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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 18 Feb '12

18 Feb '12

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back this Monday, 20th February, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. ** I'm not going to be able to attend this month, as I'm going to be in London attending a gaming industry panel event [https://baftagamesqt1.eventbrite.com/] on Monday evening, so please shout up on the mailing list if you're attending so other attendees know who to look out for. ** Peter. ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Strange lack of PHP error reporting
by Chris Green 14 Feb '12

14 Feb '12

I'm having a real hard time at the moment because for some reason PHP errors (in web pages) don't seem to get reported anywhere. I've narrowed the problem down a bit, if I put a PHP file in my root web directory then any errors *are* reported. However if I put an error into some of the code in my wiki nothing happens except that I get a completely blank page. I've looked at the .htaccess file, no joy there, doesn't set anything relevant. There's nothing appearing in the apache log file either, total silence. Any ideas? -- Chris Green

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How to set permissions on an ethernet port?
by Chris Green 14 Feb '12

14 Feb '12

How can I set the permissions on eth0 to allow me (as opposed to root) to modify it? I want to use macchanger from a script and I don't want to have to enter my password every time I run the script. I assume it's the same sort of permission that one would need to be able to use ifconfig to change things on a network interface. -- Chris Green

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GIMP
by Bev Nicolson 13 Feb '12

13 Feb '12

I may have a book on it, I may have the online manual but can I get GIMP to heal a smudge on a photo? Not so far. Anyone got any tips? Many thanks. Bev.

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Re: [ALUG] Another thing...
by Wayne Stallwood 09 Feb '12

09 Feb '12

On 07/02/12 12:28, Anthony Anson wrote: > > Why do I need Nero? Several times I've burnt a CD or DVD using the > offerings with Squeeze, and sometimes, all that was laid down was a > batch of empty directories. Hmm I have had that a few times with the built in Gnome burning....k3b however has been good to me over the years even if it does need a million KDE libraries installed.

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Regular expression question
by Chris Green 08 Feb '12

08 Feb '12

I want a regular expression to select text between /x and /, e.g. I'm wanting to look at something like:- /x This is a load of multi-line text and some more and more / ... and get the three lines of text (with/without the end bits). However I want it to be non-greedy so that:- /x Here is some text / and some more / ... will return only the "Here is some text" bit. So, a simple regular expression like '^/x[^/]*/' gets me what I want. However, I'm trying to make this a bit cleverer so that embedded / characters don't break it. So the next try is '^/x.*/\n', this works to an extent but it's 'greedy' so giving it the second example means that it returns both "Here is some text" and "and some more". Is there a way of saying "not /\n", or any other way of saying 'non-greedy'? This is using PHP regular expression searches. -- Chris Green

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Distro for ARM
by Dan 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

Dear All, I currently have a fairly minimal Gentoo install in a chroot, on my ARM-based Android 'phone. The reason it's fairly minimal is that compiling additional packages is very slow. Hence, I've decided to replace the Gentoo install with a binary distro. I've got debootstrap installed under Gentoo, and am ready to go - but I'm a little confused as to what architecture I need to tell debootstrap to install for, since as I understand it, not all ARM binaries will run on all variants of ARM processor. Can anyone advise, please? The specific processor is a Qualcomm MSM7200A, and the compiler options I use in Gentoo are: CFLAGS="-march=armv6 -mtune=arm1136j-s -mfloat-abi=soft -O0" (the -O0 was a vain attempt to reduce compilation times to a manageable level.) -- Thanks, Dan

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 9th February
by Viperfang 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 9th February at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Re: [ALUG] Another thing..
by Phil Ashby 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

On 04/02/12 12:00, Anthony Anson wrote: > I have a (legal) XP Pro CD, SP 3, and WGA Crack. > > What is the concensus of the cognoiscenti - should I install a severely > truncated XP to USB memory, or run a similarly curtailed XP in Virtual Box? I would recommend the virtualization route every time - migrating XP between hardware platforms is nigh on impossible. > Oh, I want XP (well, anything which will run Paintsho Pro, Photoshop and > Irfanview) for some programs which IMO Linux-based programs can't match. Wine seems to get on ok with Photoshop and Irfanview: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=17 http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=163 not so happy with PSP.. P

