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Old 03-03-2005, 02:16 PM   #1
mad_pear
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Registered: Mar 2005
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vim backspace problem (no, not THAT one!)


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Hi,

When I'm in insert mode in vim, the backspace key works fine to delete any newly inserted text. However, once it reaches a point where the text was created using an earlier edit, it just beeps and will not erase any further. I've tried several versions of vim (6.2 and 6.3) including a binary that works fine on another linux box (different distribution though), which suggests that its not a problem with the editor itself. Running Slackware 9.1 if it matters, same problem in console mode or kde. Any ideas? Thanks.

Mad
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Old 03-03-2005, 02:40 PM   #2
bulliver
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Location: Edmonton AB, Canada
Distribution: Gentoo x86; Gentoo PPC; Gentoo Sparc64; FreeBSD; OS X; Solaris
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Works fine for me in 6.3

I think your problem is that you are in old-school vi compatible mode. You can test using (in command mode):
Code:
:set compatable?
If the response is "compatible" then edit your vimrc file and add:
Code:
set nocompatible
Save and restart vim...
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Old 03-03-2005, 11:59 PM   #3
mad_pear
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Original Poster
Hi,

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. It wasn't the compatibility flag though. I just needed to add

set backspace=start,eol,indent

to my .vimrc file.

Mad
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Old 07-14-2009, 01:03 AM   #4
mrbass21
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Registered: Sep 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mad_pear View Post
Hi,

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. It wasn't the compatibility flag though. I just needed to add

set backspace=start,eol,indent

to my .vimrc file.

Mad
You beautiful bastard. That problem has plagued me forever on a home server and it was annoying me to no end. Thank you! Fixed my problem too.

Edit: Running FreeBSD 6.3 BTW
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