Terminal/vim behavior.

[sixstringartist]

Im having an issue with vi/vim not behaving like I expect. Perhaps I have not configured it properly, but Im used to using vi on university machines where things are different. For example, when I press backspace, it moves the cursor back but does not delete the character. Also if I type before a set of characters, it will overwrite them instead of inserting characters between them. Also the arrow keys do not behave how I am used to. When not in command mode arrow keys do strange things.

I tried to update vim to the latest version but that did not achieve what I wanted. Im considering updating Bash, but Im not sure if that has anything to do with it, and my bash version isnt terribly outdated. Is this simply a configuration problem? Am I making any sense here? I'd like to figure out how to fix this.

[jledhead]

for me, not sure about the backspace. as for typing over, I think you can hit the insert key twice (1 for insert 2 for replace) and it will start overwritting like you describe. when in update mode the arrows act strange for me also, hit ESC to get out of update and arrows act normally. This is the default behavior for me on all new installs.

[sixstringartist]

Yes I assumed that this was default behavior, but fortunately that is not how it has to be. Unfortunately, I dont know how to achieve the behavior I am experiencing elsewhere.

[oz]

I've run across this odd behavior in different distros, too. Unfortunately, I don't know the fix, but it is very frustrating to deal with when you are involved in lots of vim work.

[sixstringartist]

Ive found the problem is due to the configuration of vim in the .vimrc file.