vi (and more) buffer a few keystrokes at a time

[amiller@almaden.ibm.com]

Hi,

I'm running a system built with the 981115 diskettes.
When I run vi (or use more), it is as if my keystrokes are being buffered
(and the buffer has 3 or 4 characters.)  Obviously this makes vi very
unfriendly to use.  I don't have any problems entering commands,
only when vi is running in full-screen.  I guess this is symptomatic
of ncurses being messed up?  I don't really know.

---more info---
vi difficult to use because of ?keyboard? buffering

# which vi
/usr/bin/vi
# ls -lta /usr/bin/vi
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 20 Nov 21 2018 /usr/bin/vi -> /etc/alternatives/vi

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Are there some packages I should try deleting then re-installing?

----
thanks,

Alex Miller
amiller@cats.ucsc.edu