While I agree with some of this, I also think it misses something. Namely, you imply that modal editing isn't an "interesting" feature on its own, and is only beloved because of vim. An example is the "vim plugins" in many editors.
But I think that proves the opposite point! I used and loved vim for many years, for a number of reasons, but at the end, for me, the modal editing was the killer feature. But it's a portable feature - because of all the vim plugins! So once I was able to get the same thing in a better overall editor, I moved over.
It wasn't vim being so awesome that got me to like modal editing - it was modal editing that got me to put up with vim being not awesome, until I was able to get my modal editing fix elsewhere.
(I exaggerate a bit for effect, though this is mostly true; vim does have a few other cool things like broad availability and wonderful customizability, which I utilized a lot over the years, but after many years, I realized I prefer the same modal editing core in a better overall package.)
While I agree with some of this, I also think it misses something. Namely, you imply that modal editing isn't an "interesting" feature on its own, and is only beloved because of vim. An example is the "vim plugins" in many editors.
But I think that proves the opposite point! I used and loved vim for many years, for a number of reasons, but at the end, for me, the modal editing was the killer feature. But it's a portable feature - because of all the vim plugins! So once I was able to get the same thing in a better overall editor, I moved over.
It wasn't vim being so awesome that got me to like modal editing - it was modal editing that got me to put up with vim being not awesome, until I was able to get my modal editing fix elsewhere.
(I exaggerate a bit for effect, though this is mostly true; vim does have a few other cool things like broad availability and wonderful customizability, which I utilized a lot over the years, but after many years, I realized I prefer the same modal editing core in a better overall package.)