"Type: quit<enter> to exit Vim"
Since the colon is used a separator such as I used it above.
Then they type "quit" and enter, which actually put them in insert mode recording "@u", with a 't' sitting in the text area.
- You enter an unfamiliar mode, immediately hit "^c".
- That prompts "Type :quit<enter> to exit Vim".
- You mistakenly type "quit<enter>". So now you're in insert mode with recording, as you said.
- You hit "^c" again, breaking out of insert mode, but you don't get the exit prompt like you did last time - the `recording` message blocks that no matter how much you hit "^c".
- Without the reference message to find your mistake, you maybe try "quit<enter>" again. 'q' now terminates recording, 'u' undoes your typing, and 'i' dumps you back into insert mode, leaving you with a text field of 't' again!
- At this point you maybe hit "^c" again. That'll drop you out of insert, but with text in the field vim no longer prompts you to quit. If you enter "^c" again it will prompt you, but you tried that during recording mode and it did nothing, so you don't expect aimless repetition to help anything!
At this point, you give up, google "quit vim" and discover that the colon was important. I'm pretty sure this madness if what I did the first time git for windows popped open vim as the default editor.