I'm on Solaris 10 and by default vi version SVR4.0, Solaris 2.5.0 is installed.The system was set up so that when I ssh to it Control+H does backspace, and backspace outputs ^?I added stty erase '^?' into .profile so that in the terminal the backspace key works correctly now. However when I use vi it still is outputting the ^? character.Normally I would type :set nocompatible to fix this but it gives mecompatible: No such option - 'set all' gives all option valuesset all gives menoautoindent            nomodelines                     noshowmodeautoprint               nonumber                        noslowopennoautowrite             nonovice                        tabstop=8nobeautify              nooptimize                      taglength=0directory=/var/tmp      paragraphs=IPLPPPQPP LIpplpipnpptags=tags /usr/lib/tagsnoedcompatible          prompt                          tagstacknoerrorbells            noreadonly                      term=xtermnoexrc                  redraw                          noterseflash                   remap                           timeouthardtabs=8              report=5                        ttytype=xtermnoignorecase            scroll=33                       warnnolisp                  sections=NHSHH HUuhsh+c         window=66nolist                  shell=/bin/ksh                  wrapscanmagic                   shiftwidth=8                    wrapmargin=0mesg                    noshowmatch                     nowriteanyI'm guessing that this version of vi is too old and that I need either a newer version or vim if I want to use set nocompatible, but I'm wondering is there another way to get vi to use backspace for backspacing without having to load vim?
Switch VI to use backspace key instead of Control+H for backspace?
ssh;vim;keyboard;solaris;vi
ok.  so we solved the backspace key not working.by adding:map! ^? ^Hto your .exrc file.  to map the arrow keys in a similar manner, you can add the following to the same .exrc file.:map! ^[OA ^[ka:map! ^[OB ^[ja:map! ^[OC ^[la:map! ^[OD ^[haKeep in mind that all of these 'escape codes' are created not by simply typing shift+6 for the '^' character, but by pressing the following keys:backspace & delete:^? = control + v+delete^H = control + v+control + hup arrow:^[OA = control + v+up arrow^[ka = control + v+esc+k+adown arrow:^[OB = control + v+down arrow^[ja = control + v+esc+j+aright arrow:^[OC = control + v+right arrow^[la = control + v+esc+l+aleft arrow:^[OD = control + v+left arrow^[ha = control + v+esc+h+aAny comment lines in your .exrc file must be marked by , rather than #.And you can't leave any blank lines in your .exrc file, otherwise that first blank line is where your .exrc will stop being processed.Once these are in place, vi will start to feel a bit more like it was designed for use by humans. :)for an example of how powerful the .exrc file is, check out  this .exrc example by Dave Capella.  