As for colour syntax highlighting - this is because HP-UX uses vi , not vim - vi doesn't have syntax highlighting - this is a VI iMproved feature..... As long as you're using an ANSI compliant terminal then colour will "work" - (try my "cecho" script )

And as for tab filename completion, this is a shell issue. The public domain Korn Shell (pdksh) has a vi-tabcomplete option, but the "real" ksh as supplied with HP-UX does not. You can either use ESC twice, or ESC then \ to do completion.