[lug] vi question

[Collins Richey]

On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 10:46 AM, David L. Anselmi <anselmi at anselmi.us> wrote:
> Collins Richey wrote:
>>
>> If you are running ubuntu or a recent Debian distro, the brilliant
>> doughnut heads decided to make something called vim-minimal (guess at
>> the package name) instead of vim the default vi-editor. That package
>> gives you all the wonderful functionality that standard vi had in the
>> unices of yore.
>
> Do you mean vim-tiny (there's no vim-minimal in Debian unstable)?

Yes. I didn't have time to look up the package name.

>
> Do you mean the editor alternative is set to vim-tiny?

I'm probably thinking of Ubuntu since that's defintely what was
installed beginning at Gutsy or earlier. It was a conscious change in
the offering, probably to save a few K in the load size. After all,
you're supposed to use whatever-in-the-??? the Gnome editor is.

>
> Perhaps you just happen to be running in compatibility mode?  When I run
> vim-tiny it doesn't do syntax highlighting but it does have multi-level
> undo, command and search history, and formatting (gq).  I don't think vi has
> any of those.
>

The principle ugly vi-type behavior of vim-tiny s that insert mode
only covers the current line. If you try to arrow key out of the
current line, garbage characters are inserted as empty lines. Yes I
know that old unix types are familiar (love? cherish?) this behavior,
but I find it to be unacceptable in the 21st century.

Also, I never experimented much with vim-tiny. The cure for its
problems is apt-get install vim, and basta.

-- 
Collins Richey
 If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
 of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.