After all my ranting and raving on what I think would be awesome to have as an IDE, I somehow stumbled across exactly what I was trying to describe. ViEmu looks to be the perfect combination of VIM and Visual Studio.
Well, I did get very excited when I saw it and so I downloaded and installed it. I’ve only had a play for an hour or so, and by the looks of it it’s very close to what I’m picturing in my mind’s eye. I’m not sure if it’s bang on though - and for the princely sum of USD $69.95 it’d better be bang on before I invest my beans into it 
It does feel a little different, but I’m not sure if it’s because it’s not quite the same as VIM or because it’s suffering from being inside a Visual Studio environment. Thankfully I’ve got 30 days to play with it and get a good idea before having to purchase.
So, I’ll take my time and I’ll let you know what I think. Hopefully by the time the trial period is up I’ll not only have a good idea as to whether or not this fits the bill, but I’ll also be better with the VIM commands in general.
September 30, 2006
Hey dude, I have to say it brings back memory. Last time I heard of Vi was back in days of being at uni. Was great editing tool once you mastered all the commands (which can take a while to look back and forth between manual and app).
Worth paying for it? probably not, although remembering your previous blog on “how fast can you type”… this is probably something for you!
September 30, 2006
Yeah so far I have mixed feelings about it mate. It looks like it’s exactly the kind of thing that I’m looking for and it works quite well, but there are few issues with it. I don’t think that it’s integration with the Visual Studio IDE is bang on, and I’ve had a few cases where I’ve had to restart the IDE completely to get everything to behave again. So there’s a few issues with it (which I’ll be contacting the author about so he’s aware of them) and until they’re resolved I’ll probably just stick either using the IDE or using VIM directly.
The VIM-style is definitely the way to go as far as editing goes though. I’m slowly getting more used to the commands, and it’s a great feeling when I manage to do certain things without having to lookup the command reference. I do find myself thinking “man, that would have taken me ages if I’d be using *some other editor*”, which is pretty groovey really
October 7, 2006
The jury isn’t in yet, but it’s not looking good. The idea is bang on, but I don’t think the execution is quite there. Some of the VIM features aren’t implemented, and some of that one’s that are just don’t behave. One of the ones I’m having issues with on my installation is the use of the t command - one that’s displayed as an example on the main demo animated gif on ViEmu web site. Not just that, but I think the integration isn’t perfect. I’ve had some wierd issues while attempting to edit/open files and the IDE has crashed a couple of times as well. I’m not sure if this is the fault of ViEmu, but I’d say it is as I don’t have the issues when I turn it off and they weren’t around before the install either.
I’ll keep tabs on the application though, and perhaps down the track I’ll give it another spin when it’s been fixed up a little. I’m yet to mail the author, but it’s something I’ll get round to soon.
The quest continues!