I am looking for tips for learning vim or emacs the smart way...
I am a quite happy user of eclipse (I mostly develop in PHP and Python), however I found the answers to [this question][1] interesting enough to make me wish to try out vim or emacs as well and see if they would turn out to be a better solution for me.

I have the general feeling that vim and emacs are not the kind of editor you learn by "playing with it" though. I have the impression you must dedicate some time and effort to "study" them a bit, before you can benefit from their power.

So, I have two questions for the community:

1. In the linked thread responders have essentially answered by commenting on vim (often mentioning: "I'm sure emacs has the same"). [Google trends][2] seems to indicate vim is the mostly adopted between the two, however my first question is: **knowing that I have no prior experience whatsoever on any of the two, and that I use and develop (mostly PHP and Python) on GNU/linux systems (ubuntu, archlinux), is there any of the two which would represent a better option to start with?** (To be clear: my question is *not about the quality* of the editors but it is about what it is *strategically better to learn* in my situation).

2. **What advices would you give me on how to learn using it/them?** I know this is a broad question, but it is deliberately so. Have a look at [this answer][3] (unrelated topic) for an idea of the kind of information / style of answer I am looking for [but do not feel obliged to answer that way... any contribution will be welcome, in any form!]

Thank you in advance for your time!

  [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1088387/what-specific-productivity-gains-does-vim-emacs-provide-over-gui-text-editors
  [2]: http://www.google.com/trends?q=emacs%2C+vim
  [3]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1791553/the-most-common-pitfalls-for-a-beginner-drupal-user/1792525#1792525
I am looking for tips for learning vim or emacs the smart way...
===

I am a quite happy user of eclipse (I mostly develop in PHP and Python), however I found the answers to [this question][1] interesting enough to make me wish to try out vim or emacs as well and see if they would turn out to be a better solution for me.

I have the general feeling that vim and emacs are not the kind of editor you learn by "playing with it" though. I have the impression you must dedicate some time and effort to "study" them a bit, before you can benefit from their power.

So, I have two questions for the community:

1. In the linked thread responders have essentially answered by commenting on vim (often mentioning: "I'm sure emacs has the same"). [Google trends][2] seems to indicate vim is the mostly adopted between the two, however my first question is: **knowing that I have no prior experience whatsoever on any of the two, and that I use and develop (mostly PHP and Python) on GNU/linux systems (ubuntu, archlinux), is there any of the two which would represent a better option to start with?** (To be clear: my question is *not about the quality* of the editors but it is about what it is *strategically better to learn* in my situation).

2. **What advices would you give me on how to learn using it/them?** I know this is a broad question, but it is deliberately so. Have a look at [this answer][3] (unrelated topic) for an idea of the kind of information / style of answer I am looking for [but do not feel obliged to answer that way... any contribution will be welcome, in any form!]

Thank you in advance for your time!

  [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1088387/what-specific-productivity-gains-does-vim-emacs-provide-over-gui-text-editors
  [2]: http://www.google.com/trends?q=emacs%2C+vim
  [3]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1791553/the-most-common-pitfalls-for-a-beginner-drupal-user/1792525#1792525