Selective translation

[Eli Taub/100000]

In article <1553 at dfsun1.electro.swri.edu> jackson at dfsun1.electro.swri.edu (Keith Jackson) writes:
>I was trying to filter a file by making the first word lowercase and
>leaving the rest as is.
>
> Stuff deleted ....
>
>== jackson at dfsun1.electro.swri.edu     ##  UN*X - live free or die  ##
>Disclaimer: All views represented here are made by a person who doesn't plan ah

Try ex as a filter (weird !):

echo 'g/^[ 	]*\<[^ 	]*\>/s//\L&/' | ex - foo

* The `[ 	]' is typed: `[' `SPACE' `TAB' `]'

If the lines don't start with space or tab it could be much simpler.


                                                           _   |___      
Eli Taub                                                    |     |   \  |
(512) 838-4810                                                    |   /\/
Contractor at (AWD) IBM  | I express my opinions not IBM's.      /   |  \