Termcap, IC, and IM

[Chris Torek]

In article <10860 at smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn at smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>... You should specify both im/ei and ic only if the terminal
>requires both.

This is misleading, because various applications (including vi)
decide that a terminal can insert at all by examining `im' without
looking at `ic'.  If im is set (to anything, including the empty
string), the application assumes the terminal is capable of
inserting (using the im+IC+ic+ip sequences).  If im is not set,
the terminal cannot insert, regardless of what is in IC+ic+ip.

This is a historical fact, if not a desirable one.  I *know* that
this is how vi worked in 4.1BSD, because I ripped some code out of
it.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris