I should have written I don't really know anything about. According to your link scripting was only available from '98, at which point Lua and Python were alre

I should have written I don't really know anything about. According to your link scripting was only available from '98, at which point Lua and Python were already around, but then I don't know how viable that would have been. Funny you say that about ex, because I find running ex commands from vimscript the most clunky thing about it. In my opinion the least friction for the ecosystem would have been to follow neovim and adapt Lua.