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Another thing...
by Anthony Anson 04 Feb '12

04 Feb '12

The copy of XP home which was on the Asus laptop when I bought it remains, surrounded by Squeeze and all its works. Squeeze and all its works work better, andbut... The XP volume was not installed properly, and some things do not work - for example, some software installations will not proceed beyond a certain - or rather, an uncertain - point. In any case, even for Billyware, XP runs at a snail's pace. It takes several minutes to unmount a USB memory stick. "Oh, reinstall it!" is the usual Billyware user's remedy. As Penguinistas will well know, this will result in XP marking all the territory round it like an incontinent dog - so - here is the question: I have a (legal) XP Pro CD, SP 3, and WGA Crack. What is the concensus of the cognoiscenti - should I install a severely truncated XP to USB memory, or run a similarly curtailed XP in Virtual Box? I tend towards the former solution as the XP can then run any of my machines (any which will boot from USB, that is...), and running a virtual XP will surely take up nearly as much HDD space as keeping it in its own partition? And, can I install it on a memory stick on the Acer without XP scribbling all over Squeeze? Oh, I want XP (well, anything which will run Paintsho Pro, Photoshop and Irfanview) for some programs which IMO Linux-based programs can't match. Please don't suggest The Gimp... I *do* use The Gimp, but only when I CBA to reboot into that very sub-standard XP installation. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Re: [ALUG] Another thing...
by Tim Green 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

On 3 February 2012 15:16, Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)girolle.co.uk> wrote: > Tim Green wrote: >> On 3 February 2012 14:22, Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)girolle.co.uk> wrote: >>> And, can I install it on a memory stick on the Acer without XP scribbling >>> all over Squeeze? >> >> XP will let you choose your install partition, so it shouldn't trash >> the other partitions. It might puke over the MBR, so be prepared to >> fix that afterwards. > > If I install it on the Acer's HDD, it will scribble over everything, whether > it concerns it or not. Is that the recovery/ factory restore install? Booting from an install CD should, after you agree to the EULA, present a white on blue list of disks, partitions and free space. > I *might* just throw together a load of old bits to do the job with... > Ta. I might need it -I haven't installed BillyOS since (IIRC) Win 2000 The XP installer was written in 2001, so it still uses text mode for the first part of the install. Regards, Tim.

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You may remember me looking for a straightforward 'grid' editor for sqlite - found one!
by Chris Green 02 Feb '12

02 Feb '12

Well after hunting around for absolutely ages I think I have finally found what I needed for editing the data in sqlite tables, in place, in a grid. The program is tksqlite, it takes a while to dig down to find the current version, it doesn't live in any of the normal places and, at first glance at http://reddog.s35.xrea.com/wiki/TkSQLite.html it looks as if there's nothing newer than 2006 but on digging further I found:- http://sourceforge.net/projects/kbskit/files ... and there's recent builds there for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux. (OK, sourceforge *is* one of the usual places, but it's not at all obvious that tksqlite is there). It does almost exactly what I want and is also a very neat sqlite3 database administration tool, much less clunky IMHO that either sqlitebrowser or sqliteman. I just wish I could find some more complete documentation and/or a support list of some sort. -- Chris Green

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Probably asked this before...
by Anthony Anson 01 Feb '12

01 Feb '12

I want to make a bootable USB memory stick with the Eee's operating system so I can run down my use of Xan-Dross. I've changed the root password so I can now tell it to do all those things it has steadfastly refused to do until now. What do people recommend? Ideally, a mirror of the HDD would be best. Now to discover how to devastate the unwanted pogroms... The next question is, what distro to put on the Eee instead of Xan-Dross, bearing in mind I use Debian as my main OS -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Re: [ALUG] Does anyone else miss the pull-down list that used to be adjacent to the Back button in Firefox?
by John Woodard 27 Jan '12

