Mar 28, 2026, 19:28

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 19:28:00 +0000
nvi

@gumnos@snac.bsd.cafe Thanks for the tip! I always appreciate your approach of reaching for small, focused Unix tools before anything else — very much in the spirit of the Unix philosophy.

I tested it with nvi on Slackware using source-highlight from SlackBuilds.org:

:'a,'bw !source-highlight -s sh -f esc

However nvi doesn't render ANSI escape codes in its output pane out of the box. The issue is in filter_ldisplay() in ex/ex_filter.c — it sanitizes output through KEY_NAME() which converts ESC to ^[.

I'm working on a small patch that detects ANSI sequences and switches nvi to ex screen mode before writing, so the terminal renders colors correctly. Early results look promising!

#nvi

CC: @thorstenzoeller@exquisite.social @mischa@exquisite.social @RussSharek@mastodon.art @justine@snac.smithies.me.uk