can vi write to STDOUT?

[Oo.et.oO]

hi all,
i searched and searched and can't figure out if vi or vim can write to standard out when used as normal (:wq in command mode)

i am writing a script which takes a blurb on the command line OR spawns the $EDITOR to take the blurb. how does one easily do this, like cvs does without the -m option?

i'm trying to do this without an intermediate temp file (that would be too easy).

BTW i'm doing the parent script in perl and this is way too complicated for the script's use. but now i'm curious.

thanks!

[David_Escott]

if an intermediate file is too easy then why not do it that way. But i seriously doubt that anyone would have bothered to add this feature as it would require vi to write create a null file, disable all write commands, and upon exit cat the memory location which anyone knowledgeable to know how to do all that would realize is simply easier to do by having vi write to a temporary file and then when vi exits cat the file just by doing

vi $temp && cat $temp