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Touch typing is a great skill to have of course, as is using keyboard shortcuts. But I can get by with standardised shortcuts, and I'd prefer not learning a new set of shortcuts used by a single program, especially when that program has a modal interface. Maybe modal keyboard interfaces are used by more than vi, but I don't know of any other programs that have one.

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So what other programs do you use that have a balance parens command? or shift text left or right? Beyond the basic movements, all your "interesting" shortcuts are specific to your text editor anyway.

Unless you're using emacs on a Mac, in which case you have emacs keybindings in all the standard text fields anyway.

Or if you're using MacVim, which supports the standard mac cursor movements (command-arrow to end of line, option-arrow to move by word, option-delete to delete word, etc)

Once I fell in love with modal editing, I started using it everywhere I could. vi(m) bindings in my shell, web browser, etc. I wish it were seamless everywhere but it's certainly more ubiquitous than just one program. Couple that with a working knowledge of emacs navigation keys which work throughout OSX and thing become a lot nicer.

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