Editing Sam (text editor) (section)

{{short description|Multi-file text editor}}
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{{Infobox software
| name                   = Sam
| logo                   =
| screenshot             = Sam text editor.png
| caption                = A screenshot of ''Sam''
| collapsible            =
| author                 = [[Rob Pike]]
| developer              = [[Bell Labs]]
| released               = early 1980s
| latest release version =
| latest release date    = {{start date and age|2003|07|04}}
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date    =
| programming language   = [[C (programming language)|C]]
| operating system       = [[Unix]], [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs|Plan 9]], [[Microsoft Windows|Win32]]
| platform               =
| size                   =
| language               = English
| genre                  = [[Text editor]]
| license                = 2021: [[MIT License|MIT]]<br />2014: [[GNU General Public License|GPL-2.0-only]]<br />2002: [[Lucent Public License|LPL-1.02]]
| website                = {{URL|sam.cat-v.org}}
}}

'''Sam''' is a multi-file [[text editor]] based on structural [[regular expressions]]. It was originally designed in the early 1980s at [[Bell Labs]] by [[Rob Pike]] with the help of [[Ken Thompson (computer programmer)|Ken Thompson]] and other Unix developers for the [[Blit (computer terminal)|Blit]] windowing terminal running on [[Research Unix|v9 Unix]];<ref name="reader">{{cite tech report |first1=M. D. |last1=McIlroy |author-link1=Doug McIlroy |year=1987 |url=http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf |title=A Research Unix reader: annotated excerpts from the Programmer's Manual, 1971–1986 |series=CSTR |number=139 |institution=Bell Labs}}</ref> it was later ported to other systems. Sam follows a classical [[modularity (programming)|modular]] [[Unix]] aesthetic. It is internally simple, its power leveraged by the composability of a small command language and [[extensibility]] through shell integration.