This is pretty effective, ctrl-] takes me to the definition of any symbol. And with the appropriate plugin I get the same quality tab-complete I'd get with an

This is pretty effective, ctrl-] takes me to the definition of any symbol. And with the appropriate plugin I get the same quality tab-complete I'd get with an IDE. If you need even deeper exploration, cscope will allow you to find files which include this one, all calls to a given function, etc. But never underestimate a simple `find | xargs grep`. I'm currently learning a ~4m line code base using these methods and haven't had real problems yet. I will agree that out of the box vim/emacs aren't set up as an IDE replacement. But since you're investing so much time in learning vim modal concept or emacs bindings, the added effort to customize your editor for what you do is a drop in the bucket.