vi, emacs do nothing, not even error out or not found

[Arved Sandstrom]

I've used cygwin in the distant past, several times, and I don't remember 
this being a problem. What I mean by "doing nothing" is just that - I type 
"vi", "vim", "emacs" (they are all installed) and I simply return to a new 
prompt. There is no error, because the programs are evidently found; they 
are in my PATH.

I can't imagine that it's an X issue - PuTTy doesn't have a problem running 
vi when I contact from Windows to Linux. After all, you are just temporarily 
swapping out the contents of the terminal window.

I'd prefer an error, because that would indicate what's happening.

I've tried with both the Windows console and rxvt. There is no difference.

Thank you.

AHS