This works but one can enter the ESC character (and most other characters) directly, at least in vi *) so you won't need a subshell: in insert mode press <CTRL>-<V> to enter the next character verbatim. If you press i.e. <CTRL>-<V> and then <ESC> the editor window will show usually this:

Code:

^[
~
~
~

This is vis way of "printing" an unprintable character. Moving over with the cursor will confirm that it is NOT a caret character followed by a opening square bracket but a single character - the ESC. You can use it exactly as this. I usually put a comment on such lines to make sure i remember that:

Code:

typeset chMyESC="^["           # WARNING: literal ESC char!

Likewise you can i.e. enter literal <ENTER> characters the same way which will look like ^M and may more.

I hope this helps.

bakunin
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*) i have heard rumors about other editors being out there too. They haven't been confirmed yet.