Patrick: Telnet is (or contains) a "terminal emulator". The terminal that your telnet is emulating (apparently) is the DEC VT-100. A terminal is a physical piece of hardware that consists of a monitor, a keyboard, and a serial port, and not much else. Since your computer also has a monitor, a keyboard, and a serial port, and is furthermore able to be re-programmed, you can make it pretend like it is one of these terminals. (Telnet has taken it a step further, using a network port instead of a serial port.)
vi does not require that you use a VT-100 terminal emulator, but it (and all programs that use full-screen terminal capabilities) require that your TERM variable reflect the type of terminal you are actually using. AFAIK, the benefits of choosing one type of terminal over another are minimal. Usually, performance is more a matter of how well the software emulates the terminal it is supposed to be. Setting TERM in .bashrc is fine, as long as you always (or most often) use a telnet with VT-100 emulation. You can always re-set TERM from the command line in the rare case where you use a different emulator. Also, the telnet protocol supports the automatic negotiation of terminal type. You might want to find a telnet program that performs this negotiation. Marc ---------- Marc Mongeon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unix Specialist Ban-Koe Systems 9100 W Bloomington Fwy Bloomington, MN 55431-2200 (612)888-0123, x417 | FAX: (612)888-3344 ---------- "It's such a fine line between clever and stupid." -- David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel of "Spinal Tap" >>> "Patrick Kirk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 07/11 4:03 PM >>> Hi all, Why does vi simply not work unless I have entered the command TERM=vt100 when I use telnet? What is vt100? Is there anything better? Would putting TERM=vt100 or whatever is better in my .bashrc be of benefit? Patrick -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null
