From owner-freebsd-hackers  Sun Dec 29 18:18:46 1996
Return-Path: <owner-hackers>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) id SAA25486
          for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 29 Dec 1996 18:18:46 -0800 (PST)
Received: from agora.rdrop.com (root@agora.rdrop.com [199.2.210.241])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id SAA25481
          for <hackers@freebsd.org>; Sun, 29 Dec 1996 18:18:43 -0800 (PST)
Received: from mongoose.bostic.com by agora.rdrop.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.29.1 #17) id m0veXI8-0008uPC; Sun, 29 Dec 96 18:17 PST
Received: (from bostic@localhost) by mongoose.bostic.com (8.7.4/8.7.3) id VAA23937; Sun, 29 Dec 1996 21:15:39 -0500 (EST)
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 1996 21:15:39 -0500 (EST)
From: Keith Bostic <bostic@bsdi.com>
Message-Id: <199612300215.VAA23937@mongoose.bostic.com>
To: davidn@sdev.usn.blaze.net.au
Subject: Re: David Nugent: Re: vi edit mode unstable -termcap ?
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org, jkh@time.cdrom.com, kimc@w8hd.org
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

> From: davidn@sdev.usn.blaze.net.au (David Nugent)
>
> Kim Culhan writes:
>> I have had this problem here for some time, searched for the cause today
>> and cannot find it.
>> 
>> On two -current machines here, when using an xterm and telnet to the other
>> machine, when using the arrow-keys to move around the screen, vi will
>> switch to the insert mode and deposit characters into the editor.
>> 
>> For example if I hit the down-arrow key a few times, after about
>> 3 or 4 arrow-down, it will begin to put 'B' into the editor.
>
> Yes, this is really VERY annoying. I have the same problem with
> any network connections, even across 10mb ethernet, which is just
> plain crazy. The workaround (and it IS only a workaround!) is to
> put set escapetime=10 into ~/.exrc.

Actually, it's not a workaround, that's exactly what it's intended
for!  ;-}

> Could the maintainer of nvi PLEASE use a more reasonable default
> value for escapetime? This is problematic even editing in an xterm
> locally on a system running under a reasonable load.

I'm happy to make the change, I do very little remote editing,
so I just don't see the problem.  What's a good value to use?

>> On a third machine running 2.2-current from 9-15 I can telnet to it
>> from either of the other machines and it will not do this.
>
> This started with the recent vendor import of the new version
> of nvi. "split" disappeared too. :-(

Actually, split was replaced.  You can now capitalize most
(all?) of the standard operations and they'll happen in a split
screen.  So, E[dit], T[ag], N[ext], P[rev] etc. all work in a
split screen.  (It's all documented in the reference guide, too,
if you want further information.)

--keith