RE: exiting vim changes background colour of console

[Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu>]

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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If there's any real truth it's that the entire multidimensional infinity
of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs. /DA

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