Awk and sort (of text files)

[Cameron Simpson]

On 30Jun2015 21:02, michael hennebry <hennebry at web.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu> wrote:
>On Tue, 30 Jun 2015, jd1008 wrote:
>>>Personally I tend to use a nontexty character for this kind of 
>>>placeholder, such as ^G. Less risk of excountering that in the >>>input 
text, and therefore less risk of accidentally mangling it.
>
>Eliminate risk.
>Replace all strings of e's with another string of e's, one e longer.
>Replace the intra-paragraph newlines with one e each.
>Sort.
>Undo the previous replacements.
>If, for some reason, one does not like e, use a vertical stroke.

Hmm. Nifty.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au>

skeptic wrote:
> Why are we exploring space?  To be sure, the scientific returns from
> these missions are very interesting, but what are they really good for? [...]
The best answer was the one Leon Lederman (director of Fermilab) gave to Phil
Donahue when Donahue badgered him with "What does it do for the defense of
the country?" Leaving aside the absurdity of Donahue playing the hawk,
Lederman stood up on a chair and shouted him down, then replied,
"It helps make it worth defending."
        - Doug Jones <random at eau.net>