27 Jan '12

Cool I'd wondered where that had gone. Cheers, BJ

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Does anyone else miss the pull-down list that used to be adjacent to the Back button in Firefox?
by Chris Green 27 Jan '12

27 Jan '12

Back around version 3.x and before of Firefox there was a V symbol (i.e. a down pointer) next to the < (Back) button that would provide links back to the last few pages viewed before the current one in the same TAB. I used to find this very useful if one wanted to go back to a page before, for example, filling in a form. Using the Back button produces all those warnings about having to resend information. This has disappeared in current versions of Fifefox, has it gone for ever? -- Chris Green

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Mint Issues
by Paul Grenyer 26 Jan '12

26 Jan '12

Hi All I've come back to the Linux fold, mostly because I'm developing in Java again. At the recommendation of a friend of mine I've installed Mint Linux 12 (Gnome) and I really like it. However, at what seems like random intervals I am unable to click anything. So I can't change between applications, I can't scroll scroll bars, I can't pull down, menus, etc. I can move the mouse and I can turn caps lock on and off. I'm running on a 2007 Think Pad T60. Has anyone else seen this problem or know what it might be? -- Thanks Paul Paul Grenyer e: paul.grenyer(a)gmail.com b: paulgrenyer.blogspot.com t: pjgrenyer

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RAID Problems
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 26 Jan '12

26 Jan '12

Hi Gnu Grub Gurus! I've just spent an unpleasant evening getting my server to boot again. Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS, fully patched and up-to-date. Running Raid 1 with 2 active disks. Historically, got a error reported on 1 of the disks, so brought some bigger ones. Marked one of the old disks as "Failed" and added one of the new ones. Waited for it to synch. Marked the other old disk as "Failed", added the other new one. Waited for it to synch. That left me with 4 disks in the raid array, 2 new ones active, the old two marked as failed, but still connected. Was meaning to reboot this when I had time to fix any problems that may occur on rebooting. Tonight, I forgot that and rebooted the machine after something crashed. Then the machine wouldn't boot. Got all the bios screens, disks recognised etc, then I got an error along the lines of udevd-work mdadm --incremental /dev/sdd1 unexpected exit with status 0x000b Managed to boot from a live cd. Hacked around a bit, discovered I hadn't marked the new disks as bootable, and the partition type was wrong - Raid, as opposed to Raid-autodetect. Changed that disconnected the old disks, rebooted, and after the bios screens, where I would hope to see the grub boot menu, I just got a flashing cursor. This is the problem I want to solve - how to get it to boot with just the new disks in it. I shut it down again, reattached the old disks. Rebooted. It now has 4 disks, 2 new ones active, 2 old ones as spares (not synched). Could my problem be that Grub is not installed on the new disks. If that's the case, how can I check. How can I fix it if this is the problem. NB I'm using grub legacy (V0.97) If that's not my problem, what is my problem and how do I fix it? Something like what's listed here? http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1360445&highlight=grub2+fakeraid <http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1360445&highlight=grub2+fakeraid> Any help appreciated! Steve

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Is there a utility to spot missing/out of sequence files?
by Chris Green 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

I suspect I'm going to have to write a utility to do this for me but there *might* be something to do it for me. I want to spot files missing from a sequence, e.g. if I see:- dscf1253.jpg dscf1254.jpg dscf1256.jpg dscf1257.jpg dscf1258.jpg dscf1259.jpg I want to be told that dscf1255.jpg is missing. -- Chris Green

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How to execute something from a web page (i.e. hung on a button) without affecting the web page?
by Chris Green 24 Jan '12

24 Jan '12

I want to have a button on a web page that executes some code (currently a bash script) but which isn't 'real' CGI in that it doesn't send anything back to the web server. I want nothing at all to happen to the web page when the button is clcked. Is there some sort of CGI 'output' which does nothing at all? -- Chris Green

