VIM can be incredibly efficient as a text editor. Even if this wasn’t the case, movement keystrokes are so ingrained in my muscle memory that I end getting j’s and k’s in my notepad and MSWord documents. So the editing is taken care of, but the compiling, deploying, keyword/function lookup, etc. could be better. I realize there are many “tricks” and vim plugins to give a lot of this functionality, but it seems like I have to search again whenever I set up a vim environment to find the best fit for my style. I have linked a few posts below because I found them useful, and this is a handy way for me to get back to them the next time the question comes up. I’m sure I’ve missed some. Post your favorite links on turning VIM into an IDE in the comments.

1) Unix is an IDE
2) Python and vim: Make your own IDE
3) VIM as Python IDE

I found a tutorial on mapping keys in Vim. The same techniques work for Vimperator if you create your own configuration file. If you don’t like Vimperator though, you can search Firefox from within Vim.