Using a vt220 clone with unix vi?

[Patrick L. Nolan]

I have a colleague who has recently started using a Sun computer
by means of a VT220 clone terminal.  This terminal has problems
dealing with vi because the ESC key doesn't send the ESC character
in VT220 mode.  Instead it sends a four-character escape sequence
that confuses vi mightily.

I would like to know if there's a way to change termcap or tset or teach
vi to deal with this sequence as if it was ESC.  Or maybe to make
the terminal send ESC, without giving up the rest of the VT220
keyboard mapping.

I have already thought of a couple of workarounds, neither of which 
is quite satisfactory:

 1. Set the terminal to VT100 mode.  This works, but he also uses
 a Vax.  The keyboard layout is much better for VMS in VT220 mode.
 Switching between the two modes is annoying.

 2. Use emacs instead of vi.  Neither of us really knows emacs,
 and it looks like it would be hard to learn.  Besides, doesn't
 emacs use ESC too?

-- 
*   Patrick L. Nolan            (415)723-0133                 *
*   W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory (HEPL)       * 
*   Stanford University                                       *
*   Bitnet: PLN at SLACVM    Internet: pln at egret1.stanford.edu   *
--
*   Patrick L. Nolan            (415)723-0133                 *
*   W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory (HEPL)       * 
*   Stanford University                                       *
*   Bitnet: PLN at SLACVM    Internet: pln at egret1.stanford.edu   *