Vim is a text editor. http://www.vim.org/

My usage pattern

GVim window. Using Vim in it’s own window as opposed to using it inside the terminal prevents unwanted interactions with terminal shortcuts. I use splits, occasionally tabs. Two :colorschemes I use, depending on the light conditions around me are default and darkspectrum (from vim-scripts Debian package).

Notable plugins

1. CtrlP
2. Fugitive
3. Syntastic
4. Tabular

Pros

1. Very powerful editing commands – this works well with the dot (.) command for repetition.
2. Highly customizable
3. Can save and load the whole layout (open files, tabs, splits) to a file. See :mksession
4. Supports C well, including showing the warnings and errors inside the editor after you save a file.
5. Ability to record and play macros.
6. Many useful plugins, including the one that displays the git branch. The the bottom right part of the screenshot.
7. Remote files editing.

Cons

1. Vim is not an IDE. Don’t expect features such as refactoring.
2. I haven’t found the perfect mechanism for navigation between files in a project. The Ctrl-P plugin is somewhat helpful. :BufExplorer also helps. Still doesn’t feel 100% right.

Using Vim in a terminal with tmux

As I mentioned, I don’t usually use Vim this way but some people seem to be very happy to use the terminal+tmux+vim combo.

Nice video about using Vim with tmux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r6yzFEXajQ

Why not Emacs?

Vim and Emacs are the two best editors I’ve seen. I don’t think either one is better. They are just very different. I have tried Emacs several times. Last time lasted several months. Each time it just did not feel right for me.