ciw ---------> change the current word (It's different than cw as you can be everywhere in the word while typing the command and it will delete all the word and let you retype it). Also, there's di), da), di], da], ci", ca" which are all similar but extremely useful.
. -----------> Repeat the last command. Useful when you don't feel like writing a macro but still don't want to retype the command again and again. For instance, instead of dwdwdwdw, dw...... (Yes, I know that in an ideal world, you'd just use a smarter d<command> but sometime you start with dw without thinking too much.)
Also, I tend to use "v" (for visual mode) a lot. For instance, for some reason, I use Vd to delete the line. (Select the whole line delete). I like this approach because I like to incrementally change things. I.e. If I want to remove some lines, I don't do 3dd as I'd have to think beforehand "I've got three lines to delete". I usually do: Vjjjd (I.e. select the first line, select the 2 after and delete).
There're so much great gems that I've discovered during the years, maybe a last one..:
= ---> Reindent.. So, as explained in the last paragraph, I'd usually go Vjjjjjj% to select a region and indent it. Note that I've remapped J as 4j instead of join-lines so I can select multiple lines with J.. thus: VJJ% would indent the actual + 8 next lines.
How do you know if it has only been 2 weeks?
I always see these kind of statements "after 15 years of X I switched to Y 3 days ago, and it's great! Y does not have any of the flaws I spent 15 years to discover in X"
But then, I got it. And I realized Emacs was really what I wanted.. it's just that I didn't want the "default" Emacs that lots of people use. And, as a matter of fact, I truly enjoy Lisp.
It's a little bit like if you've been with a girl for a couple of months and then you meet someone new. And, in a matter of seconds, you know that this one is smarter, prettier and will make you way happier.
And, I know it's the case with Emacs, even if it's been only a couple of days because I've got everything I liked from Vim.. but, add to that all the extraordinary features of Emacs. So.. what did I like from Vim? The editor, the plugins, the community and how fast it was. I hate VimScript but I love what the Vim community has done with it. I'm just thinking about fuzzy searching in files, the kill ring paste, surrounds, autocomplete, etc. But, guess what, all those things are in my Emacs now.
It's a little bit like if Emacs was a superset of Vim. You can make it identical if you want.. or even more minimal. When I understood that I could delete all Emacs keybinding and just configure it as I wanted, this is when I got it.
I've been using vim-mode which I find quite nice. Of course, nothing is perfect but this is far from being clunky. I like the philosophy behind it of taking the good part of vim but letting the good things of emacs. Also, everything from that mode is customezable. For instance, you can bind new stuff in virtual mode, normal mode, insert mode.. so you really get back in the vim philosophy.
Seriously, without that plugin, I wouldn't have made it to emacs. For some reasons, I was writing "j" and "k"s everywhere and was highly unproductive without it. Now, I really like the feel of it. I've got my vim keybinding but I still feel like using emacs with its philosophy.