On Tue, 11 Nov 1997 15:44:48 -0500 (EST)  Rob Deker wrote:

> I think that's the part that threw me....is there any reason for this 
> behavior vs. the good old "open mode"?

NetBSD's "vi" is Keith Bostic's "nvi" which doesn't provide open mode.

It does have ex mode for those times when you really do have a line
printer with keyboard as your console <grin>.

Giles