[Discuss] arrow keys in vi

R. McFarlane techie at mcfarlanecomputing.net
Sat Nov 25 23:37:47 PST 2006


On 11/25/06 11:23 PM, Alan W. Irwin wrote:

> There are at least 3 ways I can think of to access your remote server 
> via ssh.
> 
> 1) ssh to it from the Linux console (what you normally get when you
> use ctrl-alt-F1)

	But then I have to hook up an LCD to it. ;)

> 2) ssh to it from a local xterm (or equivalent)

	This has been the case.

> 3) ssh to it, run a remote xterm (or equivalent) there which is displayed
> locally.

	I would but then I'd have to setup some additional firewall rules. :P

> Do you get any difference in behaviour between the various methods?  For 
> the
> second method (and the third?) I would also try various equivalents of the
> xterm application to see whether the result changes for any of them.
> 
> For X, there is an application called xev which tells you how key strokes
> are being interpreted and an application called xmodmap to change that
> interpretation.  I doubt local xev results are going to change with remote
> server, but if you have xev installed remotely it might be interesting to
> run it on your Ubuntu-6.06 and 6.10 servers (and display it locally) to see
> if there is any difference in interpretation of local arrow keys.

	Excellent idea!

> Also, it is worth looking up in a Linux console HOWTO whether there are
> equivalents to xev and xmodmap for the Linux console.  If so, it would be
> useful to run the console equivalent of xev on the remote computer and
> simply try striking the arrow keys outside vi to see how they are being
> remotely interpreted.

	Good point.

> I don't use vi, but I wonder if it has some internal keyboard mapping
> functionality (on top of what is offered either by X or the Linux console).
> If so, that could be set differently between your two Ubuntu instances.

	My initial googling found that this behaviour was common. :(

> Finally, the consensus of most reviews I have read was that 6.10 had a
> significantly shorter development time than 6.06 and shows it.  Because of
> these negative reviews of 6.10, I have decided to keep our Ubuntu 
> desktop at
> 6.06 even though that loses the cutting edge. Similarly, you should at 
> least
> consider replacing your 6.10 remote server software by 6.06.  Cutting edge
> should not be nearly as important for servers as it is for desktops.

	I haven't read any reviews. I thought that 6.10 would be better 
overall. Other than this minor issue, I've been happy so far.

	Well while I looked at the TERM environment option, I found an answer 
that worked. Install the vim package. Go figure. Now I'm thinking maybe 
I should export a list of installed packages on the 6.06 to compare with 
the 6.10 machine.

	Any ways, thank you all for the help tonight! Anyone know what that 
white stuff is outside? ;)

-- 

www.mcfarlanecomputing.net


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