> For pure text surgery, I'm still significantly faster in Vim.
Have you tried viper mode or one of the equivalents? I'm curious how it compares to vi. One of the things that I (as a long time Emacs user) have considered is to switch to using viper mode, even though I only know vi enough to edit a config file on a remote machine that lacks emacs. But I'm curious how it compares to the real thing, and if it gets in the way of ancillary emacs stuff (I can't live without stuff like "C-x v =" and "M-/").
Skip viper-mode and go straight to evil-mode, which is based on modern Vim rather than classic vi. It even supports a plugin system, so that missing features and popular extensions (like surround.vim) can be reimplemented with ease (https://github.com/timcharper/evil-surround).
The difference between Vim and the original vi is pretty huge. Just as an Emacs user might be stymied by the missing Lisp support in uemacs or zile, a habitual Vim user leans on stuff like text objects and visual selections, which were never even a twinkle in Bill Joy's eye.
I haven't. Oddly, I find that the Vim and Emacs parts of my brain are completely separate. When I open Vim, my fingers do Vim stuff, and when I open Emacs, my fingers do Emacs stuff.
Have you tried viper mode or one of the equivalents? I'm curious how it compares to vi. One of the things that I (as a long time Emacs user) have considered is to switch to using viper mode, even though I only know vi enough to edit a config file on a remote machine that lacks emacs. But I'm curious how it compares to the real thing, and if it gets in the way of ancillary emacs stuff (I can't live without stuff like "C-x v =" and "M-/").