RE: exiting vim changes background colour of console

["Robert Bram" <Robert dot Bram at colesmyer dot com dot au>]

Hi Igor,

Thanks to you and Corinna for the feedback so far!

> > > > ==
> > > > I am finding that when I exit from vim, it turns my background
> > > > back into black (which is how I had it before I tried changing
> > > > it today). Is there a setting or something I have forgotten to
> > > > change?
> > > > ==
> > > > Actually this is happenning not just after vim.. but even after I exit
> > > > "less"!
> > >
> > > Works for me.  Did you close the console window and re-open one after
> > > changing the colors?  Before doing this, the console colors are known
> > > to be scrambled as you describe above.
> >
> > Yes I closed and re-opened the console and the problem recurs. :-/
>
> vim (and less, since you seem to have the same problem there) use
> something called an "alternate screen".  This is a feature of the terminal
> that allows the program to make arbitrary modifications to the terminal
> screen that will be undone when the program switches back to the main
> screen.  In particular, any color changes will be undone.  Consequently,
> if you wish to change the color of the main screen, don't do this while
> running vim or less.
> HTH,

I admit to being somewhat confused by your remark - I didn't change the screen while running vim or less. I edited the properties of the console so that it would affect all consoles with the same name, changed the PS1 environment variable in my .bash_profile, closed the console, re-opened it, ran vim and/or less, exited vim and/or less and then found the console colors changed. Have I misunderstood your point?

Interestingly, I find that I can keep pressing ENTER and 'clear' the screen back to how it was, but this is an ugly solution.

Kind regards,

Rob
:)

-------
Robert Mark Bram
Portal Analyst Programmer
eTechnology, Coles Myer Limited
robert.bram@colesmyer.com.au
+61 3 9635 1036


-----Original Message-----
From: Igor Pechtchanski [mailto:pechtcha@cs.nyu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, 19 October 2005 4:28 AM
To: Robert Bram
Cc: cygwin@cygwin.com
Subject: RE: exiting vim changes background colour of console


On Tue, 18 Oct 2005, Robert Bram wrote:

> Hi Corinna,
>
> > > ==
> > > I am finding that when I exit from vim, it turns my background
> > > back into black (which is how I had it before I tried changing
> > > it today). Is there a setting or something I have forgotten to
> > > change?
> > > ==
> > > Actually this is happenning not just after vim.. but even after I exit
> > > "less"!
> >
> > Works for me.  Did you close the console window and re-open one after
> > changing the colors?  Before doing this, the console colors are known
> > to be scrambled as you describe above.
>
> Yes I closed and re-opened the console and the problem recurs. :-/

vim (and less, since you seem to have the same problem there) use
something called an "alternate screen".  This is a feature of the terminal
that allows the program to make arbitrary modifications to the terminal
screen that will be undone when the program switches back to the main
screen.  In particular, any color changes will be undone.  Consequently,
if you wish to change the color of the main screen, don't do this while
running vim or less.
HTH,
	Igor
--
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