> I am used to being able to hold down the right key and traverse my entire document, as far as I like.

I mean chances are, if you're holding down a key in vim, you're doing an inefficient movement. That's kinda the point: it's a keyboard language that turns complex actions into compound, simple actions. If you're still using the simple movement and complaining about it not doing what you want, you're just not using vim correctly.

I'm not sure why people get this defensive, though. People like vim, people like editors-that-aren't-vim. Is that not okay? If you don't want to learn to use vim, this link isn't for you.

> but what if there were some kind of special key that could be pressed to issue controls?

This works for a limited number of shortcuts, and when you only want to issue a few. The point is that you can now issue a large number of "command" inputs, very quickly, without holding down a key.

> Again, you're right, I don't want to do anything new. Why would I? I want to get on with my job.

Then uh... don't use vim? Do you post on every "I wrote xyz course for abc language/tool/technology" expressing that you don't want to use it?

> I will be writing in Word, or in LyX, or in RStudio, or in a text box.

You might still spend more time editing than writing, and Vim's modal approach makes editing more comfortable to me.

> Why is that worse than having a special key that goes into control mode? This is analogous to having caps lock, but no shift key.

The assumption is that modal editing is more comfortable and powerful. I can traverse the text and make modifications and replacements without holding chords between Ctrl, Alt and letter or arrow keys for long periods of time. Vim's model with text objects also makes some things easier to do than what you can accomplish with chords on editors liks VS Code.

If you spend a significant amount of time writing in all caps, you might benefit from having a Caps Lock key instead of shift.

> I don't want to do anything new. Why would I? I want to get on with my job.

Vim is something that's radically different from other text editors. If you think the learning curve is not worth it, it's up to you. It might not be; it's not like it will turn you into a better writer or programmer. But its uniqueness was enticing enough for me to give it a go, and I realised I enjoyed working with it.

> "if you try it, one day you will understand"

I don't think you should try Vim because it will magically make you a better professional. That's a fantasy some people use to justify the time investment they made to adapt to Vim. I think you should learn it if you're curious, and it's fine if you start learning and decide it's not worth your time. Have you never learnt something just for the fun of it?

PS: If you use VS Code or a JetBrains IDE, I don't recommend switching to Vim. Just do Vimtutor and go back to your regular IDE with a Vim plug-in. VS Code's is pretty good. This is the best of both worlds: you get all the powerful extensions and general IDE goodness while having Vim's Normal and Visual modes. As a bonus, you can still use the regular navigation and editing shortcuts while in Insert mode in VS Code. E.g. navigiating and selecting with Shift, Alt and Command plus arrow keys works like normal, so you don't need to switch modes for small things.

You’re asking why this hammer can’t make ice cream. vim is a modal text editor. That’s fundamental. If you don’t like it use something else.

vim is a line-oriented text editor. When using vim, my mental model of the file is an array of (mutually non-contiguous) arrays of characters, not a single array of characters. I expect the same is true for most proficient vim users.

This is clearly a great fit for programming in most languages, but it also works well for natural language. You can put one sentence per line or even split up long sentences into clauses. Then you use the line-manipulation commands to make big edits quickly. Of course, this only works for formats like LaTeX and HTML where consecutive nonempty lines are merged into one line for rendering.

Under the "array of lines" mental model, it doesn't make sense to hold down the right arrow key and traverse the entire document. You move to the desired line first, then move to the desired position in the line.

I agree the two models are basically incompatible. I don't like editing text in non-vim interfaces and will generally open vim for anything longer than this comment.

I mean it's obviously not the tool for you, so don't use it. I find it for easier to navigate code using the vim modal concept, and can context switch relatively easily when moving over to another editor. I don't think anyone is trying to convert you or will be upset if they fail to do so.