[R] Re: the name 'sed' [was: how to remove "." or replace it with NA?]

[Douglas Bates]

"John Fox" <jfox at mcmaster.ca> writes:

> Dear Spenser et al.,
> 
> sed stands for "string editor," I believe, and it is a Unix utility,

Actually it is a contraction of "stream editor".  From the manual page
for sed on my system

DESCRIPTION
       Sed  is a stream editor.  A stream editor is used to perform basic text
       transformations on an input stream (a file or input from  a  pipeline).
       While  in  some  ways similar to an editor which permits scripted edits
       (such as ed), sed works by making only one pass over the input(s),  and
       is consequently more efficient.  But it is sed's ability to filter text
       in a pipeline which particularly distinguishes it from other  types  of
       editors.