Mystery Macro

Someone page Lord Peter Vimsey

Sunday, April 23, 2023 52 words One minute

Here’s a puzzle for you. What does the following series of keystrokes do?¹

qqqqfqqqyiwoEscpASpace0Space1Esc2b@fIRedacted:SpaceEscqqfOcc0Ctrl-VEscEscOd2wEscOCtrl-VCtrl-Xg_yiwASpaceCtrl-VEscp2geCtrl-VCtrl-AdawOCtrl-VCtrl-R-Ctrl-VEscxaCtrl-VCtrl-VCtrl-VCtrl-ACtrl-VEsc0y$ddg_@0Ctrl-VCtrl-X0@fEsc3+Ctrl-AyiwOOCtrl-VEscCtrl-R0a3Ctrl-VEscEsc0y$dd@02|r2^r1+yiw-OCtrl-R0|vyddEsc0y$dd@0Ctrl-XOCtrl-R0-y$Ctrl-R0+Esc^y$dd@03k3dd@0q

Send in your answers on a postcard, and I’ll reveal the answer and an explanation tomorrow!

If you try it out, be sure to start with a fresh copy of Vim that ignores your customizations:
```
vim --clean
```
↩︎