`a` append to buffer commands

Question

Similar question, yet not duplicate of: How can I reload all buffers at once?

If :wa writes all, would not :ea be expected to reload all?

How could one script :ea to behave this way?

What are the cases when a append works or not?

Answer 1

I think D. Ben Knoble's guess is as good as any as to why :editall hasn't been implemented to do what you want it to. Note that :ea already has a function (It's short for :earlier), and it's unlikely that this will ever be changed, as that would break backwards compatability.

If you want to make :ea instead reload all the buffers, you can use an abbreviation:

:cabbrev <expr> ea (getcmdtype() == ':' && getcmdpos() == 3) ? 'bufdo edit' : 'ea'

As for other commands that support an a[ll] suffix, here's a possibly incomplete list gleaned from the command: :helpgrep :\k*all\>:

• :qa[ll]
• :wqa[ll]
• :doautoa[ll]
• :xa[ll]
• :ba[ll]
• :packl[oadall]
• :sal[l]
• :sba[ll]
• :spellr[epall]
• :al[l]

(Just in case you weren't already aware of this, all command-line commands can be abbreviated to the shortest non-ambiguous prefix, hence the square brackets [] denoting the optional characters in the command.)

Answer 2

While I cannot answer design questions, not being a designer, I would hazard a guess that :wall was provided as a shortcut for a very common operation (:bufdo write or similar), while we are left with :bufdo (and :argdo, :cdo, :windo, etc.) for the rest.

A user command:

command -bar -bang Eall bufdo<bang> edit<bang>

(You may not want both bangs; they do different things, so pick the ones that make sense to you.)