mjhjmtu

I recently upgraded from OS X 10.6 (I think) to 10.9. Since then it seems, while editing in vim, the arrow keys will "spontaneously" stop working.

At one point, in frustration I "mashed" one of the arrow keys and was eventually shown a "E388 Couldn't find a definition" error. All other times I've experienced it, the arrows, having worked for awhile, suddenly start dinging at me!

Quitting and reopening solves the problem temporarily. But, I'd like to prevent it!

Anyone know what this might be? And how to fix it?

It looks like my default vimrc was modified during the update. If my memory is correct, it was a pretty big file previously. Now, it just contains this:

" Configuration file for vim
set modelines=0 " CVE-2007-2438

" Normally we use vim-extensions. If you want true vi-compatibility
" remove change the following statements
set nocompatible " Use Vim defaults instead of 100% vi compatibility
set backspace=2 " more powerful backspacing

" Don't write backup file if vim is being called by "crontab -e"
au BufWrite /private/tmp/crontab.* set nowritebackup
" Don't write backup file if vim is being called by "chpass"
au BufWrite /private/etc/pw.* set nowritebackup

I have no idea what these options do yet. I'll look into it -- but, hopefully someone here knows more quickly than I can google and read ...

Found in James Hodgkinson's blog, the following command works for me. Note it will refresh the vim screen.

:!reset

I have run into this problem a few times as well. I happened to be running the screen program on another computer I was logged in to via ssh. to fix the problem I detached my screen(s), ^a d, logged off of the machine, logged back in, and reattached screen -x. It may work without logging off of the machine, just by detaching and reattaching screen, I cannot remember though.

This sounds very much like your issue. The article is titled: Cursor Keys in Vim: You Mac’ing Me Crazy!.

excerpt

Vim is useful in many situations, particularly for quick edits (especially as root), and editing files on a remote server. One annoyance I've had during my nine months with a Mac Book Pro is cursor keys in Vim ringing the bell in both insert or command mode instead of changing lines. Upgrading to version 7 via MacPorts yielded the same results. The cursor keys worked after switching my TERM to VT220 from rxvt! The downside was syntax highlighting stopped working.

Luckily, adding VT220 to my Google search parameters turned up a reference to vt100-cursor-keys in the Vim documentation. Add the following code to your .vimrc file to fix the problem:

 :set notimeout " don't timeout on mappings
 :set ttimeout " do timeout on terminal key codes
 :set timeoutlen=100 " timeout after 100 msec

In the same article there's another suggestion of setting your $TERM to linux instead on OSX.

excerpt

A better solution is to change the default value for TERM to either linux or dtterm since the TERM value will be picked up on the remote server. In this day and age, I would bet most servers support both these terminal types.

In the path /usr/share/vim/ I found the .vimrc file... There I added the line

set term=ansi 

It worked for me. Now the arrow keys are working properly in Vim editor.

Congrats on the update. I did my own update over the weekend and have been dealing with some of my own odd keyboard issues.

Here are a couple of things I needed to to:

• Remove old Logitech gaming software and upgrade. Prior to doing this I was having issues using my square and curly braces. Special keys often send esc-[ sequences in the VIM context so this might be relevant.


• Go into System Prefs:Security and Privacy:Privacy:Accessibility and enable a couple of apps (synergy_server and Logitech gaming software). Prior to this change I was unable to control my other computers with synergy or use macros with my G11. I doubt this is a direct connection for you but the Accessibility options are new and might apply to some other app of yours.

If you are working in .sql files in vim (you don't mention) this could help you. I just dealt with this the other day.

In file ~/.vimrc

let g:omni_sql_no_default_maps = 1

this particular issue is discussed here

If you're not experiencing this problem with .sql files in vim then I apologize, my only thought would be to verify the mapping within vim when the problem occurs.

:map Ctrl V → when you lose your ability to use your arrow, do that command and see if the mapping disappeared. if it did, this gives you a place to start digging in.