You got it right - almost - but missed by a hairs width.

Any command (like "s", etc.) can be preceeded by a range clause. A range clause can be either a range of lines, determined by line numbers or a starting/ending regexp, or it can be a single line number or regexp. In the second case the command would either apply to the single line number or to all lines matching the regexp:

Code:

1,3 s/x/y/
/^aa/,/^bb/ s/x/y/
1 s/x/y/
/^abc/ s/x/y/

The first line would apply "s/x/y/" only to lines 1-3, the second line would apply it to all lines from a line starting with "aa" to a line starting with "bb".

The third line would apply the command only to line number 1 and the fourth to all lines starting with "abc".

This you did correctly, but range clauses cannot be nested, and

Code:

/^$/d

is also a range clause: one, that applies the command "d" only to lines of the form "/^$/", like in my fourth example. To correct your code you simply have to correctly nest the commands:

Code:

1,3 {
     /^$/ {
          d
     }
}

or, in short form:

Code:

1,3 {;/^$/d;}

I hope this helps.

bakunin