I have nothing productive to add to the discussion, other than that I love VIM, I've been using it since 1998, and I've never found any editor that makes me anywhere as happy as VIM does. I once had a job that required I use Eclipse IDE. I almost quit that job, but last minute, I found a VIM key-bindings plugin. Okay, not really, but it was very frustrating until I found that.
Vim bindings are nice, but when I have to use an IDE, the one feature I want is the ability to make files open up in Vim for editing.
I'm OK with having an IDE window hiding behind my Vim window, to switch to for when I need to click on a Build button, or a built-in debugger to use on occasion. I just absolutely want to have my files open up in Vim when it's time to manipulate text.
This used to be possible in Xcode and it was taken away with Xcode 4. (I'm unaware of any workaround, though I will go hunting for one next time I am on an iOS project)
Yep, key bindings plugins are a poor substitute for Vim itself. Vim is more than keys.
I long ago gave up on any kind of Vim/vi plugin to anything. My first inclination, when I have to use a tool that wants to own the text, is to open Vim and the other, and figure out a way to re-load when I move to the other.
