I am looking for tips for learning Vim or Emacs the smart way

Question

I am a quite happy user of Eclipse (I mostly develop in PHP and Python), however I found the answers to \"What specific productivity gains does Vim/Emacs provide over GUI text e

Answer 1

I came to Vim when I started using Linux after years of Windows development, and had to do a lot of work on remote systems via ssh. For the first couple of weeks hated it. After that I could not live without it.

Probably the best way to start is to use Vim in easy mode ([g]vim -y), most installations have a shortcut called evim. This runs vim in a mode that is in insert mode by default and remaps keys to the usual Windows ones (ctrl-S to save, ctrl-X to cut etc). You can then use it like a regular Windowsy editor but still access the power of Vim.

There is also Cream which is Vim + a bunch of scripts to make it behave even more like a Windows editor.

I started out using evim and Cream, but found I gradually transitioned to using 100% vim.

Also if you use gvim then most of the functionality is also available through the menus and you can see the keystrokes for the same functionality.

Also read the docs - there are extensive help files available on every aspect. I still browse them from time to time and find something new.