From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mout.perfora.net (mout.perfora.net [74.208.4.194]) by huchra.bufferbloat.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1930C200681 for ; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:46:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.83.3] (c-76-97-152-51.hsd1.ga.comcast.net [76.97.152.51]) by mrelay.perfora.net (node=mrus3) with ESMTP (Nemesis) id 0MU0ld-1Rlps10ypN-00RSU6; Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:45:47 -0400 Message-ID: <4F71D297.9050301@c3energy.com> Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:45:43 -0400 From: "Ron Frazier (NTP)" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100722 Eudora/3.0.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: NTP Questions List , Thumb-GPS List , Time Nuts List Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Provags-ID: V02:K0:819TfcNoxzNc465i4qoGMbYFQYOgFa0qj6jd4DC2wAw fJFu8IgBrymrEQxHdH3yLJ/1pOGTQMnX5Dy/ixSs1ZmagFgY2/ huZDEEPGCXKfG4HMVLJg7EnHuMIeiuQ78oaebPxo4H5StHto2H XCydlDnMPDD6molNbx1hyAIwPvSCRkBwK13oNMQdGPlvCAs3GW Us7OMb6LpwQq7nDbIXykfPnK7vVvXIa7mTTkkCB8mtj2yOj4/H SjfeZ7kFe/ncevkmZDpHjnCxSSWAUsesKsUWnf6PzUVjEXK4C4 8zUxReg8uuEBBLPl268xbOCHQQ4g1Ys5faBZBaeGnpazBECS7A DipEvQY8Ei/iJd6pp74oB7ib8BFJ6ze1yXN19QHh+ Subject: [Thumbgps-devel] Semi OT - TIP Use Vim to color code NTP.CONF X-BeenThere: thumbgps-devel@lists.bufferbloat.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.13 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:46:15 -0000 Hi all, Here's a neat trick I just discovered. If you like to put lots of comments in NTP.CONF, as I do, it's sometimes a challenge to find where the active lines are and where the comments are. I just discovered that, if you use the VIM programmer's editor to edit the file, all the comment lines are automatically color coded blue and all the active lines are color coded black. This makes it very easy to see the structure of the file. Not wishing to start a firestorm discussion of editors, you could use any programmer's editor that recognizes and color codes the lines with # as a comment. VIM is even smart enough to recognize in line comments after an active command. I've also extracted almost all my explanatory comments and put them in special sections with two blank lines before and after like so: ######################################################### ### explanatory comments ### here's the theory of how the next commands work ### so on and so forth etc etc etc ######################################################### That also makes it easier to read the file. See the following: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9879631/vim%20sample%20image.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9879631/ntp.conf-normal VIM is available for almost any platform, including graphical versions, which I prefer. The graphical version for Ubuntu is called gnome-vim or is it vim-gnome in the repository, and gvim once it's installed. I have no idea if it works with Unity. http://www.vim.org/ Sincerely, Ron -- (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, don't be concerned. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy mailing lists and such. I don't always see new messages very quickly. If you need a reply and have not heard from me in 1 - 2 weeks, send your message again.) Ron Frazier timekeepingdude AT c3energy.com