Problem with "showmode" (was Re: how do you get modeline(s) ...)

[Bo Thide']

In article <556 at mwtech.UUCP> martin at mwtech.UUCP (Martin Weitzel) writes:
>In article <1989Dec17.174535.22577 at NCoast.ORG> allbery at ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) writes:
>[original question and part of answer deleted]
>>
>>Perhaps what you want is the "showmode" option.  This option makes the current
[text deleted]
>
>On some systems (eg on my AT 386 with ISC's 386/ix) I have observed
>a problem when using 'showmode': As far as I've tracked it down,
>it seems to occur, if a ':map!'ped key-sequence leaves INSERT
>mode, then scrolls the screen up and finally enters INSERT-mode
>again. In that case, 'vi' forgets, to delete the mode-line and
>scrolls it up on the screen together with the text. An unexperienced
>user would think, that the mode-line has entered the edited text,
>but CTRL-L shows, that this has not happened.
>
>Now my question: Is this a problem with the "terminfo"-entry or
>a bug of 'vi' (maybe it was not noticed, because all the gurus
>including those who have the source for 'vi', tend *not* to use
>'showmode' :-))

Most likely, it is a bug in 'vi'.  The same problems occurred in a previous
HP-UX version of 'vi' and I reported the bug.  Now, the bug is fixed and
even after an excursion via a :map! command, the INSERT-mode anunciator
will be there in the left hand lower corner if you are in insert mode.
Similarly, there were problems with the early HP-UX 'vi' INSERT mode
anunciator if you inserted so much new text in one line that you wrapped
around onto a new line, in which case the INSERT MODE (erroneously) got 
switched off.  This bug has also been fixed by HP.  The only remaining
problem with these showmode anunciators is that, in contrast to all
other 'vi'/'ex' messages, they are not accessible through the Native
Language System message catalog.  So even if all other messages in
'vi' in our case are written in Swedish, the showmode anunicators are
still in English.  This is a bit confusing for secretaries who use 'vi'
as a Swedish language word processor system, but I hope HP will fix that
problem soon.

By the way, the ":set novice" command cannot be executed within 'vi' proper.
However, it will be set if you invoke the editor as 'vedit' instead of 'vi'.
Then you will run 'vi' in a beginner's mode (shomwode on, no magic characters,
report = 1 etc). 

Bo

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