pipes and environments

[zeeb]

Hello!

This is my first posting to comp.unix.wizards, so if I seem a little
vague, it's me not you.

Ok, I was wanting to know how to pass environment vars through pipes to other
proccesses.  Oh I don't know, something like this :

cat ctext | crypt key | vi

As it stnads now, vi bitches about having no terminal info.  I know that the
shell and/or vi probably wasen't meant to be used like this, but there are 
other things that I want to be able to do.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to
give a process whose terminal has gone out to lunch a new terminal?  Does 
anybody have any idea what I'm driving at?  Arrrgh...