[chaosprime]

To some extent that's true of line editors. In vi's case, it's stayed cryptic because yes, that way is somehow better. That way is, precisely, that a friendly interface that's clear and helpful for newbies gets in the way of experts, slows them down and hobbles them. Because vi stuck with cryptic, I can reindent a paragraph of code with three keystrokes and no mouse movement (don't get me started on how crippling an input device the mouse is), I can perform operations like pattern-based column transposition that people using pretty, friendly editors can hardly dream of, and I can combine all kinds of operations in the ways that I need rather than the ways that some dialog box designer thought would best serve 95% of his market.

People who use pretty IDEs seem to think vi users are somehow kidding or deluded when we say that we use it because it's more powerful than other editors when you know it. But I'm afraid we're both entirely serious and speaking directly from substantial experience.