debcrafters-packages team mailing list archive

[Edgar Bonet <2107647@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Related:

    Bug #70569 – Vim variants other than vim-tiny source /etc/vim/vimrc
    instead of /etc/vim/vimrc.tiny when invoked as vi (ie, Arrow keys
    not broken when running vi)
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/70569

It seems to be a long-standing issue: that bug was filed in 2006. The
discussion there is an interesting read. It seems to me that there is no
general agreement on what the right behavior should be.

I am not marking this as a duplicate, as that bug makes almost the exact
opposite complaint. Namely that *only* vim.tiny starts in compatible
mode when invoked as ‘vi’.

> it can be frustrating for a non-so-experienced user, considering they
> are using vi instead of nano

Vi, just like emacs, should never be used by someone who is unaware of
its learning curve. Even if you fix the arrows-in-insert-mode issue,
there is no way an unaware user can even exit the editor!

Don't laugh. This happened to me, as a new vi user, in 1993. I started
vi and got stuck in it, as I could not find my way out. See the outcome:
thirty-two years later I am still using vi (although it's now vim).

> I ran a fresh container with multipass and the problem didn't happen
> because it uses vim.basic instead.

I also found vim-basic providing ‘vi’ on a VM freshly installed from the
server ISO.

> Maybe do the desktop image using vim.basic too?

Not sure. On both my Ubuntu desktops, vi is provided by vim-gtk3, but
that is not part of the default installation. I can't tell what vi
provider comes in a fresh install.

-- 
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2107647

Title:
  Drop compatible mode for vim-tiny

Status in vim package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I know I'm opening a can of worms here, but maybe we could drop `set
  compatible` from /etc/vim/vimrc.tiny.

  I think who needs the compatible mode these days knows where it can
  find it and how to enable it, and it's really annoying in a fresh
  installation to get the strange characters when using the arrow keys.

  Possibly 10–15 years ago, it would make sense to have vim-tiny using
  compatible mode, but today we could, and even should, rethink about
  it.

  I know `nano` is the default text editor, but we discuss `vi` a lot in
  technical documentations, so my opinion is we should provide a nice
  experience for the user. I understand `vi` in general isn't a nice
  experience for a beginner user, though, but not using compatible mode
  would be s little less daunting.

  But I'm thinking if there is any tool that would need to invoke `vi`
  in compatible mode, that could cause a problem.

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