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"unwritable" external USB drive
by Ted.Harding＠wlandres.net 23 Jan '12

23 Jan '12

Greetings All. I wonder if anyone can give me some advice! Seeking a device to take backups onto, I bought a Western Digital "My Passport Essential" external USB hard drive (500 GB, USB 2.0 and 3.0). When I plug this in (Debian Lenny) I get a pop-up which says: Cannot mount volume Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume 'My Passport' dmesg | tail -35 gives: usb 4-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 9 usb 4-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice scsi8 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices usb-storage: device found at 9 usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning usb 4-3: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=0740 usb 4-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5 usb 4-3: Product: My Passport 0740 usb 4-3: Manufacturer: Western Digital usb 4-3: SerialNumber: 575839314138315934373632 usb-storage: device scan complete scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD My Passport 0740 1003 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 scsi 8:0:0:1: Enclosure WD SES Device 1003 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Spinning up disk....ready sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 976707584 512-byte hardware sectors (500074MB) sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08 sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 976707584 512-byte hardware sectors (500074MB) sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08 sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through sdc: sdc1 sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk ses 8:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device fdisk /dev/sdc gives: Disk /dev/sdc: 500.0 GB, 500074283008 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60797 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00038a56 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 1 60798 488352768 7 HPFS/NTFS Then, as root (remote login): mount -t ntfs /dev/sdc1 /mnt apparently mounts OK, and then: ls -la /mnt gives: drwx------ 1 root root 4096 2012-01-19 13:11 . drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 4096 2009-04-17 19:52 .. drwx------ 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 00:48 Extras drwx------ 1 root root 0 2012-01-19 13:11 $RECYCLE.BIN drwx------ 1 root root 0 2012-01-19 13:10 System Volume Information drwx------ 1 root root 0 2011-03-10 00:48 User Manuals -rw------- 2 root root 3290480 2011-03-09 22:43 WD Quick Formatter.exe drwx------ 1 root root 4096 2011-03-10 00:48 WD SmartWare -rw------- 2 root root 4246384 2011-03-09 22:43 WD SmartWare.exe drwx------ 1 root root 0 2011-03-10 00:48 WD SmartWare for Mac and I can read the user manual under "User Manuals". However, I want to make a new directory on the USB disk, so as a test I try: mkdir /mnt/Test which gives: mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/Test': Operation not permitted (despite the fact that /mnt, and /mnt/Test and all subdirectories, apparently have write permission for root). Also, in /media I have: -rw------- 1 root root 0 2012-01-23 18:37 .hal-mtab-lock which was not there before I plugged it in (well, it was from a previous session, but I deleted it before starting this test). SO: How do I make this thing writeable??? (This is the first time I have had a USB drive so this on me). With thanks, Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)wlandres.net> Date: 23-Jan-2012 Time: 18:41:46 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------

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A very simple/silly HTML question about 204 response
by Chris Green 21 Jan '12

21 Jan '12

I want to have a CGI script return a 204 response so that the calling page doesn't change but I can't get it to work cleanly such that I don't get an error as follows:- Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@localhost and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. The CGI script is currently just:- echo HTTP/1.0 204 No Change echo Content-type: text/html echo The apache error log says:- [Sat Jan 21 16:19:24 2012] [error] [client 192.168.1.4] malformed header from script. Bad header=HTTP/1.0 204 No Change: wikiedit.cgi, referer: http://wiki/info:money:jessica?do=edit Removing the "echo Content-type: text/html" makes no difference at all. According to what I can find on Google about "204 No Change" it's all I should need. Any ideas? -- Chris Green

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Wifi access point recommendation for use outside?
by Srdjan Todorovic 21 Jan '12

