Did you file a bug report? At the least, it would let the maintainer know that someone doesn't like the default setup.
Also, you could easily install a different vi. nvi, for example, comes with a rather basic default configuration. i believe elvis is intended to be more featured than a 'standard' vi. You can even keep both, and if necessary modify the symlinks in /etc/alternatives to select whichever you want activated when you type "vi" On Sat, 5 Jun 1999, Michael Talbot-Wilson wrote: > For some reason, vi (elvis) has started to display colors and behave in a > generally unpredictable way. I first (just now) noticed this in a .h file > in which it is also disallowing things I want to do, e.g. it beeps when I > try to delete (with 'x') the first character of a commented-out line, > although the file is world-writable. It works sometimes, but not after I > have done a search with '/' to get to the line I want to amend. > > It turns out that sane behavior can be obtained by deleting or renaming > the directory /etc/elvis. That directory contains 10 files containing > program code in a language unknown to me. Well, I see from the man > page that they are EX commands. > > I would like to make a mild protest against the unnecessary complexity > of this setup. s/make a mild protest/file a bug report/ and you have a good course of action. http://www.debian.org/Bugs/ for more info. > I would like to be able to run the program without > interference due to the maintainer's over-elaborate configuration. If > I have to delete the Debian configuration to make the system work, that > tends to defeat much of the rationale for using Debian. And makes the > KISS approach of another distribution appear brilliant, inspired, and > a great time-saver. > > The problem with the color is that dark blue against a black screen is > not, for me, very readable. The file is mostly commented out and I > guess the blue signifies that and some people may like it. But I > should think the onus should be on those who want the elaboration > to configure it, rather than for the rest of us to have to learn > more than we wanted to know about vi in order to defeat it. > > It is a very good idea to provide full configuration files for > a program if it is configurable; but the default configuration should > produce the default configuration. I.e. /etc/elvis/ should contain > files which explicitly require the default vi behavior. That way, > they serve as documentation for those who might want to investigate > customization. > > Regards, > Mike
