Technically, it's three keystrokes instead of two. And you have to commit ctrl-s (or cmd-s if you're on a mac) to memory just as much as you do :w. Nothing really saved there.

> The "cheat sheets" I refer to are those that map multiple-keystroke sequences to the actions that, in a modern editor, require one keystroke.

Like delete the next four words? How do I do that in a modern editor with a single keystroke? How about "replace everything inside these quotes"? Or repeat the last action I just took again?

I'm glad you like your modern editors (there's lots there to love), but they are not inherently better than vim just because they're non-modal. There is typically a more shallow learning curve than VIM, but the simple virtue of being non-modal doesn't guarantee that (sorry, Emacs).

In the end, two things sealed the deal for VIM for me. 1) it's on every remote server I have to access, and 2) I've put the time into it, so I'm quite efficient in it.

In my last job, since I was only doing local development, I tried out Sublime Text 2 for a good 3 months before giving up on it. I was constantly thinking "I know how to do this in vim - how do I do it here?", and ultimately, I got tired of constantly reaching for the mouse for trivial things like selecting and moving text. I felt that 3 months was sufficient to really give ST2 a fair shake, so I didn't (and still don't) feel bad when I went back to the terminal.