Trouble with setting ini files : gnuplot and vi

[Fergus Daly]

>> Despite best efforts I cannot find a way of setting user preferences 
>> for vi (e.g. preferred syntax-sensitive settings) and gnuplot (e.g. preferred line colours / thickness).
>> I have tried editing /etc/vimrc, /etc/virc for vi; and /etc/X11/app-defaults/Gnuplot for gnuplot accordingly.
>> (I use gnuplot-x11.) No change from standard representation.
>> Any ideas?

>The first thing I would check is whether you have an individual ~/.virc or ~/.gnuplot file that is overriding the settings of interest.
> For gnuplot, at least, the man page says that its "show loadpath" command will indicate where it looks for gnuplotrc.
> On my system that is /usr/share/gnuplot/5.4/.
> Since my gnuplot offers x11 for "set term", I think I'm looking at the right thing, but if gnuplot-x11 is truly different,
> then maybe try the "show loadpath" command for it.  I don't have vi installed (only vim) so I can't speak to that.
> The next thing I would check are the various permissions, to make sure the program can actually read the file(s) in question.
> Maybe you have done all this, in which case I'm sorry my ideas were not helpful ...
> Best wishes - Eliot Moss

Thank you!
For gnuplot your suggestion worked perfectly. I have now tweaked /usr/share/gnuplot/5.4/gnuplotrc as required.
Perplexed by your "vim not vi". I set up my Cygwin platform using setup -P and do not specify any editor beyond nano
(which is perfect to my needs). Nevertheless I get vi. From "Package search" I'm guessing it comes as an adjunct because I also need
groff and latex. You must actually specify vim? which I vaguely recall preferring to vi but cannot remember why.
(Mainly, I  liked neither. But I can remember easily setting and locating /etc/vimrc, and that it was properly picked up.)
Nevertheless, still having problems with setting and location virc - since I've got vi, I'd just like to be able to use it effectively .. ..
Thanks again, anyway.