Vim's background colour

[Johann Spies <jhspies@adept.co.za>]

I am an emacs user trying out vim.  On the console the font
highlighting looks good.

But on X11 I get a white background an then it looks ugly and I can
not read most of the syntax highlighting.

I have the following in my .vimrc
""""""""""""""""""" Colour support and syntax highlighting """""""""""""""""""
if $COLORTERM == "rxvt"
  set term=rxvt
endif
if &term == "rxvt"
  set t_Co=8
  set ttyfast
endif

" Colours suitable for a dark background, which is what my Linux console,
" xterms and rxvts are configured to have.
set background=dark
syntax on

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
How can I get readable syntax highlighting in both cases?

Johann
-- 
J.H. Spies - Tel. 082 782 0336 / 023 55 11 568
     "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and  
      the life; he that believeth in me, though he were 
      dead, yet shall he live."      John 11:25