Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 13:46:50 -0800 From: Kent Stewart <kstewart@owt.com> To: Cliff Sarginson <csfbsd@raggedclown.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: vi question Message-ID: <3C87DFCA.9010400@owt.com> References: <OE136NoNBpsiLEMv9TL00016cbd@hotmail.com> <E16j4bb-0001cW-00@gull.prod.itd.earthlink.net> <20020307210508.GB484@raggedclown.net>
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Cliff Sarginson wrote: > On Thu, Mar 07, 2002 at 02:34:51PM -0600, Bob Giesen wrote: > >>On Thursday 07 March 2002 01:11 pm, Seth Hieronymus wrote: >> >>>Is there any way to stop vi from going back into command mode when >>>I arrow over to the first column (while in insert mode)? >>> >> I don't think so. You could use Vim, instead; this seems to work >>as you'd like it to. >> More to the point is that you're using arrow keys in vi, which is >>optimized for fast typing (little wasted motion and little need for >>Ctrl- or Alt-key combinations). Personally, I find it faster to just >>switch between command and insert modes and use the h,j,k, and l keys >>instead of the arrow keys... Ymmv, of course, but you might want to >>give it a chance, if you haven't already. >> >> > Mmm, this is one of the mysteries of vi. > The arrow keys *may* work, they do for me, on most of the computers > I use. It depends on terminal type, terminal emulation, and the > position of the stars. > > But on some systems, they exhibit the behaviour you mention. > > This has to do with the <esc> character. > The <esc> brings you back to command mode as you know. > <esc> is also the "lead-in" character for "escape-sequences" > the left arrow for example is: > ^[[D > > ^[ = <esc>. > > Now vi should wait a little while to see if <esc> is just <esc> or > whether it is a lead in to an escape sequence..which of course happens > very fast, so the wait only has to be very short. However sometimes vi > just does not seem to wait long enough. We used to have a Cray where I worked and it wasn't the sequence that did it as much as the repeat key frequency on the computer editing the file. We felt the computer was seeing multiple <esc> in a row because of the repeat key behaviour and an arrow command <esc> butchered arrow command dropped vi into command mode. Kent > > Because of this oddity most "vi veterans" use the keyboard movement keys > and just switch mode as a matter of habit...because this will always > work. > > As mentioned above I don't think other vi clones suffer from this > abberation, try them (vim or nvi). > > You see "vi" is not a screen editor, it is a front end into a > line-editor; this upsets people used to "real" screen editors. > > -- Kent Stewart Richland, WA http://users.owt.com/kstewart/index.html To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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