21 Jan '12

Hi all, I just got a call from my dad asking about a wifi access point that: 1. is good (how does one quantify this?) 2. has a 30m range (wikipedia suggests 32m indoor range, and 95m outside as normal ranges for b/g) 3. can support 10-20 connected peers on the wifi interface (I'm guessing there would be a resource limit, but I don't know what it would be, or what is normal) 4. can be used for yard applications a) either is rugged / waterproof enough to be mounted outside, with power and ethernet pulled outside, or b) would be effective enough mounted on the side of the window indoors and remain hidden from view, and the antenna can still pick up wifi peers, and the wifi peers can pick up the AP signals. 5. secured - most should support WEP and WPA, but I'm not sure what the actual requirements for this are - depends on what encryption the users would have, but I'd hope they'd all support WPA-PSK as a minimum. I suspect most wifi access points would satisfy all of these requirements (except maybe ruggedness in case it was to be mounted outdoors). Does anyone have any suggestions for a wifi access point that would meet these requirements? Thanks, Srdjan

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SQL question - any other way to do this?
by Chris Green 21 Jan '12

21 Jan '12

I have the following typically horrible bit of SQL to get a result I want:- SELECT Date, Description, Credit, (SELECT SUM(Credit) FROM jessica j2 WHERE j2.Date <= j1.Date ORDER BY j2.Date) AS TotCredit FROM jessica j1; This is actually slightly simplifed but illustrates the problem. It works OK if run as shown but unfortunately I don't actually have the ability to create the whole thing in the application where I'm using it. All I can do is specify the SQL for the individual selected colums, I *can't* specify the final "FROM jessica j1", it's actually just "FROM jessica". So, what the application executes is:- SELECT Date, Description, Credit, (SELECT SUM(Credit) FROM jessica j2 WHERE j2.Date <= Date ORDER BY Date) AS TotCredit FROM jessica I can change the (SELECT SUM(Credit) FROM jessica j2 WHERE j2.Date <= Date ORDER BY Date) to anything I want, can anyone suggest a way to get the running total that I want just by adjusting this part of the SQL? -- Chris Green

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Evolution oddness
by Bev Nicolson 20 Jan '12

20 Jan '12

To be honest Evolution's been odd for a while but anyway. Opening it up I wasn't asked for my password (I don't login to my computer now. No idea why. If anyone's got a cunning way of changing that, do tell. The request to put my p/w in comes randomly.) Today I can't open any emails. Essentially it's behaving as though there's not internet access (though as you can see, there is, cos I'm typing this.) I see others have had problems like this with too on the Ubuntu forum. Hmm.

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Text editor that can edit columns easily/well?
by Chris Green 20 Jan '12

20 Jan '12

Does anyone know of a text editor that will edit columns of text well? By this I *don't* mean one that can handle rectangular areas, my preferred editor (vile/xvile) can already do that easily. What I want is a text editor that will maintain existing columns while allowing one to add/edit/delete text within them. E.g. if I have:- Some text in column Text in column two Column 3 column 1 continued and more in here etc etc bla bla bla goo goo goo ding ding ... and I edit it as follows:- Some more text in column Text in column two Column 3 column 1 continued and more in here etc etc bla bla bla goo goo goo ding ding I want it to maintain things as above without me having to delete the four extra spaces between columns one and two. I want to be able to add text to a line in a column and have it expand the whole column down the file. I.e. there is some sort of 'virtual' delimiter between the columns which is kept vertically aligned, I'm quite happy for this to be an actual character although I'd prefer it to be invisible like a TAB if possible. Thus the above *could* be:- Some text in column | Text in column two | Column 3 column 1 continued | and more in here | etc etc bla bla bla | goo goo goo | ding ding ... and I edit it as follows:- Some more text in column | Text in column two | Column 3 column 1 continued | and more in here | etc etc bla bla bla | goo goo goo | ding ding ... then add even more text:- Some more text in column | Text in column two | Column 3 column 1 continued | and more in here | etc etc bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla | goo goo goo | ding ding with the editor keeping the |s vertically aligned for me. The 'table' add-on for Emacs almost does this but it's for a table (as in text in boxes) rather than text in columns. Searching for 'text edit columns' just comes up with loads of editors that can handle rectangular areas which I can already do. -- Chris Green

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