In my opinion there are two Vims: the interface (modal editing), and the environment (plugins and customizations).

Vim is an interface spec

With programming languages you should similarly differentiate between the language specification and the tools to execute or compile that language. In Haskell this is clear—haskell is the name of the language while ghc is the name of the most popular compiler. In Python, on the other hand, people often confuse the specification and the reference implementation cPython.

The most useful part of Vim to me is the interface—I’m happy to move the environment somewhere else because I’m not too invested in Vim-specific plugins. For example I already use IntelliJ’s excellent IdeaVim plugin, and the Vim mode provided by codemirror in Jupyter notebooks.

Org-mode

I’ve always been curious about org-mode. Up until now I kept all my random ideas and todo lists open in a markdown file. I opened the file in Vim with a hotkey space + ⌥ that can be configured in iterm, together with a visor-like dropdown.

This year, however, I’ve finally made the resolution to try out the real thing.

Spacemacs

Spacemacs is an emacs distribution with nice defaults and a plan for lasting peace and the end to the editor wars. It has allowed me to become hooked on org-mode without having to take weeks to build a custom initialization file, and more importantly without having to give up my Vim muscle-memory. I’m also very impressed by the default plugins like helm and shell.

For now, while I still have a life outside emacs, I use Snap to quickly switch from whatever I’m doing to emacs and back.