This is what worked for me using Mac OS 10.1.4 to display 16 colors using ViM 6.1 and the standard Terminal application. It also works on OS X 10.3. YMMV, but try it.
You don't need to rebuild your termcap.db file or change the terminal setting to beos, nor redefine the TERM environment variable or the term variable within vim.
Just create a file called .vimrc in your home directory with the following contents. You will need to replace ^[ with a raw Escape character, which you can type by typing Ctrl-V and then (after releaseing Ctrl-V) the Escape key. Note that the source of this file contains some HTML escape sequences, if you want to download the raw ascii version of the .vimrc fle, get it here (IMPORTANT: right-click and save the file, don't view and then save).
" This .vimrc file should be placed in your home directory
" The Terminal app supports (at least) 16 colors
" So you can have the eight dark colors and the eight light colors
" the plain colors, using these settings, are the same as the light ones
" NOTE: You will need to replace ^[ with a raw Escape character, which you
" can type by typing Ctrl-V and then (after releaseing Ctrl-V) the Escape key.
if has("terminfo")
set t_Co=16
set t_AB=[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{40}%+%e%p1%{92}%+%;%dm
set t_AF=[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{30}%+%e%p1%{82}%+%;%dm
else
set t_Co=16
set t_Sf=[3%dm
set t_Sb=[4%dm
endif
syntax on
" Everything from here on down is optional
" These colors are examples of what is possible
" type :help syntax
" or :help color within vim for more info
" and try opening the file
" share/vim/vim61/syntax/colortest.vim
" Note: where share is depends on where/how you installed vim
highlight Comment ctermfg=DarkGreen
highlight Constant ctermfg=DarkMagenta
highlight Character ctermfg=DarkRed
highlight Special ctermfg=DarkBlue
highlight Identifier ctermfg=DarkCyan
highlight Statement ctermfg=DarkBlue
highlight PreProc ctermfg=DarkBlue
highlight Type ctermfg=DarkBlue
highlight Number ctermfg=DarkBlue
highlight Delimiter ctermfg=DarkBlue
highlight Error ctermfg=Black
highlight Todo ctermfg=DarkBlue
highlight WarningMsg term=NONE ctermfg=Black ctermbg=NONE
highlight ErrorMsg term=NONE ctermfg=DarkRed ctermbg=NONE
" These settings only affect the X11 GUI version (which is different
" than the fully Carbonized version at homepage.mac.com/fisherbb/
highlight Comment guifg=Green gui=NONE
highlight Constant guifg=Magenta gui=NONE
highlight Character guifg=Red gui=NONE
highlight Special guifg=Blue gui=NONE
highlight Identifier guifg=DarkCyan gui=NONE
highlight Statement guifg=DarkGreen gui=NONE
highlight PreProc guifg=Purple gui=NONE
highlight Type guifg=DarkGreen gui=NONE
"highlight Normal guibg=#E0F2FF gui=NONE
highlight Number guifg=Blue gui=NONE
"highlight Cursor guifg=NONE guibg=Green
"highlight Cursor guifg=bg guibg=fg
highlight Delimiter guifg=blue gui=NONE
"highlight NonText guibg=lightgray gui=NONE
"highlight Error guifg=White guibg=Red gui=NONE
highlight Error guifg=NONE guibg=NONE gui=NONE
highlight Todo guifg=Blue guibg=Yellow gui=NONE
"#### end color settings #############