3 ms·

I use the arrow keys in an ssh session all of the time, why do you need to use hjkl? What does it interfere with?

• drivers99 14y ago
  Sometimes you're in a situation where your arrow keys don't match up with your terminal environment variable, and when you go to use them, it spews control characters all over your screen. I remember we were using Reflections as a terminal emulator, talking to hp-ux servers. I was helping out someone using vi. I had to keep telling him to keep his hands off the arrows keys because whenever he used them, it had that problem. I guess the short answer is: sometimes the arrow keys don't work. In some situations, the arrow keys LOOK like they're working, but VI doesn't know that you moved the cursor, and things get all screwed up. So I just don't trust the arrow keys at all. VIM lets you move around in INSERT mode, which is not something I'm used to either, because you can't do that in VI. Trying to use the arrow keys in insert mode in VI is just another mistake I see people make. Just ends up inserting control characters into the file. From experience, I just don't use arrow keys in VI/VIM.