I installed Ubuntu and I tried to use the terminal's vi editor. The editor is using a different set of short cut keys that I'm not familiar with. Someone told me it's probably using the VIM short cut keys.
How do I make it use the normal vi short cut keys? For example, I want
i – insert
:q – quit
etc…
How do I tell vi to use this set of commands instead of vim?
Another problem: For example, when I hit "back space", I expect vi to Delete, instead of just move the cursor back. When I hit the arrow keys, random letters show up. There are other really quirky things like this that i'm not use to because I've been using the "normal" vi editor.
Best Answer
You may be using a different clone or a cut down version of vim. Ubuntu by default uses vim-tiny if I remember correctly. You can find out which one is being used by checking the link "/etc/alternatives/vi"**. If it points to /usr/bin/vim.tiny you have a very minimal vim installed. If it points to some other file you can use "dpkg -S filename" to figure out where it came from.
To install a different "clone" use apt-get or another package management tool. I suspect that vim-gnome or vim-full may more to your liking. If one or both of the above are already installed but you have the link
** Many utilities and programs like mail, vi, java, awk, etc. are linked through /etc/alternitives/. For example on my system /usr/bin/cc is a link to /etc/alternatives/cc which is a link to /usr/bin/gcc. This allows a common set of tool names to be used with different packages that provide the same functionality.
I hope this helps