chalst comments on my emacs musing and says: I wonder if my life would have been different if I first used vi before emacs?

For me, at least, I don't have to wonder, since I used vi before I used emacs (specifically, I went to emacs because vi without any easy reference is painful for a newbie and emacs had the built-in tutorial). Of course, I went to try vi after having endured ed(1) for about two months. OK for email and Usenet, just about, but painful for coding. Or so I found, at least.

I shall have to modify the question to "I wonder if my life would have been different if there'd been a vi in a nutshell book near me, when I first used vi?"