what does \e do in :s/./\e&/ in vi? (was: merging 2 files)

[Vos G P]

kells at iis.UUCP (Kevin Kells) writes:

>A little experimentation (didn't use source) proved that there are at
>least three such \? "commands" that can be used in this substitution
>context. Two I understand: \l (not \L) and \u, which convert upper case
>to lower case and vice versa, respectively.  But a third, \e, also
>seems to do something, though I can't figure out what.

According to the belowmentioned "vi reference":
\l and \u convert the next character (if it's a letter) to uppercase/lowercase.
\L and \U convert all following characters to uppercase/lowercase, until a
\e or \E is found.

>Is this documented somewhere [besides in the source :-) ] ? Could
>someone please tell me what \e does in this context?

I found it in the "vi reference" by Maarten Litmaath. This is published
(ir?)regularly in comp.editors, in two versions: one in Dutch and one in
English.

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