> I am trying to write a simple function, which searches through
> the whole buffer to fund a certain pattern and stops searching
> when found the first match. I also want the function to
> return a matched/not matched return code and given the caller
> the line/column of the match if found.
You might try with the built-in search() function. There are
some nuances to finding a match on the first line, but these can
be overcome by going to *end* of the file, and then searching
with wrapscan. Something like this untested function might do
the trick:
function! first(pat)
let old_line = line('.')
$
let result=search(a:pat, 'w')
exec old_line
return result
endfunc
You can read up on the nuances and flags of search() at
:help search()
-tim
