<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Thanks, Andy, you expressed it well. Others on this thread missed my point - grep and find are great, but they solve other problems.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I spend a lot of time configuring routers and switches. We have software which regularly copies the configuration files for these devices to a server. Many of these files are thousands of lines long. I view them in an editor window, while in another window I'm logged into the device, making changes. </DIV><DIV>The config files are protected readonly on disk, because it makes no sense to modify them.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Until recently, I used Emacs to open them. Emacs supports "open file readonly", which means "open the file but disable all commands that change the edit buffer". If I accidentally do anything that would change the buffer, Emacs beeps and does nothing. This is quite useful when there are several editor windows open, as it helps keep me from accidentally changing the wrong buffer. Obviously, when I exit Emacs, it obviously doesn't ask me if I want to save any of the readonly buffers.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Cliff, I think it's probably safe to call Emacs and vim "text editors" :-) It's very useful to view, seach and navigate a huge config file with a text editor, and I prefer to browse readonly files with the same tool that I use to edit files. A few days ago I wrote a TextMate language grammar for Juniper router configs, so now TextMate does syntax highlighting and folding of these config files. It's surprisingly useful.</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>-- Pete</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Jul 19, 2007, at 9:30 AM, Andy Armstrong wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Cliff Pruitt wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Well, you can mark the file itself as being read-only which will apply</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">system wide and you wont be able to save it.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">If you're wanting to actually prevent being able to modify the open</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">document then I'd say probably no.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>TextMate is a "text editor" by</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">definition so you'd not really expect to find an option that removes the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">ability to edit.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I'f you're wanting a strict text-reader, why specifically are you you</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">using TextMate?<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Is there maybe a better tool for what you're trying to do?</DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I think you've missed the point Cliff. There are all sorts of reasons</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">why you'd want to open a document read-only. Other editors have great</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">r/o support (vim/gvim springs to mind). In general just because you</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">don't want to change the document doesn't mean you don't want to work</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">with it in a familiar user interface will all the syntax highlighting,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">clever selection modes, folding etc that TextMate brings.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Andy Armstrong, Hexten</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">______________________________________________________________________</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">For new threads USE THIS: <A href="mailto:textmate@lists.macromates.com">textmate@lists.macromates.com</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">(threading gets destroyed and the universe will collapse if you don't)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://lists.macromates.com/mailman/listinfo/textmate">http://lists.macromates.com/mailman/listinfo/textmate</A></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>