Re: vi issue in etch

[cls@truffula.sj.ca.us]

[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.]
[use vim, not [n]vi]

In article <9v754-ce-7@gated-at.bofh.it>, Joseph L. Casale wrote:
>
> Well, therein lies my lack of experience! I didn't even know there
>was a difference, vim is what I "meant" to use but didn't know I wasn't,
>hence the apt-get install vim made it all good! :)

One of the things that make vim better than Original vi
is that vim knows about the mouse.  If you build vim from
source with all defaults, it can use the ANSI pointing
device extensions that terminals like xterm(1) know about.
That is, you can use the mouse in an xterm.

But the "rather standard set of features" in Etch's vim
is missing that feature.  If you want it, install vim-full.

I wanted it on a remote server where I did not want the
X Window System related stuff, so I had to build vim
from source.  That's pretty easy, and it installs in
/usr/local where it doesn't interfere with Etch vim.

I tried to use the equivs package to inform Etch that my
custom vim "provides vi", and link it to the
/etc/alternatives/vi, but I got lost in the complexity of it.
The example in the equivs "documentation" is vi, but
they don't really tell you how to do it.  A *complete*
example (view(1), ex(1), manpages, etc) would be nice.

So I installed Etch nvi and set EDITOR and VISUAL variables
in /etc/profile pointing to /usr/local/bin/vim.


Cameron