I remember back before I knew how to use vim (I was an Emacs guy then) it was a nightmare when I would forget to set my EDITOR variable and get dropped into vi

I remember back before I knew how to use vim (I was an Emacs guy then) it was a nightmare when I would forget to set my EDITOR variable and get dropped into vi to write commit messages; I couldn't edit my way out of a paper bag and could never remember how to exit without saving, though after a while ':q!' became the only vim command I knew.