[Eug-lug] changing how vi exits

[Bob Miller]

Garl Grigsby wrote:

> On some systems when I exit from vi the screen shows the portion of the 
> file I was just editing. On others, the screen repaints to what I had 
> visible prior to starting vi.  Same thing for man. How can I make it so 
> that when I exit from man/vi what I was looking at stays visible?

The phrase you want is "alternate screen buffer".

In termcap, the capabilities are "ti" and "te", ti is an escape
sequence that switches into the alternate buffer, and te switches back
(I think).

If your terminal emulator is xterm, there's a menu item on the VT
Options menu, "Enable Alternate Screen Switching".  Use
<Ctrl>-<Button2> to access it.  (Button 2 is the middle button.)

You can read more in the xterm man page.

-- 
Bob Miller                              K<bob>
                                        kbob at jogger-egg.com