From: xalapax@...
Date: 2003-06-17T12:40:15+09:00
Subject: Re: /BEGIN/ .. /END/  file reading

Michael Campbell <michael_s_campbell@yahoo.com> writes:

> Did perl originate this idea?  I remember way back when in perl 4.0x
> days when I figured out how that thing worked... it was one of those
> "a-HA!" moments.  

Perl may have borrowed it from sed, which supports a two address form
in many commands.

From http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xcu/sed.html

  A command line with two addresses selects the inclusive range from
  the first pattern space that matches the first address to the next
  pattern space that matches the second. (If the second address is a
  number less than or equal to the line number first selected, only
  one line will be selected.) Starting at the first line following the
  selected range, sed looks again for the first address. Thereafter
  the process is repeated.

Addresses are separated by commas and can be either regular
expressions, line numbers or "$".

I don't know where sed borrowed it from.