I am setting up a new development server for all my testing. Joyent had a good deal, so I’m giving them a try. They seem great so far, but I had major issues with vi.

Here’s how I fixed them. From my home dir:

# vim .vimrc

Add these lines

filetype plugin on

filetype indent on

syntax on

set bs=2

Just make sure to use vim instead of vi and your arrow keys and backspace should work as expected. Plus, you’ll have syntax highlighting!

tips via google search that brought me here: http://www.tjansson.dk/?p=68

** UPDATE **

If you’re using iterm in OS X, make sure you have your Terminal Profile Type set to linux. Or you can add the following line to your .vimrc:

set term=linux