vi alternative

Is there any other editor, installed by 'default' in Sparc Solaris10, besides vi?
I'd like to avoid installing anything new.

If not, how to make vi more user-friendly?

thanks.

can you explain more about the problem you are facing with vi , user friendly like how? i might help you because i use this daily

well, for start, I'd like to use arrow keys instead of hjkl.
also, iirc, backspace and delete were not working right.
end key to go to end of line.
selecting text would be easier if used with shift+arrows.
and the usual ctrl+c,v combo for copy/paste.

it would be nice to have it in ansi colours, but perhaps that depends on terminal?

install vim from Solaris companion CD, but vi is really easy to learn.
If you wanna set up vi check vi man page.

You should install nano from Freeware List for SPARC and Solaris 10
As far as I know it has most of the features you need.

I found a solution for ubuntu/debian:
cp /etc/vim/vimrc ~/.vimrc

(doesn't require vim install) however, there is no such file in Solaris.

about nano, yes I have used it (seems to be crontab default in debian) and like it very much. but when I went to sunfreeware.com, it listed a lot of dependencies. I'd like to avoid installing anything on a server, to minimize resource usage.

is there any other way to get arrow keys working in vi edit mode?

Arrow keys should be working for navigating, after you exit the "insert mode", by pressing ESC.

yes, I know that. but it would make life so much easier if it worked in insert/edit mode too.

This will work for some options because vim is vi improved. If you call vi then be sure you exported editor and terminal.

TERM=vt100; export TERM
EDITOR=vi; export EDITOR

This will work for one session (until you logged in), to save your settings remap keys and save configuration in $HOME/.exrc, this

:map! ^? ^H
:map! ^[OA ^[ka
:map! ^[OB ^[ja
:map! ^[OC ^[la
:map! ^[OD ^[ha

Complete vi manual
vi Complete Key Binding List