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vi/vim allow you to use the arrow keys for navigation if you want to. The choice is yours. I prefer keeping my fingers on the home row, and so I find hjkl to be much more efficient, especially on a laptop where the arrow keys aren't usually physically separated from the rest of the keys.


Also, you can't have fingers on all four arrow keys at once, while you can with hjkl. It's not only more ergonomic in the sense that you move your arm less, but also because you move your fingers less.


I'd rather use ASDF but those keys are taken by other vi commands. Anyway, is there a way to press "Esc" without moving your whole arm?


A lot of Vim users remap <caps lock> to <esc>.


I advocate remapping jj to escape.

Put this in your .vimrc or just try it out from the command bar:

inoremap jj <Esc>


In Vim, you can use CTRL-[.


I expand on this by remapping capslock to control. This is very useful and comfortable in vi and elsewhere.




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