jeffb.bbs@shark.cs.fau.edu (Jeffrey Boser) (05/18/91)
I just recently got an account on a unix machine that considerately does not have a man or help function to access any sort of documentation, and it seems I tried to mail from it, and its default editor is vi. I was warned that for some really stupid reason, disconnecting a vi process crashes the machine. I do not have the ability to un-crash it, so I need to know how to get out of the damn thing. vi will not suspend, or recognize any sort of control or escape key. It used to accept ctl-\, and give me a ':' prompt, from which I could quit, but I lost that along with full-screen capabilities. an escape key causes the next key to be one space to the right, with the cursor on top of it, like typing a space, the caracter, then left arrow. any information anybody can send me at all will be graciously received. but I have to get it now, or otherwise leave the process going all night. a man page would be great, and I can read mail fine, but until I can get elm to take emacs as its editor, I can only email from this bbs account. you can send me mail here, at jeffb.bbs@shark.cs.fau.edu, or at my new unix account, jboser@shark.cs.fau.edu btw... if someone could explain to me why elm, rn, and vi do not like either backspaces or deletes, and treats them as control chars, I would appreciate it. thanks for any and all replys in advance, .....jeff jeffb.bbs@shark.cs.fau.edu "Make something an idiot can use, and only an idiot will use it" -RAH Like a Bible, maybe?
gaynor@paul.rutgers.edu (Silver) (05/18/91)
When questioned about his favorite vi trick, a very wise and learned scholar replied, "Colon q bang caret v i caret e m a c s return.". In other words, stay the hell away from vi and use an emacs (GNU Emacs is a good 'un). Seriously though, you DO need to know a little about vi, just enough to build and install an emacs. Regards, [Ag]
peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) (05/19/91)
In article <May.18.12.23.38.1991.1470@paul.rutgers.edu> gaynor@paul.rutgers.edu (Silver) writes: > In other words, > stay the hell away from vi and use an emacs (GNU Emacs is a good 'un). Thus speaks a man with an unlimited hardware budget. Or, to put it another way, "I like GNU Emacs" can be translated as "I don't have to buy my own computer equipment out of my houshold budget". -- Peter da Silva; Ferranti International Controls Corporation; +1 713 274 5180; Sugar Land, TX 77487-5012; `-_-' "Have you hugged your wolf, today?"
asylvain@felix.UUCP (Alvin "the Chipmunk" Sylvain) (05/30/91)
Written in article <JyL521w163w@shark.cs.fau.edu>
by jeffb.bbs@shark.cs.fau.edu (Jeffrey Boser):
> I just recently got an account on a unix machine that considerately
> does not have a man or help function to access any sort of documentation,
My sincere condolences!
Try sending some mail to this address:
Maarten Litmaath <maart@cs.vu.nl>
He has put together a VI Reference manual, and posted it to this very
newsgroup some time ago. I've printed it and shared it with friends,
and I recommend it highly. You might try checking to see if it's still
available at your site, because it wasn't that long ago, and may still
be on disk.
> btw... if someone could explain to me why elm, rn, and vi do not like
> either backspaces or deletes, and treats them as control chars, I would
> appreciate it.
You may have to set this up from the shell before you run the software.
From the shell prompt, before you run anything, enter this:
stty erase <bs>
where you replace the "<bs>" with your preferred backspace key. If you
see a "^H" (backspace) or a "^?" (delete) or some such, you should have
successfully set up your backspace (for this login session). Test it
out by entering "aaa" then backspacing over it. Then test it in your
software, such as 'vi.'
If, however, when you enter the 'stty' command, you press your backspace,
and all it does is backspace, then you have a different problem, and
you'll need someone with more expertise than mine. (This is what will
happen the 2nd time you enter it, when it worked right the 1st time.)
If this works, you'll want to make it part of your normal login. Edit
either your "$HOME/.profile" file or your "$HOME/.login" file, depending
on whether you're using the Bourne shell or the C shell. (If both files
are present, rather than trying to figure out which is which, just edit
both of them. If neither are present, create both of them.) Add the
following line to the file(s):
stty erase ^V<bs>
where, again, the "<bs>" is your backspace of choice, and the "^V" is
a control V. In 'vi,' you won't "see" the ^V. It's only used to "quote"
the control character to follow. Log out, then back in, and test as
before.
Hope this helps.
--
Alvin ===== asylvain@felix.UUCP ===== hplabs!felix!asylvain =====
"hplabs!felix!asylvain"@uunet.uu.net
(I always try to respond to mail, if possible. If you don't hear back
from me, try changing "hplabs" to "ccicpg," "spsd," or "lawnet.")
DISCLAIMER: It's all in fun, folks, no flames intended. Any similarity
between my opinion and that of my employer is purely coincidental and
sufficient reason to change my opinion, although I'll still be right.