I used nvi on NetBSD, and indeed it did work if I set TERM=vt100 inside Emacs term (M-x term). So: NetBSD$ env EDITOR=vi emacs (M-x term) Emacs$ env TE

I used nvi on NetBSD, and indeed it did work if I set TERM=vt100 inside Emacs term (M-x term). So: NetBSD$ env EDITOR=vi emacs (M-x term) Emacs$ env TERM=vt100 elinks news.ycombinator.com (go to text area, start editing, ^T, and up pops (n)vi) I'm a long-time Emacs user as well, but have found myself on vi for last few years, initially as a refresher. There's definitely still a place in my heart for Emacs, though. I think your characterization of Emacs is also fair; I usually describe it as a Lisp VM. Edit: formatting for clarity(?)