Ok. So I've finally compiled the latest version of GNU emacs on Solaris 5.8.
I've set putty up so that it sets TERM=xtermc. emacs now has syntax highlighting. The problem is, whenever I quit emacs, it changes the screen colors. The background is now the same as the color of the minibuffer. It won't change until I invoke vim or any other app that changes the background color. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks.
well.. i've found the fix. found some clues here. funny how that's for vim. I've set the term to dtterm instead of xtermc