[drbaba]

> terminals whose keyboards lacked the keys vim users use to navigate in modal editing, and there's no reason for it anymore.

Vim keybindings really are more comfortable if you struggle with RSI. I’ve had such issues despite having used Caps Lock as Ctrl for years, and despite pressing it with my ring finger instead of pinkie. In my case, I have big hands and often have to work from small laptop keyboards for my job, which likely makes it worse.

The 3 times I’ve tried to go all-in on Emacs keybindings, I’ve after 1-2 months developed pain in my left forearm that then took months to heal. I developed some similar pains when I tried to use Sublime Text keybindings as well, but it was worse with Emacs. I blame this on excessive chording.

Except these excursions into other keybinding sets, I’ve used mainly Vim keybindings for nearly two decades now. I never had arm pains using Vim or Evil.

All this is to say: “There is no reason for it anymore” is too dismissive. The original reason Bill Joy wrote Vi the way he did was those constraints, but it has benefits today for other reasons.