediculous to attempt to open a text file of the > size Xah is talking about inside an editor. Like others, I have to > wonder why his log file isn't rotated more often so that it is in > manageable chunks. Its obvious that nobody would read all of a text > file that was that large (especially not every week). More than > likely, you would use existing tools to select 'interesting' parts > of the log and then deal with them. Personally, I'd use something > like Perl or one of the many other scripting languages that are > ideal for (and largely designed for) this sort of problem. Funny enough, as other people have said, while it's not a common use case, it happens and it can be useful to use something like an editor because you don't know exactly what you're looking for. I have been an ardent Emacs user for a number of years, but I gotta say, this is one of the few things Vim really does "right". They even have plugins to help with the process: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1506 I've never had any difficulty working on huge binary files with Vim. There are plenty of other applications that make the efficient ability to work with enormous files highly desirable. Emacs' hexl-mode and tar file mode come immediately to mind. The fact that other people have done it, that the Emacs community brags that there's nothing Emacs can't do or be used for and that this has been something that I have know that Emacs hasn't been able to do for as long as I can remember...well, it just ought to come across as a little bit embarassing to the Emacs devs. Just a smidgin. -- Sam Peterson skpeterson At nospam ucdavis.edu "if programmers were paid to remove code instead of adding it, software would be much better" -- unknown